Did someone break into your office and steal your common sense? When did you last change ANYTHING on your website? I swear that 95% of the websites I visit on a daily basis (thanks to retirement I visit a lot of them) make me wonder if the funeral homes they describe are still in business. Let me hasten to say that adding obituaries doesn?t count ? that is a given. I am talking about changing some aspect of your Home Page or your Staff Profiles or your Merchandise.
Our website was one of the worst offenders. When it was designed, we were very happy with it and became so proud of it that it gained ?Venerable? status in our eyes. It was perfect and we would log on just to pat ourselves on the back and look at our profile pictures. Then we noticed the hits decreasing and the numbers of repeat visitors dwindle to nil. Solution ? commission a web page that contained fields that could be changed daily ? right from our office ? To do that we needed to determine where we were going.
Without having specific goals, business owners often find their website speaking of nothing but endless drudgery. If being in business is not exciting, enjoyable and rewarding, then why be in it? When business becomes exciting and rewarding, success isn?t far behind. Successful people have a clear idea of where they are going and watch their business making progress towards clearly defined goals. You need to share your excitement on the webpage. Sort of like the old expression ? ?If You?re Happy ? Let Your Face Know?. Our websites are the only ?face? the world sees.
If your goals are not clearly defined it is easy to become the hamster on the treadmill. You can expend a lot of effort going nowhere. All you are doing is reacting to the pressures that business creates. Consider creating a blog where you can ?toot your own horn? and ?ring your own bell?. Invite people to interact on your website and give them a reason to return. Make it interesting enough that they feel they are missing something important if they do not log in. How many of us would log onto THIS site regularly if Ryan didn?t strive to offer something different for us to digest on a regular basis?
The second key is to decide WHERE you are going. When you know where you want your business to end up, you can determine what needs to be done to get there. Design your page to tell your story. Doing these things creates excitement and enjoyment. Instead of struggling on with meagre rewards, you can make progress towards success in a steadily growing and entirely planned way.
Does your website look abandoned?
