We put so much energy, time and effort into our web sites, and sometimes it seems no matter what we do – its just not enough!

Why A Small Business Website Does Not Produce Results

When a small business decides to take their business online there are usually several mistakes that they do. This is partially due to lack of experience and often lack of knowledge. There seems to be a trend that small businesses think of their website as an online business card instead of a marketing tool. That is where the majority of them go wrong. So let’s take a look at some of the most common mistakes done when a small business takes their business online.

1. Order of links

So many times you visit a small business website and they proudly flag the “about us” link as their first link. This is called the pride link because they often think that telling people about the company is the most important thing. The links should be in order of importance. Not in the order of the business owners EGO! If you use a website designer and he does consult you on the order of links, chances are you should be using someone else or at least make sure you educate yourself about online marketing because your website designer sure hasn’t!

2. No focus

Most small business websites lack focus. When you enter you are not sure where to go next which makes it hard for the user to understand exactly what he is supposed to do. The website should flow and the user should be able to make sense of the site within a few seconds of opening it up.

3. No sale / No lead setup

Many small businesses do not use their website to increase sales directly or capture leads. It is nothing more than an online brochure or business card. Sometimes the information is more confusing than it is helpful. If you competitors site is easier to navigate and captures either the sale or lead, you just lost a client. A small business websites needs to be even more on top of catching leads than a corporate website because every client lost counts more!

4. No analytics

Most small business websites have no clue what people do when they enter their site. No clue what users are really looking at and where they are loosing their potential sale or lead. If customers just walked in and out of their place of work eyebrows would be raised and something would be done. Shouldn’t the same thought process apply to the site? You need to know what is going on with your small business website and what users are doing.

5. No marketing purpose

This is the biggest “Whammy” of them all. Small business websites tend to fail seeing the potential of using the website as a complete marketing tool. The fundamental reason to take a business online would be to do marketing. The lack of marketing vision explains the mistakes from above. If just this single piece was in place when a small business builds their website, many of the other things would be solved because they would educate themselves about what it means to have a marketing tool!

6. No results!

This is no surprise considering everything above. If there is no purpose, no focus, no vision and no marketing thought behind the site then there are probably no results from the site either. What is even worse is that most small business websites do not even measure results or understand how to measure results from their site. Once again it is a lack of understanding more than anything!

So what can a small business do when they are ready to take their business online and setup their small business website? The most important thing is to educate themselves in a few areas. The most important ones being, what you need to consider before building or having someone build your website. How to use the website as a marketing tool and it would be extremely beneficial to you if you at least had some understanding of what SEO is and how it works. What is the difference between a website designer, website developer and an online marketing company? All of them do different things and have a different understanding of how to use the internet; the question is what purpose is your website supposed to serve? For most it should be a marketing tool, because the internet is the most effective marketing tool available!

If you own, operate, manage or you are starting up a small business then we suggest that you take a look at the 10make90: Get your website up right. (Can be found on www.10thatmake90.com). It is a great resource for small businesses looking to build a website and take the step online. You can find all the basic information you need to know before taking that step and taking your business online. Make sure that you are utilizing the power of the internet fully as a small business. The rate of businesses that fail is high enough; at least make sure your business is getting all the leads and sales that it can be getting. Don’t make the same mistakes that others are doing, it takes so little effort for you as a small business owner to avoid those common mistakes!

Gudmundur Sigurdarson (Gummi) is the founder of Redknight Marketing, online marketing and website design, Mindformula, life and executive coaching and 10make90, internet marketing resources. He is the former VP of DesignEuropA where he worked with several hundred businesses over the course of 6 years, helping them grow their business both on and off line. Mr. Sigurdarson created the sales manuals, sales training, franchise model and franchise training program for DesignEuropA. In addition Mr. Sigurdarson has written a number of books on personal and professional development, online marketing, website creation and business startup guides. Mr. Sigurdarson has a dedication to helping people succeed, be it in their personal or business life, he does this both as an author, corporate trainer, speaker and coach.
If you would like more information about Mr. Sigurdarson, or would like to get him as a speaker, then feel free to visit any of the websites.