Some 43% (Source: Scottish E-Business Survey 2004) of all Scottish Business now have their own web site, but how many of those sites are actully working for their owners? You would not employ a member of staff to just sit around all day and do nothing, so why would you have a website that sits up there on the Internet but doesn’t bring you any business?
Is your website working for you?
A website should be a valuable asset to your business, and even if you don’t want to sell your products or services online, your site can act as a powerful marketing tool – but only if it WORKS! |
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Are you aware of the number of visitors to your site, where they are coming from, how they found you or even if they have bothered come back more than once? Your site might look fantastic, so why are you not getting much (or any) business from it?
This could be for a number of reasons:
- A lack of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
- Lack of ‘Offline’ marketing
- Compatibility issues in certain browsers
- Accessibility issues for those with disabilities
- Your site isn’t attracting your target audience
So where do you start?
If you don’t already have a website, but think your business might benefit from one, find a good web designer who will listen to your requirements, guiding and supporting you every step of the way. If you already have a website which isn’t working for you, speak to your designer and request a re-evaluation the site design. If you don’t feel they are committed to you, find someone else who will be. Whether you are a small start-up company or a larger, well-established business, designing a website can be a very personal process, therefore you need choose a designer you feel totally at ease with, who will answer your questions simply and who you feel confident wont let you down.
Choosing the right designer
Web designers are everywhere these days - how do you choose the right one to design or re-design your website?
- Ask around – referrals from other businesses who have successful sites are the best recommendations
- Look at other websites you like - usually the company who designed them will have a link to their own site, where you can go and look at the rest of their portfolio
- Get at least 3 quotes – and don’t necessarily go with the cheapest. Web design is like everything else, in the end, you get what you pay for.
- Assess each quote for the way it was conducted –
- Did someone meet with you to discuss the needs of your company?
- Do they fully understand what you are looking for from a website?
- Does the design spec allow for the site to grow and develop as your business might grow and develop?
Should you invest in E-Commerce?
More and more businesses are trading online, but should you? You need to weigh up the cost of implementing and maintaining a full e-commerce solution against the potential business it will create. You also need to be sure that you will be able to cope with the potential volume of business an e-commerce site can generate.
The main points to consider are:
- Coping with volume of sales – who will be responsible for production, packing, postage
- Maintaining stock, orders, emails
- Taking photographs of every product – time-consuming if you have a large number of products
- The additional costs of an Internet Merchant Account with you bank, and a secure Payment Provider such as Protx (www.protx.com), or SecPay (www.secpay.com) to handle credit/Debit card transactions
All of this may sound expensive, but if you are starting out and cannot afford the expense of premises to sell your products, then E-commerce is definitely for you. Overheads can be kept to a minimum; you and your customers will have access to each other 24/7, 365 days a year; you can manage your online store from anywhere in the world; and build up a relationship with your customers by sending them personalised emails and regular newsletters when you introduce new products or services.
What else do you need to be aware of?
Some businesses can be wary of trading online due to the potential risk to both them and their customers.
Issues to be aware of include:
- The Data Protection Act (1998), which governs how you manage your customers’ personal data
- The Disability Discrimination Act (1995) now requires owners to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to make their site accessible to those with disabilities
- The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (2003) deals with privacy issues such as unsolicited email marketing, invasive pop-up advertising, cookies, etc.
- Trading overseas, particularly outside the European Economic Area (EEA) – you may be required to comply with other countries trading regulations which can be very different from those within the UK
- Copyright consent must be given for use of any 3 rd party material published on your site
- Copyright statements and registered trademarks to protect your own products and information on the Web
This may seem a lot to consider on top of everything else we have covered here, but a good web design company will be able to advise you on all of the above points.
As well as an Honours Degree in Internet Software Development, Anne Nelson has 5 years practical experience of designing commercial websites, as well as a continually growing portfolio of work for businesses throughout Scotland.
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