I find it almost comedic sometimes when I approach local business owners to find that they have absolutely no idea how the Internet operates, or how it could be superbly beneficial to them and their company.
I even once did some services for local businessman who kept trying to put the URL in the Google search bar rather than the spot where you are supposed to plug the URL at the top of the browser.
Lesson number 1: Google is NOT the Internet. It is a website on the Internet.
Fortunately however, most business website owners are familiar with this, but are you the type of person that is still missing the boat with the Internet and what it can do for your small business or company? Here is an awesome checklist to see if you are still in the Dinosaur Age in terms of marketing your business.
You do not own your own domain name. If your website is a subset of another website, which usually happens when you go through a website company that offers to “put a website up for you” for dirt cheap, then that is a telltale sign that you are living far in the past when it comes to Internet marketing.
Example:
Say you sign up for a web service where you get to create your own website. Say this website is at:
WebServiceProvide.com
If they create a website for you and if your company is call (for example) “My Company” and your URL structure looks like this:
WebServiceProvide.com/My-Company
This means you do not own your domain, and for someone to go to your website, they will have to do an awful lot of typing. This is definitely not something you want to be including on all of your business cards.
Your Business Logo could look 300 time better. If your business logo looks like it was put together in 3 minutes using a program like Windows “Paint” then that is a telltale sign that you are missing the 101 million different ways to obtain cheap, yet awesome, logo designs on the web.
Your business card is the main focus of the web site. There is no reason that the image of your business card should be the main focus of your homepage – or even your log for that matter. If this is the case, then your website is seriously lacking in creativity and probably does not look too professional, but rather more like a bumper sticker. The business card is meant to be put in people’s wallets, and there it should stay.
The coding for your website is very bulky and slow. This shows that you have either A) hired a very poor web developer, or B) tried to take on all the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript yourself. Usually it shows, and not only is unfriendly to browsers and people, but it is unfriendly to the search engines as well.
Your website is using a lot of flash. Check out this list of websites. Many of them are using a lot of flash. Flash is outdated, and it is not even accessible in a lot of instances, especially when people are surfing the web on their phones. Flash is also bulky and may slow your computer down as well.
Your site is lacking SEO. It is very possible that you are shooting your own foot when it comes to the search engines. Duplicate content, broken links, and the lack of targeted keywords in your content can be costing you many visitors on a daily basis. Talking to an SEO company or performing a little Do-it-Yourself SEO can go a long way in the local business
These are just some of the few signs that you are missing out on a lot of action that the Internet can provide you. These days, companies are judged simply by how good their website is, or if they even have one at all. You want to make sure that your website is your best salesman – by far.
This article was contributed by Jet Russell. During the day, Jet blogs for www.AcneCentre.com, which is a website where you can find Acne products. He likes to blog about SEO and SEM in his spare time.
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WYSIWYG! I'm a simple person trying to live the simplest life possible - it seems to be the most difficult thing to achieve! I'm an internet enthusiast and I've been a webmaster since early 2007. I like: blogging, developing sites using open source software, social media, computer games, '80s music, comedy & horror, animals, crunching on M&Ms peanut and Smarties!
