Is Your Business' Website Effective?

Testing your websites effectiveness is easy to do, but most often is done incorrectly. Because of this, most businesses have a false belief that their website is helping their business when in fact, many potential customers have never seen their website, because they simply don't know it exists.
 

How do you Test your Website's Effectiveness?

Before you can test the effectiveness of your website, you must first
Know the purpose of your website. 

Your website exists for one of two reasons.  It is either created to help existing customers, or it is created to draw new customers.

For this article, we'll skim over the website for existing customers, because your websites effectiveness is tied directly to how effectively you send people to the website.  This is most often accomplished by comments like, "Visit us online" or "Visit our website for more information."

The second type of website, the website designed as an internet advertisement, has a completely different purpose, it is designed to draw new customers to your business.

Any good advertising campaign should be tested and measured to insure its effectiveness.  Which brings us back to the question...
 

How do you Test your Website's Effectiveness?

The best method to test your websites advertising effectiveness is to
Pretend you're a customer, and search like they would.

Believe it or not, this is where most businesses make their biggest mistake.  How you search will determine the accuracy of your results.

Year's ago, life was simpler and the Internet didn't exist.  If you wanted a plumber, you opened the phone book, and looked under "Plumber."  If you needed a mechanic, you looked in the phone book under "Mechanic."  You could quickly find what you were looking for, by looking for the product or service you needed.

People still search the same way, only now, they use the Internet instead of a phone book.

This is where many businesses make their fatal mistake.  They open their favorite search engine, MSN, AOL, GOOGLE, or YAHOO!, and then type in their businesses name.  They forget, that if the customer already knew your business name, THEY WOULDN'T BE SEARCHING!
 

So, How do you Test your Websites Effectiveness... Correctly?

1. Go to your favorite Search Engine (AOL, MSN, YAHOO!, or GOOGLE)
    
2. Type in the City, and then the PRODUCT you sell.
   (example: Port Charlotte business)  DO NOT type in your business name.
    
3. See if your website appears on the first page of results.

Did your business appear on the first page of search results?

If your answer is YES, CONGRATULATIONS! 
Your website is effective in pointing people to your business.

If your answer is NO, don't worry, we can still help you.
There are tools and tips that can help you move your website to the top of the search engines quickly and easily.  Want to know more?  Read our Tips and Tools answer sheet.

This article was written by Kenneth Swett, founder of Port Charlotte Business .NET, and Punta Gorda Business .NET  Ken has over 8 years experience in web design, search engine optimization, and website placement.  He has used his years of experience to help build thousands of web pages, and help his clients gain internet visibility.