The Home page of your company website is the storefront window of your business. If the appearance is pleasant to your customer, they will start to investigate. They will stay longer if they can find meaningful content. Otherwise they are off to another site. The home page is where you need to clearly state the purpose and focus of your business. Your message needs to be clear and direct. Your customers do not want to read more then a paragraph to discover if your goods & services are of interest.

Graphics are important, but must help your customer relate to you. A photo of a wrench on a bolt helps an auto repair website, but will do little to enhance the site of a Sports Medicine Clinic. Everything you place on your website should promote a single theme. Various pages will be used to provide more detail regarding different aspects of that theme, but everything must make sense to your customer.

I have seen websites with content that is so varied, that it is difficult to understand what the company does. They have pages of content, but most of it describes vague concepts, which are difficult to define or understand. That is why it is important to be clear and focused. Only use expressions and terms that your prime customer will understand. Any unique terms must be clearly defined for your customer, otherwise they will be gone, searching for answers that you may have.

I will continue to explain the needs and aspects of other pages in future articles.

Ken Bear Cole

A Second Look Business Consulting LLC

There are numerous companies offering you a first page listing if you pay for their services. What you will discover, is that they may not be that be able to meet your expectations. The truth is you already have one if you have a website. If you type in your web address on a Google search, you will find yourself on the first page.

So what does it really take?

• It Takes Time. Google protects their reputation by looking for sites, which are relevant to what people are searching. That means your new 5-page site needs to prove itself. It will take a little time for that to happen.
• The Target Keeps Moving. Google and other search engines are constantly re-defining what’s most important to their audience. So your website needs to be treated like a living and breathing animal. It needs frequent attention. If your site was built two years ago and has not been updated since, it might as well be posted on the moon!
• You may need professional help. There are good honest techies who will help you for a fee. The good ones will provide you with provable info, not just a sales pitch. They should also be able to offer a volume of info on how the ranking system works. You will be paying for a professional so ask him to PROVE IT!

I’ve done all that, so why isn’t my phone ringing more? The market has shifted from buyers to investigators or lookers. People are taking more time researching prior to purchasing these days. If your website appears professional, you should be in the running, when your customer decides to purchase.

Ken Bear Cole

A Second Look Business Consulting LLC