Your website is your shop window

There can be little doubt that the percentage of business done online is increasing year on year. In the US in since 2001 online transactions have increased from $249 Million to $49.8 Billion in 2009. A similar trend has been seem across the developed world. In addition to this the demographic of online consumers has changed even more dramatically. In 2001 the percentage of women regularly using the internet in the US was 2.1%, by 2009 this had risen to 52.8%, almost exactly matching the total population demographic.

Combined together, and taking into account the fact that these increases have an impact not just in B2C online transactions, but also in B2B transactions, it becomes clear that as a business, your web presence is only getting more important.

Think in terms of the  sociological reports on the effect of appearance on high street shopping. Studies have shown that if an area is visually unappealing, has shops that are closed down, has litter on the streets and is poorly lit at night, footfall in that area drops, and sales drop accordingly. Now translate that into your business website. If your site is cluttered, if things are hard for your customer to find, it your customer has to click through screen after screen, if the visual impact of your site is jarring, if buttons don’t work correctly, or send people away from your site, the same thing can happen. Visitor numbers fall, the amount of time people spend on your site falls, and the business your site generates falls.

The technology behind websites, and the design principles and trends in terms of appearance change over time. Typically websites go out of date in two years, and in order to maximize search engine friendliness really needs to have some work done every month, in just the same way that the street outside a shop in the real world needs to be swept and tidied regularly. Your online presence may, in some cases, be the only contact your customer has with you, it is increasingly becoming the first point of contact your customer has with you. Get it right, and success becomes easier to achieve, get it wrong, and you may never know how many customers never get as far as contacting you.

Working with a good web design company that will offer you content management, and ongoing maintenance can make a huge difference to your business, and when that is combined with a company that really understands how to analyse where your website is strong and where it needs work, you can, by partnering well create a unique and successful web brand that achieves your goals and ambitions.