Beyond SEO

Thursday, 21 May 2009 08:35

Search Engine Optimisation or SEO is the new black.

A good looking site is not enough. Most web design companies are now offering not just pleasing designs but sites that are optmised for search engine performance. And so they should. But being found is only the first step.

Once they find you, your site has to be appealing or your visitors will simply go somewhere else. A good looking site wasn't always that hard a sell - most business people wanted something that looked good. I say most, because I'm still amazed at what people are happy with in terms of their web presence. But lets assume your business website is easy to find and looks good - is that all there is to it? Of course not.

I found a website a few weeks ago (so it must have been easy to do so) that sold T-shirts, and it was reasonably well designed and simple to use. They didn't have online payment capability which I can forgive - many small companies will contact you with payment options once they receive your order.

But in this case, I submitted my order - and have heard nothing since. Likely their order system failed in some way, and they just lost a sale.

• Make sure your site is actually working - not just technically but in such as way that it is easy for your customers to do what they came to do.
• Make sure you are monitoring your site so you know what people are doing.
• Review your traffic statistics and if possible have them set up in such a way that you can see how many people completed an action - and that your fulfillment systems tell the same story.

It's a bit like having a retail store occuping prime real estate on the high street, with fantastic window displays - but insufficient or badly trained staff, antiquated checkout processes and systems and changing rooms hidden down a side ally. You wouldn't do that would you?