Filed under: Business, Design, Internet, E-mail, web 2.0
10 Web Grades for Small Business
Almost every small business has a Web site and a high percentage of those sites are mired in Web 1.0 parameters. Perform a site self-checkup to determine how Web 2.0 your small business's online presence is. We're talking about all of your online presence and not simply your Web site. Here are 10 ways to grade your business's Web 2.0-ness.- Last update – if you haven't updated your Web site yet in 2008, it is definitely old web and not going in the Web 2.0 direction toward interactivity. When content doesn't change, your site is nothing more than a brochure online.
No updates yet in 2008? Give yourself a C. - Who, When Where – if you aren't regularly checking your site's visitor trends, possibly using Google Analytics, then you don't know who is visiting your site, when they are paying attention or where they are coming from. You could run a promotion and never know if anyone online saw it. How old-web is that kind of thinking?
No site stat research when marketing is everything? Give yourself a D.
- Buy me! – does your site scream BUY SOMETHING rather than equally illustrating why your product or service is essential? Show us some case studies, success stories or testimonials in addition to pitching your product.
No examples of your product's usefulness to buyers? Give yourself a C+. - No response – when is the last time you paid attention to website-generated email or calls and analyzed how much web-based contact your small business receives? Are you considering how to raise your online contacts through different, not necessarily more, online strategies?
Not planning how to garner more online contact? Give yourself a C. If you don't yet know that Google Forms can be used to collect survey data, mark that down to a C-. - Still breaking the law? – if you are sending unsolicited email through your personal email program like Outlook, then you're probably violating the 2004 CAN-SPAM Act and fines are $10,000 per instance. It's time to invest small business dollars in a compliant email application. Start with Constant Contact and research from there.
Still blasting from a personal email application? Give yourself an F because it's toying with disaster. - Feeding time – have you resisted adding an RSS feed to any portion of your small business presence because you really don't understand what RSS is? Get one your kids to explain it and then generate a weekly updated online feed for your business.
Not feeding your customers yet with good information? Give yourself a C-. - Remote access denied – if your staff still has no intranet and your sales force can't find up-to-the-minute pricing and forms, try the new Google Sites and get everyone on the same online page. Add a calendar and share it with your staff to give your business more bang for its virtual buck.
No online sharing? Degrade yourself to a D-. Information is king. - Identity Interrupted – does your logo designer know who your PR and Web firms are or are they each operating in an information vacuum? Worse, are you still trying to figure out if you need any of the above? Get your old logo converted into a high-resolution graphic and share it with your Web designer to pull together your branding and small business identity online and in print.
Using a Publisher-created logo online? Give yourself a D+.
- Anti-social – very few small business owners know what Twitter is and fewer use it. Are you closing your ears to comments made about your service or your product? Why not Twitter and send a "track [your company name or product]" message or at least use a Twitter search engine to see what's been tweeted. What else should you track? See what Cameron Olthuis, Jeremiah Owyang or Joseph Jaffe suggest.
No ears on? Give yourself a B- only because Twitter is sort of new but not for much longer. - Remote island – spend time with one or two quality small business blogs a week by subscribing to their feed and figuring out which posts are important to your business. Try Small Business Resource for starters.
Don't know how to subscribe to a feed? Give yourself a D+ because RSS is simply not new; it's everywhere.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
whiskey said 11:28PM on 3-19-2008
Did you told your Web Designer and/or programmer that you know how to do a web site because you studied it as part of a 2 saturdays course? If yes, then grade yourself with an F. You know what you want from your site, or maybe how the aesthetics should look like... but you don't know how they manage to accomplish it (and you shouldn't need to).
Is your webpage still relying on Tables for layout? F
In your mind, a Flash header equals interactivity? F
Do you hire based solely on the price they charge rather than the quality of the work? Are you that gullible? F
Comic Sans? F
Offered to pay for something but only paid half of it, just because, even if the price was substantially low and the results were great (and palpable)? F
"It should look like [insert famous website name here] but with our logo" is a part of your conversations with your Design/Develop team? F
Frontpage? F
"But the colors don't look the same on my laptop screen" is something you would say to your Designer? F
Is your website nothing more than a glorified Powerpoint presentation? F
Do you want to get to the top of Google inmediately? F
Do you complain that your Hosting Provider email is too small but haven't thought about using at least Google Apps Standard or Windows Live Domains? F
Pfew... This was a good excerise... When are you going to do one for "My PC is infected with viruses, and i don't know why"?
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Craig Dewe said 6:59AM on 3-20-2008
You website offers no value to the visitor, just sales pitch - F
You don't have any way to capture a visitor's email address and continue the conversation with them (with more value) - F
You don't know what a blog is or why you would want one - F
You think the only people using Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube are teenagers - F
Great post...let's hope the right people read it!
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Sue Polinsky said 7:03AM on 3-20-2008
"Comic Sans? F"
That's VERY funny! Made me laugh in the morning.
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james 42 said 12:26PM on 3-21-2008
I think this article would be better with slight change to the title like so, "10 Web Grades for Small Internet Business". If the business lives on the web and relies for sales on marketing on the web, then yes, your points are valid. But, most traditional small businesses are in fact just looking for an online brochure. And that might be what they need.
With my clients, I always go through a list of tools they may want to use (like a blog and Google Apps) but I never force it down their throat. As a designer the best thing you can do for you client is figure out with them not only what they need but also what they will realistically use.
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james 42 said 12:33PM on 3-21-2008
Oh, and to disprove this grading system and all of whiskey's comments, this totally ghastly sight (made in Front Page) is going gang busters: edreferral.com.
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Sue Polinsky said 12:44PM on 3-21-2008
James, I have tons of small biz clients who also want only a brochure on the Web. But I have a growing number of clients who want more but just don't "get" what it takes to have more and what work is required to get more. Some still don't think "webmaster" is a real job.
We're in a time of growing online demands by clients without an equally growing knowledge of the back-end of those demands. They see things on other sites but don't understand what they cost; small biz solutions that are free are a good alternative but require a learning curve and many small biz owners don't have time (or inclination) for that curve.
Years ago, I had a client whose crappy FP site was doing $600K a year on furniture sales. I told him to leave the site alone and just make money. A few years later, we rebuilt it with all the programmed back-end it deserved and he's doing a heckuva lot more than that. Timing IS everything.
The times are indeed a-changing and the small businesses, IMO, that jump on the train will be in much better shape in a year or two of a future I can't predict, but have a "feeling" for.
BTW, most of my first-client meetings talk over all the blog, RSS and other issues and we try to do that without their heads exploding from TMI. Then we add those features after they've 'worn' the site for a while. Small business online work requires patience, hand-holding, timely suggestions and inclusion of free and low-cost online tools after a while. Good long-term relationships with clients help make that happen.
Your comments are great; thanks for posting them.
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james 42 said 2:58PM on 3-21-2008
Sue,
I appreciate your response and always look forward to discussing web site development here. I wish there were more articles like this.
Sue Polinsky said 3:16PM on 3-21-2008
James, we may soon have JUST that. Stay tuned.
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barry harrison said 2:17PM on 3-26-2008
If your contact form doesn't work grade your site a big F.
One of the most important things for Service businesses in particular is their Contact page. Does it have an online form? Does it WORK? Do visitors receive an auto-reply? You’d be surprised how many companies never test their contact forms and may be losing inquiries!
For tips on improving your site’s contact page check out: http://www.resolvedigital.com/browse/Ten_Tips_for_a_Better_Contact_Page
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Josh Cochrane said 9:37AM on 4-01-2008
Regarding point 4 about managing website email, we have a free web service called Email Center Pro in public beta that helps manage email to shared inboxes like info@yoursite.com.
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