How Can Having A Great Website Give you Freedom in Your Business? - June 2009
As a business owner, finding ways to save time and money, improve efficiency and be able to focus more on the success of your business are invaluable. We all know that having a great website these days is an essential tool in running your business, but there may be some basic ways you can fine tune this tool that will give you more freedom to focus on your business.
Ask yourself these questions to see if your website is doing the most it can for you and giving you the freedom you deserve in your business:
1. Can you update your website easily?
Updating your website should be easy and painless. Whether it's your hosting company, a consultant, yourself or someone in your company, it is always a good idea to keep your website fresh and up to date.
2. Can you access your website statistics?
Can you easily find out how many hits or page views your site is getting? Can you see how people are finding you and what sites are sending you the most traffic? All of this information can be found through reports that your hosting company should provide. Knowing which pages people are looking at and how they find you can tell you which pages you should update frequently.
3. Can you restore a file if you accidentally remove it?
Mistakes happen. But your business should not suffer the consequences if you or a staff member accidentally deletes or damages a file on your site. Your website hosting company should make regular backups of all of the files on your site and be able to restore a file for you. If they can't, it is always a good idea to make backups of your files just in case.
4. Is your website a good resource for your target audience?
Does your website represent your company and provide the information your audience is looking for? Are there documents and answers to frequently asked questions that you can post on your site that address common issues prospects and clients regularly call/email you about? If not, it is important to modify your site and see what would serve your target audience (as well as you and your clients) best: tips and articles, FAQs, or even surveys.
5. Can you reach your web provider on the phone immediately?
Do you spend a lot of time on hold or waiting for a return email from your web provider when you need something? If so, you may want to consider moving to a company that will give you the attention you deserve.
A website is your presentation out into the world and is very often people's first impression of your business. So if you take care of these seemingly little things, it can a big effect on the impact of your site.
Amy Gideon is President and Co-owner of TAG Online, Inc., located in Clifton, NJ and providing web development, design, hosting, co-location and consulting services for the last 15 years. Amy has over 20 years of experience in software development, database design, authoring and delivering programming courses on Wall Street and managing large software projects. She has consulted to several well-known corporations, including Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, and Citibank. Amy holds a M.S. in Computer Science from New York University and a B.S.E. from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. For more information, please visit www.tagonline.com.