Web Impakt

With the market on a downward trend and consumer confidence down, now is the time for businesses to find opportunities to expand their outreach to their customers. A strong presence on the internet is a viable option for every business to get to customers they don’t already serve.

Wait a minute… According to American Research Group, Inc the average amount people plan to spend on the internet this holiday season is about half of what was spent on average last year and people who plan to buy online are down from 36% to 30%. Why should I invest more into the internet when online purchasing is predicted to be lower now? With the entire economy struggling, one should expect a decline in online purchases as well. What isn’t down, however, is the number of customers going to the internet to get information to make their purchase decisions. According to Bazaarvoice, 72% of shoppers plan to research their products online and 83% of shoppers said online product reviews or evaluations had at least some level of influence in their purchase decision.

My father-in-law is a perfect example of how the internet has changed the way people shop. This Christmas he wanted a Nikon D80 digital camera, and used a lot of time researching the best deal here in town. As the ads for Black Friday came out, he was increasingly excited as he found deal after deal on the camera.  The first ad showed a discount from over $800 to over $700. Another company had the same camera for sale for $649.  He was committed to going to that retailer on Friday until he found a better deal still while researching the camera online.  He came to me extatic when he found he could by the same camera with the same accessories for only $579 plus shipping. He never shopped on the internet before, but is determined to do more online buying in the future.

With a growing number of your customers turning to the internet, an effective website has become a must have for businesses today. We have already covered the components recommended to create an effective website, and I recommend you review it again.

Right now is the time to get more aggressive and, most importantly, more efficient in obtaining customers. An effective web design paired with successful internet marketing will open your doors to more customers and put you in a better position to compete.

I came across a website last week that I found interesting. As a means to create another source of income, he added Adsense by Google to his web site. In fact, his website had 3 locations on the home page where Adsense provided information to people visiting his website that were related to his company.  If you don’t know what Adsense is, an example of it is below and information can be found at http://www.google.com/adsense

Not only was the presence of Google a little too strong on his website, the ads generated on his website didn’t just lead to articles related to his business specialty, they directed people to his competitors. His website, to me at least, didn’t tell me he was trying to get my business. As a disservice to him, I got more information about his competitors than I did about him.

So when is Adsense appropriate?

If your website is strictly informational, and you are not trying to sell anything from it, Adsense can be a great way for you to make an otherwise non-profitable website create an income.  If you are trying to sell products or services from your website, there is a way to make Adsense work for you.  In setting Adsense up with Google, you can select to prevent competitors’ ads from showing up. 

In my opinion, Adsense is available as filler for a newer company that doesn’t have enough content or access to information for their visitors to view. Even if you are filtering out competitors, you are redirecting your potential customers away from your site and may not get them back. Even though it may take more time and resources from you or your site administrator, your website would be more attractive and credible if you selected articles and added links directly to them. Other appropriate links would be to direct visitors to association websites that lend credibility to you (i.e. BBB, Water Quality Association, American Orthopaedic Association). These websites are strictly informational and, if your business is associated with them, they add confidence to the potential customer visiting your website about you and your business.

Once your website is built and looks and functions the way you want it to, there is one final hurdle to overcome: Search Engine Optimization. What good is your beautiful, fully functional website if you have no visitors? It takes a focused effort to get your web site displayed high in the search engine results.

An effective website is one of the most cost-effective forms of advertising. It is critical for most businesses to have a functioning and optimized website. 80% of the people on the Internet use a search engine, like Google, to find what they are looking for. Most people won’t even look past the first page of results. This results in some tough competition between you and your competitors to get into the top results.

There are numerous ways to get your website displayed high on the search engines. A dedicated professional SEO team can help you accomplish your online goals.