In today’s ever changing competitive landscape, a website is no longer optional, but rather an essential marketing tool for your business. Your website is your front door, as well as a sign of credibility in the global marketplace. Is your website one of the millions of pages on the Internet that are lost in cyberspace? Does anyone even know that your business exists online?

Surprisingly, there are many web designers that do not truly understand the operation of Internet search engines. This usually results in poorly developed web sites that usually disappear on the Internet, never to be seen again. Anyone can build a web site with a little practice. However, knowing how search engines work and building a web site that meets their criteria and achieves top ranking is quite different.

To help meet the demands of this ever changing online competitive landscape, WSI of Robbinsville has now added Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to its vast list of online Internet Business Solutions. Ronnie Daldos, an Internet Consultant with WSI, has spoken with many clients who tell her that “they already have a website”. They automatically assume that if they paid for a website, it is actually being viewed and working for their business. Most businesses make that same common “incorrect” assumption, that their potential prospects are actually able to find their site.

To prove this point to her clients, Ms. Daldos asks them to find their website using a Google or Yahoo search, without using the name of their company. This is exactly what your potential clients will be doing when looking for the product or service that you offer. If you can’t find your business, how will they? Even worse, who does come up when you are doing this little experiment? Those are the sites that are getting visited by your prospects. Unfortunately, this exercise results in an eye opening experience for most business owners.

“The largest mistake made by business owners is allowing their website to be designed by a web designer who does not understand how search engines operate”, says Ms. Daldos. A website may look great, with a lot of technical bells & whistles, but because of its design, it is unfriendly to “spiders” that are responsible for indexing webpage’s on search engines, resulting in a poor listing for the business.

Is your company website hurting your business? While it may be hard to quantify just how much missing prospects has cost your business, you can be sure there is a cost. Another way of quantifying whether your site is missing prospects is to take a good look at the site statistics that you “should” be getting from your hosting company. What pages are the most common exit points? If it’s your home page and not your contact us or shopping cart, you can be guaranteed your website is hurting your sales!

A more disturbing scenario is that you find prospects are making it to these pages, but only staying a few seconds! It is important to understand this and go back and evaluate your site to see why. Are you asking too many questions or making it hard for them to make their purchase? Are prospects leaving your site with items still in their shopping carts? Site statistics are essential to understanding whether your website is costing you money.

Another important use of site statistics is understanding where your traffic is coming from. If you see 100% of your traffic coming from Google, but none from Yahoo or MSN, then you need to investigate why. Is your site even listed with Yahoo & MSN? Perhaps it is listed, but on page 2025! If your site does not come up within the first 3 pages of a prospects keyword search, they will never find your site.

Also, don’t be fooled into thinking that your “hit” counter is any indication of visitors to your site. This counter will increment for any object that is looked at on your site. So, if your homepage has 50 pictures, when you get a visitor to your site the hit counter will increment by 51! These counters are pretty useless, but are a great marketing ploy used by some web development companies to make you think your site is actually being visited by your prospects.

You need to ensure that your site can be found and once found, it is extremely user friendly. If you try this experiment on your site and you can’t be found, there is good news. Enlist the help of a reputable Internet Business Consultant that takes the time to understand your business, as well as being up to date with web design best practices and search engine optimization. They will be able to improve your sites ranking and increase online exposure for your business.

Once you get these prospects to your site, make sure not to lose them! Usability studies have found that if a prospect cannot find what they are looking for within the first 8 seconds of visiting your site, they will move on. Be sure to use your site statistics to make sure your website is working for you and is converting prospects into clients. Without these statistics, there is no way to quantify whether your website is creating a profitable return on your investment. If your current web hosting company does not provide these statistics, move your site to a hosting company that does.

At WSI, we believe that a website should not cost you money and a poorly designed site can actually hurt your business!

For additional information, contact: Ronnie Daldos at e-mail protected from spam bots

About WSI – Internet Consulting & Education
WSI, headquartered in Toronto, Canada, is ranked the #1 Internet Services Business in the world. With systems that have been developed, utilized and proven by over 1,000 Internet Consultants in 87 countries worldwide, WSI delivers thousands of e-Business solutions to small and medium-sized businesses annually.

A WSI “Internet Solution” is more than a website. It includes many services: consultation, design, development, hosting, search engine optimization, site registration, review of connectivity, training and marketing support. A WSI Internet Solution is a package of services tailored to the unique requirements of each client, designed to ensure a maximum return of the client’s investment.

Contact Information:
Ronnie Daldos
WSI – Robbinsville, NJ
(609)259-8400
(866)WSI-INET
http://www.wsidynamicEsolutions.com