Is My Website Working?

Does your receptionist answer “Gee, I don’t really know” when a caller asks “what does your company do” or when they ask “is your product right for me”? Of course not! You’d retrain or fire them if they did. Can you say the same about your website, though?

Many businesses are realizing the Internet is quickly becoming the de facto way prospects locate their products and services. Your website should be the core of your Internet marketing strategy, but often it is poorly designed or money has been wasted making it look pretty rather than being effective.

At a recent business conference here in Richmond, I heard five different CEOs and business owners state they needed to redesign their websites because they were missing out on Google searches or social media or they needed it to bring in sales. However many of these business owners were talking about how to make the website look better rather than bring in leads better.

AdLinea is a marketing strategy company, not a web design firm, so we’re very focused on making the website into the cornerstone of a marketing plan. While it is important to look professional and to match the image of your company with the visual appeal of the website, we are more interested in how the website identifies with your target market, delivers your message while speaking in audience-specific terms, and providing the support your social media and email campaigns need to bring more leads to your sales team.

We have developed a simple tool for helping you understand if your website is working for you, if it is bringing in leads and supporting your marketing. AdLinea’s Website Effectiveness Tool gives you a number of questions to answer like:

• Does your website have valuable tools, like a checklist or whitepaper or guide that visitors can read or download?
• Do important keywords appear in the URL of your landing pages?
• Do traditional marketing materials point to the website?

You can answer these questions on your own and see how well your website is doing the job it should be doing. If you find it isn’t doing a great job yet, don’t jump right to redesigning your website. Instead, come back next week and learn the things you should expect a website to do. Know what the goals are before committing to a redesign that still doesn’t become your best lead generator.

Get the Website Effectiveness Tool here

http://www.adlinea.net/website-effectiveness-test

Take a look at our Website Effectiveness Tool, rate your site using the instructions provided, and check back with us in next week’s blog to take the first steps towards making your website work for you, not just be a pretty advertisement no one ever sees.

Tags: internet, internet marketing, marketing, website, website effectiveness