Is your website helping your competitors?

This is a great article written by MyBRC (Business Resource Centre) last month that does a really nice job of expressing the importance of making your website work for your customers.

Visitors to your website don’t give a damn if your website is slow, boring, out of date and hard to use. They’ll simply click off and go away. Most likely to a competitor. Sadly, that’s how they will perceive your business, too – slow, boring, out of date and hard to deal with. No wonder your competitors love you and want you to keep it up.

The only time a visitor cares about the technology you use to build your website is when it gets in the way of their ability to access the information they’re after. At which point they’ll simply click off and go away. Most likely to a competitor. No wonder your competitors love you.

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It’s really annoying when you go to a website that holds out the promise of offering what you’re looking for, only to tell you that you must have the latest version of some viewing technology to access the information. That’s a bit like trying to go into a store only to be told by some security guard that only Mercedes drivers can enter.

The only person who cares about a splash page that proudly displays your logo in glorious 3-D animation with that “click here to enter” option, is your web developer. That’s why it’s called an “ego page”. Visitors will simply click off and go away. Most likely to a competitor. No wonder your competitors love your website developer.

Visitors to your website don’t care if the information they’re looking for isn’t there. They’ll simply click off and go away. Most likely to a competitor. No wonder your competitors love your website and want you to keep it up.

So, what does this all mean? Simply, that your website is all about your customers and meeting their needs and expectations. The technology used is largely irrelevant, and the design only becomes important after your customers’ needs, their behaviour, your business objectives and your marketing strategies are fully understood.

Source: MyBRC (Click to read the full article)