In my post The great journey – join me – I suggested that now the Christmas period was over and January is about to end now may be a really good time to look at your website or blog and set some sensible targets of what you want it to achieve.

I have also blogged on the issue of the “Google page one dream” and strongly suggested to forget it and concentrate on building a website that works for you and your business.

So what really do I mean and how can you benefit?

Think back to when you started your website / blog – what made you decide to have one. Here are a few of the most popular reasons:

• To establish an internet presence
• To network
• To make business information available
• To serve your customers
• To heighten public interest
• To release time sensitive materials
• To sell things
• To make pictures, sound and film files available
• To reach a highly desirable demographic market
• To answer frequently asked questions
• To stay in contact with salespeople
• To open international markets
• To create a 24 hour service
• To make changing information available quickly
• To allow feedback from customers
• To test market new services and products
• To reach the media
• To reach the education and youth market
• To reach a specialised market
• To serve your local market

But I’m also going to suggest two more in plain English – and please tell me otherwise – but

• You were told to have one – whether by your business advisor, a friend, employees etc.
• Or someone  said I know someone who can build you a cheap web site, and remember you’ve got to have a website and why pay lots of money for one when ….

I used to lecture in small business development and from my experience a majority of reasons in the first section of the list sound like ‘lecture’ speak.   Most small businesses owners use plain English.

I/we want to tell more people about what I/we do (sell/ provide etc.) covers a majority of the list.

Jargon can be confusing and many businesses use it to justify their importance.  Did you really understand it when the person building your website said

‘right so we’ll have a Flash intro, linked to … with a javascript drop down flyout menu .. a Boolean search … Oh, because you are selling something you’ll need https, of course you’ll need a TLD and we’ll wrap it up in an outstanding design that will win awards’

No you probably didn’t (understand) but it sounded impressive didn’t it.  By the way if you are talking to somebody that sounds like that right now about a website – put your wallet back and walk away.

Think back – what was the very first thing you did when started your business?

Plan it.

It may have been on paper (may be not) but in some way you created a business plan. It helped you focus on what needed to be done, when, by who etc. It also gave you a rough idea of what to expect financially from your business – what you have to spend and what you might get out.

Did you do that with your website – create a plan that is? For most people the answer is no. This goes back to my suggestions to add to the list of reasons people have a website. Here are 4 reasonable questions that you should be able to answer.

1. Do you know what to expect from your website?
2. Do you know what your website can actually do?
3. Do you know how much you can safely spend on your website?
4. Do you know how much your web site can add to your bottom line i.e. profit?

I regret to say that in most cases its no … but people will visit my web site and I’ll get more business won’t I? – may be.

For various reasons my fiancée (of 20 years oops not got round to it yet! – sorry dear) and I live on a Greek Island we have been here for 5 years (not sorry about that bit at all). How is that/this relevant? Let me explain… look at virtually all web design companies web sites and you will see a phrases a bit like “you need a web site because everyone must have one now … if you don’t have one your competition will … how will people find you if your not on the web …”

Wrong ….totally wrong …. absolutely wrong … umm not sure I can think of many more “wrong phrases”.

My local plumber knows I need him before I do, therefore why would he need a business website? He doesn’t. Our local taverna – village population about 200, island population about 35,000 – doesn’t need a business website the people on the island already knows he’s there.

In both cases a business website would serve no business purpose. Ahhh … but I hear arguments, more people would know about them etc. Yes I agree, but I said business purpose. Is a web site going to add to my plumbers bottom line?  No. Everybody knows Costas and as I said (slightly tounge in cheek) he knows I need him before I do.

I recently came back from the islands capital with the owner of a three holiday villas/apartments and we were discussing the merits (or otherwise) of them having a new website – guess what, somebody was trying to sell them one. As I got to understand their business it became very clear to me that whilst they may want an independent website I could not justify it to them on – business terms – financially. They already subscribe to Owners Direct.co.uk (No 2 on Google) and get 80% of their business via that site – cost about 90.00 per year (each villa). There are 47,400 websites for the search term “holiday villas kefalonia”

With a reasonable knowledge of holiday rental costs and expenditures I would say yes they could afford a small static site but what purpose would that really serve? None. They could certainly pay for the website, have it hosted and expect business from it. But how would/could it be promoted?

How much would they be prepared to spend making sure that web site really benefited them. Without being unkind, not enough.

With companies like OwnersDirect, TUI, James Villas, Sunvil etc. dominating the Google pages – all of who have reasonable budgets – what benefit is there for a new site for a company that already gets 80% of it’s business from one of them?

I started this post by saying that now was the time to look at your website or blog and set some sensible targets of what you want it to achieve.

Consider the purpose of your website.  If you want new business then great, go for it, but plan it.   Plan what you want, set a “safe” budget and don’t be afraid to spend it.

So what should you expect?

Always difficult but most people would say that around 2.5% conversion rate is the average. OK, conversion rate may be a bit of jargon but, a 2.5% conversion rate means that from every 200 people who visit your website 5 of them will take the action you want them to do (buy your widget, make an enquiry etc.) In other words if you sell widgets and get 1000 visitors to your web site a day then, based on the internet averages, you should be selling 25 widgets each day.

If you are only selling 10 widgets a day then whilst you may have a great looking site sorry to tell you, but it isn’t working and you should really consider what improvements you can make to ensure your website is not below average. Think how much the sale of an additional 15 widgets a day would add to your bottom line?

Now by calculating your returns (or expected returns) you can create an internet budget just like you did when you created your business plan.

• You can plan and cost how to promote it
• You can plan any changes in your business that may be needed
• You can plan, track and justify your business web site.
• When somebody says your website will cost “x” to build and “y” to promote you can make an informed decision – yes or no.

Planning and calculating your website returns will put you – not your web designer in control of your website.

We recently did some web development work for an international supermarket chain for a short term 3 month website based promotion/competition. Their brief was excellent, they expected “x” entries and “y” names and e-mail address. They had already calculated that this return was worth an additional “z” to their bottom line therefore their budget was “q”. The concept and budget for a web based competition was based on quantifiable results, not a whim, not an idea but something that could be calculated.

• Did it work?  Yes
• Could it have failed?  Yes
• Did it make business sense?  Yes
• Will they do it again?  Yes

Why didn’t it fail?

• Because they planned and calculated the returns and set a budget accordingly.

Don’t have a business website because somebody says you need one.  Have one because it makes business sense.

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