Great Web Sites Keep It Simple and Bring Customers to Sell Points

There are times when running a business Web site seems like a never-ending quest to bring in customers, increase sales and build a stronger brand.

The Web may be world wide, but it isn’t that complicated when you look at what makes business sites successful. Lowe’s for Pros asked the experts about six classic mistakes that contract shop owners make when running their sites — and how to avoid them:

1) Simplify. Avoid fancy graphics that drag down the site’s speed — potential customers will get impatient and click on to your competitor’s site. Instead, provide easy-to-read, text-only options that can be accessed by any browser. Keep ease of navigation foremost in mind. While a Web site designer may urge you to adapt cutting-edge features, such thinking could crush a potential online sale. “Navigation that’s really cool to a designer is often incomprehensible to everyone else,” says Susan Daffron, co-author of Web Business Success: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Web Sites That Work. “Get your mother or grandmother to sit down and try out your Web site navigation. If mom is confused, redesign the interface so it makes sense even to newbie computer users.”

2) There’s too much ‘me.’ Your Web page isn’t intended for you, the business owner — it’s for your customers, so all content needs to be targeted to them. Their primary concern is not your family life, it's fixing whatever is broken in their house or getting the addition built. “Are you using the words ‘we’ and ‘our’ when you should be using the words ‘you’ and ‘your’?” asks Max Kalles, one of three partners who runs WSI Internet Consulting's Markham, Ontario office. “When customers come to a Web site, they really don’t care who you are — not yet at least. They want you to fix their problem. If you are able to address that, then you have their attention.”

3) There’s not enough sell. If you’re not distinguishing your company online from your competitors, then you’re asking the user to flip a coin. Click through your site and determine whether or not it’s clear how your contracting shop offers value over your competitors. If these value points aren’t evident to potential customers, you need to modify your pitch. “You need to hammer home the message that you either provide the best service quality, the cheapest price, the most features or whatever it is that you do that’s better,” Kalles says.

Also: You can elevate your edge over competitors — as well as keep your content fresh — by posting articles and/or blogs in which you offer expert advice, establishing your business as an authority in the trade.

4) Users get lost en route to the call-to-action. Once the customer is sold on the value of your product or services, he or she needs to know exactly how to make that final step, such as placing a job order with your shop. So post your contact information — phone, e-mail, and address —everywhere on the site. “[Your call-to-action] needs to be on every single page, not just the home page,” Kalles says. “That’s important because different customers will make different decisions on separate pages.”

5) You lose your domain name. Once owners land that perfectly simple, easy-to-remember domain name, too many eventually lose it when the registration lapses. This doesn’t just happen to smaller shops; even the ‘big boys’ have lost domain names, says Katherine Hutt, president of Nautilus Communications Inc., a Vienna, Va.-based communications/Internet consulting firm. “Usually what happens is that the person who originally registered the domain name put only him or herself as the contact, and then left the company,” she says. “Notices go to a non-existent e-mail box, and before you know it, you’ve lost your domain name — perhaps forever. I recommend to my clients that they list several different contacts — owner, administrative, billing people, technical folks, etc. — and be sure to put the expiration date into the tickler file so someone knows to check up on it when the date is drawing near.”

6) There’s no branding. Your brand is your business, so make sure the look and feel of your site is consistent with the your marketing image. “Use simple colors that are consistent with the brand,” Daffron says. “Because color triggers an emotional reaction, it’s a powerful tool. When you think IBM, after all, you think ‘blue.’”