The first, and most difficult, hurdle is to drive traffic to the site, a feat accomplished by search engine optimization - making it easier to find a Web site - and search engine marketing, which means spending money to promote or perfect a site.
"Small businesses cannot survive without placing well in search engines," said Marla Johnson Norris, chief executive officer of Aristotle Inc. of Little Rock. "There's nothing more cost-effective that they can do than place well in search engines."
Norris went so far as to recommend that small-business owners spend their entire marketing budget on performing well in search engines.
Search engine performance depends on the content. Ideally, a site owner should craft his Web content to be as search engine-friendly as possible, which involves a careful tracking of his traffic through a Web analytics program. This tool allows a site owner to determine which search engines are bringing users to the site, identify the keywords that got them there, monitor what they do after they arrive and time how long they stay, Birch said. The site owner can then tweak the Web content to make more use of the most effective keywords.
Norris acknowledged her frequent astonishment at how underused Web analytics are.
"I am constantly shocked at how there are small businesses who do not know that they have Web site tracking. ... If you're going to invest even a small amount, you can get a much bigger bang for your buck if you just look at your Web stats," she said.
Viewer Retention
While driving traffic to the site depends entirely on the words that are used, capturing and maintaining the audience's attention is a different matter. Knowing the audience is essential.
"One of the most basic things ... is businesses need to understand who's going to be using their Web site," said Chip Simons, Web producer and search engine marketing specialist for ArkansasWeb.com of Little Rock.
"Get out of your head a little bit and try to look at it from the customer's perspective," he advised. "And try to find out the things that they will want on the site rather than the things you want to give them."
Simons recommended using focus groups to test site usability.
The "they" Simons mentioned, however, should be a particular demographic. Minell Eberdt, president of ArkansasWeb.com, said, "You have to focus in on one specific group of people that are going to bring you the majority of your revenue."
Once the audience is audited, the next step is ensuring that the content reads well. For that task, eyes and ears outside the company are indispensable, Simons said.
"A lot of times, we look at our own businesses and we think we're explaining it really well, but to somebody who's coming in, they don't hear it the same way," he said. "They don't speak [our] language, so [we] have to work in their language."
If users don't naturally speak the language of the content, they're unlikely to search with the most effective keywords. That means potential visitors are unlikely to be directed toward a site by a search engine.
If a user does happen across the site and it's laden with jargon, the chances of him staying are minuscule. "People need to be able to come to your Web site and immediately be able to figure out what it is that you do," Norris said.
The waning attention span of the virtual audience means that a site owner has a brief time to retain a viewer: less than about 10 seconds.
"You've got a reason to have this site up," Simons said. "So you want as much information as it takes to fulfill that purpose. And if you've got too much, they'll get bored and leave before they ever get to the point where you ask them to do something; if you don't have enough, they're not compelled to take the action either."
Birch thinks that a calculated level of ambiguity in the content can be more beneficial than laying all your cards on the table. A Web site should offer just enough information to turn the user into a lead where he has to contact the business, Birch said. Then a sales representative has the opportunity to close the sale.
Professional Design
Unfortunately, there isn't a checklist for quality design, but users recognize it when they see it, Simons said. And as Web sites increasingly provide the first impression of a company, Birch advises investing in them
"The Web site is such a big piece of your branding and marketing effort nowadays, you'd make a huge mistake going cheap," Birch said. And for those who still stumble over Web site costs, Birch had this to say: "Web sites are a lot cheaper than people."
"If people will think of it on those terms, the investment they're making, even if it's seven grand, 10 grand, 20 grand, it's probably a lot cheaper than a person or the time it takes some person to do some of the tasks that can get accomplished online," Birch said.
Both Norris and Eberdt encouraged small businesses to invest in professional photography. "Good, clear, professional photography," Eberdt said, "makes a small business look like a big business."
The quality of the hosting service a site owner uses can also sway potential customers. "If Web sites aren't speedy, there is a subconscious message of not being customer-centric," Norris said. "You could have a great Web site, but, if it takes too long to load, then you're going to be losing people."
The design needs to create psychological effects in users that will help close the deal, Norris said. "They need to feel welcomed. They need to feel like you want their business and there's no better way than saying, 'We really want your business,'" she said.
For online retail, making buying easy is essential, Norris said. "When I come to your main page, I need to know what your products are, I need to know what your product lines are, I need to be able to quickly get it, and I need to, without jumping through too many hoops, be able to make a purchase," she said.
Getting information from a user is an essential part of transforming that person into a potential customer. Asking for too much information, however, can be worse than not asking at all.
"Don't make them go through a big long registration that's got a million questions to it, because most people aren't going fill it out," Birch said. "They'll immediately back out and go someplace else."
Eberdt suggested making the process a transaction rather than an elicitation. "It may just be something you give away," she said. One ArkansasWeb.com client, for instance, offers to send Web site visitors a recipe associated with one of its baking products.
Since you lose people with every page, Norris said, the elicitation of information should be on the main page.
All agreed that responsiveness is crucial to closing the deal. "If [businesses] aren't quick within 24 hours to respond, their customers will go elsewhere and make a decision," Norris said.
Eberdt and Simons offered some tips for the "Contact Information" or "About Us" pages. Personalizing these areas can go a long way. "Instead of having an e-mail address like sales@arkansasweb.com, Minell@arkansasweb.com means a little more," Simons said. "It lets you know there's somebody responsible."
Eberdt added that short bios of the employees or a staff photo can also help personalize a business.
Most importantly, Web sites are not a get-rich-quick tactic for a business. Perfecting a Web site takes time. Search engine optimization can take several months to take effect, Simons said. "There is a misconception that it all happens overnight," Eberdt said.
Simons added that many mistakenly consider an effective Web site "cheap, easy and magic." It's not. As these Web gurus noted, it takes forethought, skill and commitment. And it just might take some professional help.
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