The Internet has been called “the information highway” but you’ll probably agree with most business owners that one of the strengths of the Internet is that it really is “the great leveler.”
If you were to take a walk down any street in nearly any city in North America, you’ll see the disparity between the large corporation and the small “mom and pop” store. The Internet has solved that problem!
Although corporations may have a larger advertising budget to drive people to their site, both the large business and the small business appear the same next to each other on a search engine result or a pay-per-click advertisement. And, once you’ve clicked on either one, they’ll both take up the same amount of space on your computer’s monitor… so you can’t really tell how big they are.
But there are times when prospects are clicking around the Internet and stumble across a site that offers them something they want, but they avoid purchasing from that site because it doesn’t look like a reputable company. Customers want to deal with a reputable company because they want the assurance that they’ll get the product they paid for and the support they need if there’s a problem.
There are lots of reasons why a site can look less than professional. We’ll look at some of the symptoms and some of the remedies in this article.
Symptoms and Remedies
Symptom: One of the surest signs of a small business website is poor web design. It could be a clipart logo or a poor color choice or a million other things. Perhaps it’s a photo of you on the front that is less than professional.
Remedy: You don’t have to know html to create a professional-looking website. There are many free templates available on the web today which are a great start. Ultimately you’d like your own unique look, but a template is a great intermediate step. Alternatively, you could advertise at a local community college for a student to build up their resume by helping you create your site. The new students who are eager to get links in their resume will be glad to help!
Symptom: Websites of companies that appear less-than-trustworthy have content that is rife with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. Although your product may be the best on the market, poor spelling or grammar gives the appearance of carelessness and customers may be reluctant to send their credit card number to a company that appears careless.
Remedy: Get two or three friends to go through your site thoroughly. Find people you can trust who are very detail-oriented. Approach a local English teacher and ask them to have his or her students edit your site for extra credit. Alternatively, you can hire someone on a freelance website like guru.com or elance.com to help you edit your site.
Symptom: Links are a sure sign of a small website. Many small business owners trade links with larger sites in order to rank higher, but they’ll post those links anywhere they can to fulfill their reciprocal link promise.
Remedy: There’s nothing wrong with linking for the benefit of higher search results. However, you should look around on the Internet and see what the big companies do. Many do not use links at all. Those who do post links may only put one or two on a page at the bottom and label them “friends” (or something similar). Or, put all of your links on one page and link to it with a label like, “we’re proud to be associated with…” Make sure that links open in a separate window and that the companies you link to are not in direct competition, but rather serve the same clientele with a different product or service.
Symptom: Advertising on the site or a URL that suggests you’re getting free hosting. One fictional example might be a company whose URL is www.allfreewebhosting.net/UsedCars. Would you buy a car from this company if they’re not even able to pay for their website?
Remedy: Spend the money and get hosted. Inexpensive hosts are available, like at www.godaddy.com, which can get you your own URL and an advertisement-free website at a reasonable price.
The Internet is the great leveler, offering small businesses the ability to compete with big businesses. Why promote yourself as a small business and drive away customers when, with just a little effort, you can show yourself to be a professional company with a great product?!?
