Turn Turn Turn, A Time To Redesign Your Website
By Joel Black on 12/13/2013
Over the past few years of working at Black Bear Design I’ve noticed a trend with small, startup and sometimes even mid-sized companies and their websites. Almost every day I will receive a call from a distraught business owner looking for help with his/her disaster of a website. The call usually starts like this “I had a cousin who had a friend that said he’d build a cheap website for my company…..” Usually before I can even respond they take a moment and realize they just put these words together, ‘cheap, website, my company’. They are frustrated and tired of dealing with something that barely works and in many cases want to drop kick their website. More and more, small companies are realizing how a great website (or lack thereof) can determine what a potential customer thinks of that company.
The website is in fact an extension of the company brand. Will it elicit a response or will it scare away new business? The days of Yellow Pages are over and consumers now turn to search engines. If they find your website what will they think of the company once they are there? Cutting edge? Well organized? Or outdated, cheap and disconnected? A great website is a living, breathing essential part of any company these days. A website is a 24hr/365day a year sales rep/agent, not just a ‘sign in the yard’. Websites do not take vacations, they do not need health insurance, they do not ask for a raise, and the best thing is, you only have to pay them once.
Alternately many companies feel the website cannot bring in leads on its own. They rely on an antiquated model that a rep must make the initial contact before any interested prospect will consider doing business. This is accurate in certain rare circumstances but it is by no means absolute. The truth is there is no way to tell if the website can bring in leads if its not built to do exactly that. Why not look at rebuilding the old site into an additional revenue stream generator. If it hasn’t been attempted yet, how do you know it won’t work?
Most importantly for every business owner, a great website has the capability of uncapped ROI if its done well and maintained regularly. It really is surprising how much more the phones will ring with a great website and web presence through SEO.
What happened when you redesigned your website? Was is good, bad or Jackie Chan karate chop bad? By the way, I love Jackie Chan, but he needs to redesign his website.
