Working in the industry, I have worked on countless campaigns for websites that are not up to scratch and have given themselves nothing in the way of competitive advantage. Much like the SEO Sydney Blog wrote about, these websites still require an old school style strategy, be it price, branding, product quality, anything! Instead, they believe that posting a site and getting some traffic will do the job...it won't!
Think of it in the context of a bricks and mortar store at your local shops, sure people will buy the occassional low involvement item from them, probably because they are too lazy to look around, but would you ever buy a $1000 table because of convenience? Very few can honestly answer yes to that and so is my point, you need to work on a proper strategy.
Here I outline my very basic keys to success:
- Get a professional website designed
- Make the next click obvious
- Differentiation - Are you cheap? Better product? Convenient? An expert?
- Positioning - Read anything by Kotler - Choose a differtiator and stick to it
It sounds simple doesn't it, yet small and medium business stuff it up constantly.
Josh Strawczynski's Opinion:
SEO & SEM are essential to driving qualified traffic to your site, but you need to make it simple for them and give them a reason to purchase. I remember one of my best clients was a well known travel agent and they got clicks and subsequent sales because of their brand name and known quality. SEM & SEO got them there because they are a tool that capitalised on the ground work already done.
Sam Berringer's Opinion:
There is an argument to be made for solving the need of a customer, but you still need to do the ground work and at the very least make your site look professional, check out Golf Retreats website for a good example of a simple, professional, easy to use site.
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