This newsletter is about the importance of website content, and I’m going to tell you about a personal experience I recently had that will show you what I mean.

We have all had experiences in our lives that touch us deeply. Taking care of the people in our lives is one of them. Recently, I had such an experience, and as I prepared to write this newsletter, that is what kept coming up, so I decided to share it with you.

Two days ago, I was woken very early in the morning by my bedside phone ringing. It was 4 a.m. and I was immediately on alert. When I answered the phone, my Mom was on the line, worried that Dad was having trouble breathing and having chest pains. “We didn’t want to bother you,” she said, considerate as usual. “I’m glad you called me, Mom,” I told her. “Please call 911 right now, and I’ll be right over.”

Thanks to the quick action of the ambulance crew, my Dad was quickly taken to the hospital to receive the medical attention he needed. My Mom and I spent a good part of the next day at the hospital while my Dad underwent numerous medical tests and examinations. Finally, the doctor declared that Dad had pneumonia, prescribed a dose of antibiotics, and released him from the hospital.

We took him home, relieved that it wasn’t anything more serious. But, neither of us has any medical background, so aside from getting his prescription filled and ensuring he got plenty of rest, we felt pretty helpless. That’s when my sister sent us an email containing a link to WebMD, an online medical information service, where we were able to learn all about the condition, how it affects older adults, and how to manage the treatment. The information was useful, so I bookmarked the site, intending to come back later when I needed information on other topics. Meanwhile, I’m glad to report that my Dad has been steadily getting better and happily recovering his natural good health.

You might ask: What does this have to do with websites? Well, if you think about it, when we save a website to our Favorites folder, or Bookmarks folder, we are actually giving it a ‘thumbs up.’ We are basically saying that we find the site useful and intend to go back. I did this with the WebMD site. It’s likely that many others found it useful and did the same too. They may even have recommended it to others, like my sister did for us. This means that the site likely receives a lot of traffic, exposure, and business.

A good question to ask is: what does it take to have a site that visitors want to bookmark? The simple answer is that people have to find it useful in some way. Research has shown that the three most common uses of the Internet are related to information, entertainment, and communication. Any site that offers these in a useful way is a good candidate for getting bookmarked.

Quick check: what does your site offer that will have users want to keep coming back? Does it offer information users want, or need? Does it provide the latest news – about technology, fashion, gardening – anything? Does your site offer items for sale? Does it offer helpful user aids like mortgage calculators for real estate sites, or color wheels for decorating sites, or simple recipes for a restaurant site?

My Point: Keep your site fresh. Keep it relevant. Offer up things your clients want. And you’ll keep them coming back.

We wanna know…

What is one of the most fun or useful sites that you have bookmarked recently? Share with us your favorites. It’ll be helpful if you give us the name of the site, the site address, and a brief description of what you like about it.

Many, many thanks to everyone who wrote us or phoned in to share their views about the website or newsletter. We truly appreciate hearing from you. In fact, we have already implemented many of your suggestions. Please check out our website to see the changes.

The Joys of Summer

I hope you’ve been enjoying your summer this year. Even though we’ve had some rainy days, I’ve been spending a lot of time outdoors, at least whenever I can get away from all the other things I have to do each day. Our family is also making the most of barbecue season, and we’ve been enjoying many of our meals outdoors, especially in the evenings when it’s cooler. Lately, however, we’ve been chased indoors a few times by wasps hovering around the table.

I didn’t worry about it too much until early this week when I was shutting the garden gate and noticed a few wasps fly out. “I think they’re building a nest inside the gate,” one of my sons observed. “Maybe,” I said, but by the next day we all knew he was right. Little wisps of grey were beginning to show through the wooden slats of the gate. And the nest was growing fast, because by the following day it seemed to have doubled in size. We needed to act quickly. What to do? That’s when someone suggested I call an exterminator.

That shouldn’t be so hard to do, I thought, as I picked up the Yellow Pages phone book. Instead of finding one or two entries, as I had expected, I found four pages of exterminators. I had no idea how to pick one. They all offered similar services, but without phoning each one individually, there was no way to know which one was better. I needed to know more about the companies, so I turned to the Internet.

That narrowed it down quite a bit. Sure, the big companies had websites, but none of them had local offices, and I’d have to call a national number and talk to someone in another city, who would then call someone here, who would then … well, you get the idea. I wanted someone local.

Only three of the local companies seemed to have a website. The first one had that ‘homemade’ look and didn’t seem particularly professional. The second gave me a ‘not found’ error page. And the third had so little information about the company that it might as well have been a print ad. These websites did not inspire a lot of confidence. I did not call any of these companies. Still, by digging a little further on the Internet, I found a company that was able to manage the wasp problem quickly.

My point: The way that people search for a business is changing these days. We no longer rely only on traditional sources like phone books or newspapers or magazines. We most often use the Internet to find out more about a company before we decide to do business with them. Companies that are not on the Internet are missing out on a lot of potential customers. But even those companies that do have a website need to make sure they are giving visitors the right impression.

If you already have a website, do a quick check. What does your website say about you and your company? Does it appear professional? Or homemade? Does it inspire confidence? Or is it just bland? Does it highlight your expertise? Or is it just a generic ‘ad’? Does it help you stand out? Or is it just a ‘cookie cutter’ website like so many others?

Remember, it doesn’t matter whether you like it or not. Your website has a job to do. Make sure you’re not missing out on business because you failed to see how potential customers see you.