Polymer Studios::Web Consulting

If the last downturn taught us anything it’s that businesses can batten down the hatches very quickly, and that marketing budgets are the first to be thrown overboard.

Were you hoping to revamp or enhance your old Web site over the next few quarters? If so, a spending freeze memo from the boss could seriously hinder your plans. You might not have the funds to make the improvements you had in mind.

So, what can you do with your site on a paper-thin budget? Obviously you’re going to have to make some tough choices and prioritize what needs changing. We suggest looking at three key aspects of your site’s performance: visibility, flexibility and experience.

Visibility

There are a number of ways to measure your Web site’s visibility, but here’s a simple reality check: How does your site come up in Google when you simply enter the name of your business? If you are a small business, enter the names of the owners or key executives. You’d be amazed how many businesses can’t even get into the first page of results using their own name! It’s equally important to determine your competitiveness on key words that your prospects are likely to use in searching for information on potential vendors in your industry. This is particularly important if your business name is not unique. In such cases, prospects who hope to snoop your site might search on your company name plus your industry or city (e.g., Johnson + Consulting + Insurance).

Even if all of your business comes from personal referrals, you can’t afford to be invisible in search results. A prospective customer who is considering whether to include your firm in an RFP might conduct a search on your company, not just to find your Web site but to find out how prominent you are in your field. Does your name come up in news articles? Blogs and blog comments? Trade association Web sites? Being visible in peer and industry sites not only boosts your credibility in your field, but, if accompanied by links back to your site, can increase your site’s search ranking.

Below are just a few ideas for boosting your site’s visibility.

• Cultivate inbound links - The more external sites that point to your site, the better. While it may take some convincing and some valuable content to get bloggers and online media to link to your site, you can generate links quickly by registering your site with industry associations and chambers of commerce.
• Comment on blogs - Even if you can’t/won’t launch your own blog, you can still leave thoughtful comments on blogs that cover your industry. Good comments are always welcome. They not only reflect well on you and your company, but also result in inbound links to your site.
• Media sites - Sites like YouTube, Flickr, Vimeo and Slideshare are designed for content sharing. Your company might have content that could be uploaded to those sites as well, including photos of your headquarters, company party or annual meeting, PowerPoint sales presentations, videos of product demos, etc. As you set up and upload to these sites, be sure to include links back to your company web site in your profile page and in captions.
• Update your AboutUs.org page - Have you heard of this service? Go to AboutUs.org and you will probably find info about your company there. It has been “scraped” from your site. At no cost, you can register and modify the info. But for a couple hundred bucks, a professional staff writer will produce an in-depth article about your company, which will provide links back to specific pages on your web site.

Flexibility

If your business were to suddenly made a big move, say an acquisition or merger, or it were pummeled by negative news reports, how long would it take you to update your Web site in response? Could you post updated content to your site in a day? In hours? In minutes? What kind of content would you be able to post?

If your Web site feels old and inflexible, it’s probably for a reason, including programming, analysis paralysis or a simple lack of time and attention. To be fair, these are all valid excuses. But excuses don’t count in a competitive market or during a time of crisis. This is the age of instant publishing, in which anyone, especially your detractors, can publish content online and force you to play defense. In such an environment, your static, fussy Web site is no longer an asset. It’s a big liability.

How can you make your Web site more nimble? If you’re indeed on a skimpy budget, you may have to rule out the idea of rebuilding the entire site on even a basic content management platform. The cost of the platform is not the issue as much as the labor required to redesign the site and set up templates and then populate the site with content.

Instead, you should look for ways to apply low-to-no-cost content management tools to selected pages on your site:

• Start blogging. Many companies that keep blogs are able to cope with not only with crises but everyday industry challenges by posting their responses on the company blog. The tools are practically free. You just need a link from your main site to your blog and you’re all set.
• Use a free blogging account, such as Blogger, to feed your news and events pages. You create articles just like you would for a blog. A snippet of code on your site pulls in a feed from your blog account and displays headlines and articles on your site. Examples here and here.
• Post videos to Vimeo or YouTube and have them featured on your home page.
• Pull in and display a feed of your Twitter posts on your home page. (Drawback: you can’t edit your posts.)
• Use a service like PitchEngine for distributing and promoting your press releases. Again, you can pull in a feed of your press releases and display them on your news, press or home pages.

Experience

With a realistic sense of how your current site is faring in these areas, you may discover that you don’t have to overhaul your entire site. Instead, like a surgeon, you may be able to enhance the experience that prospects have when they visit your site.

Experience is a broad word and can encompass many things, but here is a short list of criteria on which you can evaluate your site’s experience.

• Performance – This used to be a common issue, back when the majority of people had dialup modems. Nowadays, a slow-loading site is a rarity, which makes it (when you do find one) a much less tolerable problem. However, site performance can be an issue at specific junctures within the site. Conduct an audit and make sure that your search, contact and other forms not only function as intended but provide a reasonable level of performance and responsiveness.
• Mobile-friendliness – Have you seen what your site looks like on a Blackberry, Windows Mobile phone or iPhone? If your site makes heavy use of Flash, you might be disappointed. Depending on your audience, mobile may be a bigger consideration going forward, particularly if you sell to C-suite executives, busy doctors or iPhone-carrying techies.
• Clarity - Does your site do a good job helping visitors understand the essentials about your company? Does it help visitors quickly assess the relevance of your products or services? Using a metrics tool, such as Google Analytics, zero in on your high-traffic pages (as well as critical pages that you believe deserve more traffic) and evaluate them with an objective eye. If that’s not possible, recruit prospects and customers to help you understand how those pages could communicate more powerfully.
• Conversion - Evaluate your product and service pages or any pages where visitors might logically want to make a purchase or request more information — and make sure your call to action is clear and the subsequent steps (specifiying a product, placing an order, filling out a contact form, etc.) are as streamlined as possible.

This article offers a handful of options for improving your Web site and your broader online marketing efforts. But in reality, there are many low-cost options available, especially if you have more time than budget. The first step is to conduct a frank evaluation of your online marketing efforts. From there, you can explore and prioritize strategies for connecting with your prospects, being more relevant and making it easier for them to move toward a purchase decision.

Photo: Wishes by Shioshvili