A CEO’s Checklist for Company Website Performance
THIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEF WILL HELP YOU ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS AND MAKE YOU MORE COMFORTABLE LEADING YOUR TEAM THROUGH A COMPLETE EVALUATION OF YOUR COMPANY’S WEBSITE.
1. Strategy. Does your site have a clear purpose? Are your site’s objectives being pursued systematically, haphazardly, or not at all? This section explains the types of websites used in business, and the most important components of each.
2. Capturing the costs. What is your site actually costing you? Many firms have no idea. This section identifies all the hard and soft costs that go into your site’s ongoing development and maintenance.
3. Capturing the return. What is your site contributing to the bottom line? Again, many firms are not too sure. This section identifies the types of “hard” and “soft” returns to consider, and the various ways to measure them.
4. Programming. Was your site built on the right platform? Does it function properly? Are you using the right hosting service? This section reviews the key technical factors that determine whether your site can carry the load or needs structural support before it crashes.
5. Design. Does your site adhere to best practices for design? Does it arouse the curiosity of visitors? This section discusses the key design factors that determine whether your site is ready for a walk down the runway or one that makes visitors run away.
6. Content. If visitors read the content on your site, are they more likely to do business with you, or less? This section discusses the key content factors that determine whether your site builds connectivity or confusion with prospects and customers.
7. Usability. Do users have a positive experience when they visit your site? This section discusses the key usability factors, such as navigation and page loading time, that determine whether your site gets rave reviews from customers and prospects, or drives them away.
8. SEO. Search engine optimization is usually of critical importance, since it’s what makes your products and services visible to people on Google and Bing when they need them. This section discusses the onsite SEO factors that determine whether your site earns strong positioning on Google or is lost in space.
9. Conversion. Does your site help customers and prospects take the next step in the business relationship? This is the key to extracting value from a site, and yet the one most firms fumble with. This section discusses the site conversion elements that determine whether your site can reel in leads or is dead in the water.
10. Going Forward. Next steps for improving your site.
Does your site have a clear purpose? Are your site’s objectives being pursued systematically, haphazardly, or not at all? This section explains the types of websites used in business, and the most important components of each.
A great many business sites begin with a few simple pages to “get our name out there,” and over time become vast dumping grounds for information. Telltale signs your site has been lacking in strategic development:
For effective Internet marketing, a company site must be purposeful. There are three common types of business sites, with very different strategic objectives:
Billboard websites can be thought of as online sales brochures. They are used to establish a firm’s credentials, provide an overview of products and services, and put forth a high-level value proposition. Billboard sites tend to have relatively little content and a strong emphasis on design. They are used to build identity and credibility.
Lead generation websites take the billboard model a step further by creating conversion paths, whereby customers and prospects can take the next step in the business relationship by requesting a quote, demo, information, or some other action.
Lead generation sites are more complex in terms of programming (because we now have interaction and require lead tracking), content, and design.
E-commerce websites are online stores. They are extremely complex in terms of programming, content, and design, and require a great deal of back-end maintenance and support. They are used by firms that intend to establish or maintain an online revenue stream as part of — or all of — their business model.
The strategic environment for each type of site generally runs along the following lines:
Billboard Sites
Lead Generation Sites
E-commerce Sites
Leadership Insight: It’s tempting to hedge strategic bets by mixing and matching elements of each type of site. This seldom works, since best practices differ greatly from one type to another.
What is your site actually costing you? Many firms have no idea. This section identifies all the hard and soft costs that go into your site’s ongoing development and maintenance.
With good communication among marketing, IT, and finance, a firm should be able to calculate the cost of its website(s) with ease. Doing so becomes extremely important when a firm commits to a lead-generation or e-commerce strategy, since ROI will be a major factor when establishing budgets and marketing strategies. Costs that must be captured:
Leadership Insight: Most companies are great at thinking up and implementing new marketing ideas, but not so great at following through and determining how well or poorly they are doing. The marketing team must be accountable for results, or programs will spin out of control very rapidly.
What is your site contributing to the bottom line? Again, many firms are not too sure. This section identifies the types of “hard” and “soft” returns to consider, and the various ways to measure them.
Whereas capturing site costs is a straightforward process, determining the return may be quite challenging.
Hard Returns
Hard returns are direct results that can be measured with some degree of precision. Here are the three types of hard returns of greatest importance:
1. Traffic. Site traffic is more than just the number of visitors coming to the site. It is also the measurement of how many site pages are viewed, how long visitors stay on the site, and which pages of the site are most popular. Traffic has an impact on conversions (more traffic = more conversion opportunities) and also positively affects search engine visibility on Google and Bing. Google Analytics or other back-end systems are capable of collecting extremely complex site usage information.
2. Conversions. Conversions is the measurement of how many customers fill out forms or phone the firm as a result of visiting the company site. To capture this data, lead tracking must be properly set up on the site.
3. Orders. Order tracking can be quite simple or highly detailed, depending on the needs of the firm and the capabilities of its internal systems. At a minimum, it’s imperative to capture online revenues and distinguish new from repeat business.
Soft Returns
A site’s value extends far beyond its hard returns; in many cases, the “soft benefits” are considered more valuable than direct leads and even orders. The difficulty is how to measure soft returns, and how much weight to give the measurements. Here are three of the most commonly sought soft returns:
1. Thought leadership. Many businesses want to be considered a leader in their niche, as it builds credibility and customer confidence — key components of business acquisition and retention. Thought leadership can be measured by the amount of time visitors spend on particular pages of the site, social media mentions of the firm, social media links to content on the firm’s site or (more frequently) blog, and similar activities. These metrics also apply to brand awareness.
2. Brand awareness. Thanks to search engines, prospects can discover your business at the exact time they are looking for your products and services. Brand awareness can be measured by traffic. Keep in mind that it is not the site itself but the marketing of the site, through search engine optimization, social media, etc., that drives visitors there.
3. Market expansion. Working online, a local business can cast a net regionally, nationally, or even globally: The opportunities for dynamic growth are tremendous. Tracking enables a firm to identify the source of its site leads and understand how activity is progressing in various geographies. In addition, site content can be created to support paid search campaigns and other online or offline geo-targeted marketing activities.
Leadership Insight: Before comitting resources to a site strategy, it’s vital to assess the importance of these hard and soft returns as a team, and gain internal agreement on their value. Otherwise, a firm will continually second guess the marketing plan and resist site development that may be critical to success.
Was your site built on the right platform? Is it functioning properly? Are you using the right hosting service? This section reviews the key technical factors that determine whether your site can carry the load or needs structural support before it crashes.
A firm’s marketing ambitions can exceed its technical capabilities, resulting in unexpected and expensive costs to upgrade a site’s back-end functionality. Three key areas to evaluate:
1. Search engine optimization (SEO). Antiquated platforms and improperly constructed sites may not be capable of supporting effective SEO campaigns. In some cases, before proceeding with SEO, a site must be completely rebuilt — a process that can take several months and a mid-five figure budget. It is essential to evaluate site capabilities before committing to an SEO program.
2. Hosting performance. Websites can outgrow a hosting firm as they attract more traffic and become more complex. If the hosting firm cannot handle the workload, the result is excessive downtime, slow page loading time, and difficulty and delays in making upgrades and site changes. These problems have a large impact on customer satisfaction, order placement, lead generation, and even SEO — in addition to driving up costs.
3. Integration and updates. A business site, especially one with a blog, is no longer a standalone marketing tool; rather, it must be integrated with things as diverse as Twitter and EDI systems and be capable of being updated for new content and testing at a moment’s notice. Generally, a CMS (content management system) works better in this regard than a proprietary platform or something homegrown.
Leadership Insight: Few things change faster than web technology. Meet with the IT and marketing teams quarterly or even more frequently to ensure that marketing programs and goals are moving forward in harmony with your business technology.
Does your site adhere to best practices for design? Does it arouse the curiosity of visitors? This section discusses the key design factors that determine whether your site is ready for a walk down the runway or one that makes visitors run away.
Poor site design makes it difficult for visitors to find what they need, creates a poor impression of your brand, drives visitors away, and can also negatively impact SEO. Best practices for web design are extensive and complex, but these issues are crucial:
Leadership Insight: Like technology, web design best practices change rapidly. If a site hasn’t been updated in a few years, it will look outdated. Don’t underestimate the impact of site design on branding and lead generation.
If visitors read the content on your site, will they be more likely to do business with you, or less? This section discusses the key content factors that determine whether your site builds connectivity or confusion with prospects and customers.
If a firm is serious about branding and lead generation, it will devote as much time and attention to site content as it does to design — possibly more. These are the key attributes of effective site content:
Leadership Insight: Producing content to the standards listed above requires a good deal of expertise that most firms don’t have at their fingertips. A careful assessment of writing resources should be undertaken before committing to any expansion of the company site or supporting marketing programs.
Do users have a positive experience when they visit your site? This section discusses the key usability factors, such as navigation and page loading time, that determine whether your site gets rave reviews from customers and prospects, or drives them away.
Some usability issues have already been touched on in our discussion of programming, design, and content. A productive site must create a positive user experience, and yet frequently, usability issues are addressed haphazardly or ignored. Key usability issues include:
Leadership Insight: Web usability is a marketing discipline unto itself. A firm may gain a strong competitive advantage by bringing a usability specialist into the mix for all site development and associated marketing activities.
Search engine optimization is usually of critical importance, since it’s what makes your products and services visible to people on Google and Bing when they need them. This section discusses the onsite SEO factors that determine whether your site earns strong positioning on Google or is lost in space.
Earlier, we discussed the importance of SEO-friendly site development. But what exactly are the requirements? Fortunately, this list is easy to define because Google tells firms how to earn high visibility. The onsite factors of greatest importance are:
One of the most important offsite SEO activities — arguably the most important SEO activity of all — is link acquisition. To learn more, read our recent Intelligence Briefing, “SEO for the CEO”.
Leadership Insight: Not to sound like a broken record, but SEO best practices are another marketing activity where change comes at lightening speed. SEO-savvy firms review strategy and tactics quarterly, if not monthly.
Does your site help customers and prospects take the next step in the business relationship? This is the key to extracting value from a site, and yet the one most firms fumble with. This section discusses the site conversion elements that determine whether your site can reel in leads or is dead in the water.
Saving the best for last, it’s time to consider the supreme importance of conversion optimization. Sites that stumble into a lead generation or e-commerce strategy frequently overlook it, making an otherwise well-constructed site a chronic underperformer. However, when a firm executes a strong conversion strategy, its site drastically outperforms competitors that don’t. Key elements of a winning conversion strategy:
Leadership Insight: If your company site relies primarily or exclusively on vague “contact us” conversion messages, it is almost certainly underperforming. Protect your investment by asking the marketing team to develop a detailed conversion strategy.
Next steps for improving your site.
If nothing else, this Intelligence Brief should make it clear that there is more to a standout company site than meets the eye. If you’re looking for help, here are a couple of people you can contact at Straight North:
For a high-level discussion of website strategy and development, contact David Duerr, Straight North CEO. For more technical questions from you or your team,contact Ian Stevenson, VP o fBusiness Development. Ian has worked on website projects and Internet marketing campaigns for more than 10 years.
A CEO’s Checklist for Company Website Performance
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