Is Your Site Truly Ready For Business?

There are only ten opportunities for you to get on the front page of a search engine and millions of sites that want to be on that page. The funny thing is everyone who owns a site feels entitled to that number one spot. Is your website ready for business? Being proud of what you have to offer is one thing but inviting people to a website that doesn't deliver on its mission is a waste of time and frankly a waste of web space.

Unfortunately, about 80 percent of websites are cluttering the web. They can not compete at the level their competition does, they perform at a minimum level, and their servicing is nothing to brag about. Bottom line they fail to meet their customer's expectations and are not ready for business. One would think that with all the tools and information available on the web today, it would be easy for anyone to set up a dot-com business and find the financial success that the big players benefit from.

However, most web marketers do not use the tools available to them and those that do never learn how to use them to their full advantage. As for the flood of information, most marketers suffer from information overload and they tend to load up on irrelevant, incoherent, information, written by armatures like themselves who are just trying to turn a quick buck. What exactly are the options available for someone who wants to turn their website into something worthy and ready for business?

For fear of sounding like broken record--learn the web. This advice has been repeated a dozen times but it's one of the best pieces of advice out there. And I don't mean running out and a buying a dozen ebooks, written by self proclaimed gurus who have no clue what their talking about, but investing in your education by associating yourself with people who have been there, done that, and won.

More importantly, get to know your competition. Most people have no trouble buying an expensive ebook, reading it, and fumbling around with the techniques but very few stop to consider their business. What does it offer the public? What are others in your sector doing, and how can you turn it up a notch?

No ebook can tell you what the customers in your market group are looking for, that is something you're going to have to find out for yourself and companies that do perform a level that exceeds their customer's expectations.

Each time a visitor visits your site they are comparing you to a site they have previously visited (whether or not it relates to yours) as well as offline businesses that offer the same products and services. If your transaction process is confusing, you have lost their business. If you take too long respond to their email questions and calls, you've lost their business.

If your site takes too long to load, you've lost their business. And if your information and FAQ's raises more questions then answers, you've lost their business. Most business that can not meet a customer's expectation on at least one of those things will never see the front page or the rewards brought on by it.

Cheaply thrown together sites no longer function online. You must be able to provide your customer's with easy to read, easy to access, relevant content. They must be able to navigate your site with optimal ease. Your site must meet all customer service expectation required online-that is secured transactions, answering questions in a timely manner, and offering web features that is expected for a site in your niche (this differs from industry to industry).

If your site is not doing any of the above its not ready for business. Meaning you have a lot of work ahead of you if you want to fill one of ten spots offered by search engines and have your website ready for business.

Remember, making the front page is not a birth right. It's something that you have to work hard for by becoming a student of the web to learn how to serve your prospective customers.

Jeff Casmer is an internet marketing consultant and work at home business owner. For more information on website linking strategies please visit his "Top Ranked" Website Linking Strategies Directory gives you all the information you need to Work at Home in the 21st century.