Your business Web site must be actively managed

Editor’s note: Michelle Stockman works with Little Rock-based Arkansas Capital Corp. to promote entrepreneurship development around the state. Stockman earned a bachelor’s degree from Loyola University-Chicago in communications and fine arts, and earned a master’s in entrepreneurship from Western Carolina University. Her thoughts on business success appear each week on The City Wire.

Is your business feeling a little lost trying to engage and be successful in the online world? Do you wonder why your business even needs a Web site let alone much of anything else? Do you think the internet is something for someone else to understand?

If you are a business owner that feels the internet is over rated, think again. Beside the fact that your competition is winning your customers online, there is a generational change occurring within the country. Generation X and younger generations are driving their dollars through internet channels. From finding your business location by using the Internet to making decisions on where to eat or what movie to watch, customers are finding the information online.

However, getting online is the first step. Many business owners who do not rely on their Web site to foster business, tend to throw a Web site up and move on with business. In reality, the whole process should be taken more seriously. From how the Web site looks to how easy it is to read, the customer experience is critical. Like the customer experience, your Web site also needs to be search engine friendly.

Once the Web site is constructed, there is more to keep it relevant than simply loading it to the hosting server. With the advent of search engines came the practice of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO is the art of improving the volume (or quality) of traffic to your Web site from one of the many search engines. Search engines are not like the Yellow Pages where your business is listed alphabetically.

Search engines rank your Web site based on a number of different factors. Knowing a single search can conclude with thousands of links, being ranked in the top 10 (or within the first page of results) will yield the highest number of “hits” to your Web site. From content, pictures, date data was created and more, search engines scan your Web site for data that is plugged into an algorithm and ranked based on the various factors the “web crawlers” find.

For business owners who are not starting a Web site service, there is help in navigating the Internet tidal wave. Like finding the right accountant, business owners need to find a knowledgeable web designer who is strong in their SEO skills.

Kirkham Systems is one local business that specializes in SEO. They note that Web sites are not just a task of making sure the content can be read by search engines, rather it is equally important to continue to add new content to your Web site so that the search engines find relevance in ranking your site at the top of their lists.

The Internet is not the enemy, rather an opportunity that needs to be treated with the same interest as unlocking the businesses’ door each day.

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Stockman can be reached at [email protected]