Every Page of Your Website is Your Face

Every Page of Your Website is Your Face

by Rusty Bishop

I previously wrote about how your website is like your face. It was a good article, but the statement was a little naive.

Now that we’ve reviewed over 30 websites with our QuickCheck Service, I’d like to modify that statement to more accurately reflect reality.

Every page of your website is your face

That’s right every page.

Think about the time you went to highly regarded restaurant with beautiful architecture, modern signs, and great food only to see tablecloths with food stains and frayed cloth napkins.  What did you remember?

The food stained cloth!

Why? Because it showed the restaurant didn’t care enough to clean the tablecloths or buy fresh ones. People notice when things are a bit out of place or don’t fit the picture. Its an intuitive response.

When you told your friends about the restaraunt, I bet you said, ” The food was great, but the tablecloths were dirty.”

Every page of your website speaks about how much your company cares in the same way.

In the modern web of Google, Bing, and Yahoo search, any page of your site can be directly landed on from the outside by a visitor looking for something they typed into the search bar. You need to be ready. From About Us, to Products, to Company Calendars, to Company News – the pages need to say,  ”Our service/product is the best and we love our customers. We want customers to love doing business with our company.”

Life science companies selling to scientists are a business-to-business dynamic. As such, the expectations are even higher for your products and website. A product purchase is an investment that has a direct impact on the success of a scientist’s research. Buying the wrong one from the wrong company can costs months of scientist’s life.

The reality is that most companies spend thousands of dollars on graphic design for their homepage, then neglect to update their calendar or their blog.  In fact, I’ve now seen 2 companies that haven’t updated their calendar of events since 2008! Its the dirty table cloth issue!

Scientists are just like everyone else.

We suffer the same biases as all humans.  Just like the dirty table cloth, no amount of product “data” makes up for the fact your site search engine doesn’t work properly and visitors can’t find your products easily.

We don’t remember your great graphics, your carefully crafted content, your sales offers.  Nope just that we couldn’t find your products on your website.  Case closed, Im moving on to a competitor’s site and products.

What you can do about it

Its time to take action. If your company’s website is getting complaints, take action yourself today.

Try one of these today:
1. Update your site with the right information. Whether it’s the latest trade show information, press releases or new product manuals, update them.

2. Solicit feedback from your customers about your site. Send them to your boss or post them by the water cooler late at night if you need to be anonymous.
 If your company won’t read them, send them to me and I will post them here anonymously for you. The internet gets the word out faster than you can imagine.

3. Get ideas – what consumer sites and business sites do you like? Pinpoint why you like them. Easy, fun, colorful, find-ability, clever, creative?
Take action and become indispensable! Your job depends on it.

Rusty Bishop

Rusty’s expertise rests in his ability to apply his Scientific Experience to the Marketing and Sales Funnel. Something we call the Red Funnel. He has developed a deep understanding of the web and the toolset needed to analyze websites as well as sales and marketing tactics both online and in the field.

Website - More Posts