Here's What Happens to Neglected Websites
August 1st, 2008 • Posted by Andrea Feucht • Permalink
Haven't taken a peek at your website in a couple of months? (or, *gasp*, more than that?) Here's what happens:
- Your website is not delivering value to you. It is functioning as a doormat, something walked over when a customer is trying to get to your front door.
Go ahead — go look at it right now. I'll wait…
Ok, done looking at your site? What did you see? Perhaps some contact info, some general words about what you do, some photos from last year? If you just look at it with no assumptions, do you think to yourself, "this website speaks to me like it is fresh and hot in the middle of summer in 2008″?
No? Let's solve that, and work on turning your doormat into a snazzy full-service valet.
There are a few easy ways you can get back on track and liven up your customer's experience:
- Monthly specials — doesn't matter if there's a holiday or not — just make one up. August? Perfect for back to school mom de-stressing packages. "Congrats! You've survived another summer with your kids — treat yourself!"
- Newsletters with photos of your spa and your employees — keep your customers familiar with what "you" look like, and they'll feel a more personal connection.
If they are excited about your voice on the website, they will keep coming back to see what you are up to each month, and every visit back is another opportunity to connect with them as a client.
• Trackback • Posted in Creating Customers, Spa Website Design
We are always updating our website with new information and images. We just added the ability to view videos. We find that this really encourages visitors to stay and shop online. We send out monthly newsletter with monthly specials and information on new services. As we have grown so has our mailing list and at least 1300 guests get this newsletter.
I would like to add a functionality for newsletters to go out and I would like to upload a few videos that we have done. How do I do this? I have the SpaBoom website. Is this possible? I think it would serve as a great tool.
Craig, the home page of your site is Flash. Quite a big no-no. If I search for you (flagstaff arizona salon) on Yahoo!, you are not on the first page, you are halfway down the second page. But, you are listed as one of the three salons featured on Yahoo!'s map.
Your salon is on the first page of Google though, in at listing number four.
You should try to improve your Yahoo! listing.
Hmmm, why the big excitement about Yahoo!? When I look through the statistics that I get from SpaBoom a large portion of my hits and redirects are from Google sources, say like 90%. Some people are accessing the site by typing my domain name directly and a small tiny portion of the hits are from Yahoo! — maybe 1%. Why bother with them? Aren't they on the way out? I notice that sometimes my information shows up on Yahoo! through normal channels so I don't have an ad campaign with Yahoo!. Am I missing something? All this talk about MSN buying Yahoo! is interesting — but I don't know what to do about it. I was sitting on the sidelines waiting for it to sort out.