Nearly every company has a Web site these days, just like every home has a lawn. Maybe your firm does manage to post some new information on your site now and then, just like you manage to mow the lawn once in a while. But when’s the last time you weeded, fertilized, and edged your lawn? And when’s the last time your Web site was tuned up?
You can see neglected lawns wherever you go. And it’s the same with Web sites — there are a lot of neglected ones out there, hard to use, with out-of-date information that’s being ignored by the search engines.
To serve this need, there are firms that do what’s called Web site optimization, the process of reducing Web site size and complexity to maximize Web site performance. Web site optimization can include search engine optimization, pay per click optimization, and other ways to get more traffic and sales as part of an overall site redesign process.
For many firms, having an optimized Web site is a matter of survival. “There’s still a belief that if you build a Web site, they will come, but that’s not the case,” said Jody Hartwig, vice president of e-business at Netconcepts, Madison [Wisconsin]. “Web sites need constant improvement, and if you don’t do it, your competitors will and your site will fall by the wayside.”
Hartwig says that many company Web sites don’t have a clear owner once they are past the “build” stage. “The site sort of sits there, and responsibility for updating it falls between departments,” she says. “And even when there is an internal owner, there often aren’t clear objectives for what is expected of the Web site.”
That’s where a company like Netconcepts comes in. “We start with a baseline evaluation,” says Hartwig, “and use analytical tools to see…