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Business Web Site Management: Top Five Mistakes 

Business web site management will have to become a top priority in order for you to become a success on the Internet as well as in any other business venture. A business web site is never a "build it and they will come" proposition.  It involves a constant assessment of your customer’s needs and providing the needed information or services in a clear and articulate as well as a noticeably professional manner. The following top five mistakes in managing a business web site have been identified by Rob Liflander, in his The Everything Online Business Book: 

1. Not understanding why you have built a business web site.

If you have no idea why you built your business web site, you will obviously be unable to manage it successfully.  You need to know and identify your specific goals, what you want your web site to achieve, and review these objectives often. 

2. Designing your business web site for yourself and not for your customers.

Your customers do not come to your business web site to visit you and your company.  Sure, they want information about you and that can be on your About Us page.  Your business web site is all about providing products or service information that your customers are interested in purchasing. Put your focus on your products and services and save your self-promotion for pages where it is expected. 

3. Forgetting to budget for the maintenance of your business web site.

It cost both time and money to maintain and continue to develop a business web site.  The cost varies obviously in accordance with the technology involved and the need for updates.  Some have suggested that it can cost as much as half of your original investment per year to keep the content fresh, and change your products and keep up with market trends.  If your business web site offers personalization that depends on daily updates, it can cost even more.  Make sure you budget for redesigns, updates and for increasing traffic in the upcoming months. 

4. Too much outsourcing.

One of the keys to good business web site design is consistency.  When things look and function the same, your customers will get a comfortable feeling from your web site.  When you give every new project to a different company your site will never have a consistent feel.  If you use a website development firm, pick it wisely. You want to be able to give them all of your projects and have confidence that they will handle them well. 

5. Treating your business web site as you would other marketing efforts.

Your business web site is very different from all of your other marketing efforts.  It is not like other print media or even television.  You cannot get good business web site content out of recycling other information.  Content to be used for your internet site should be developed specifically for your business web site. 

Additional information and web page by Paul Susic MA Licensed Psychologist  Ph.D Candidate