Would you just sit by your business phone and let it ring until it stops? No, of course you wouldnt. Why wouldnt you? Because you would potentially be losing important business and income. How much would just one missed call potentially cost your business in lost income, including repeat business? Hundreds? Thousands? More? Now, consider your website in the same way. If your website isnt answering your potential customers needs and encouraging them to buy from you, you can be losing just as much business and income, or even more.

Look around the Internet and you'll see that most businesses have websites. However, the shocking truth is that many businesses still just arent taking the Internet and specifically their websites seriously. They just arent selling themselves well online. They still 'dont get it'. They have little concept of what they need to do to communicate and interact well with their market online and generate high sales online. They are blind to the sheer amount of business they are losing every single day. Everyday they lose increasingly more business as online customer numbers, acceptance and purchases increase. They just dont get it.

How can you tell they arent taking it seriously? Just look at their websites. You'll see the following common warning signs: poor content/no clear focus/no real reason to stay at site disorganisation/neglect/incomplete difficult to use/understand poor layout/structure poor design/colour/style spelling mistakes and other errors difficult to contact/interact with organisation They might as well just put a big sign on the homepage - "Closed. We dont care about you. Call us instead".

At its very least, a website presents you as a company for all to see. It provides a snapshot of who you are, what you do, how you do it, etc. It says a lot about you to your potential customers. This snapshot impression will be used in exactly the same way as it would if someone were to meet you or your company in the physical world. It will be used to make decisions about you. Do not underestimate this, its very important. You must present your company very well right from the beginning to even get close to making a sale later on.

These potential customers will be referred to your website by friends and colleagues, other websites, search engines, directories, satisfied customers, etc. When they arrive at your site they want to see that you have put enough effort into your site. That youve made it easy for them to use, easy for them to understand, easy for them to find out more about you and your products and services. If they were not interested already then they wouldnt have clicked onto your site to find out more in the first place. When they see amateurish looking pages, text that isnt well written and easy to read, ads and popups all over the place, lack of continuity, frequent spelling mistakes, broken links, outdated content, a placeholder/under construction page, a lack of information, etc. They DO notice. They WILL get a bad impression of you. Do you want to present a negative image of your company? Do you want your site to be hard work? Do you want your customers to search for what they want? Do you want to scare your customers off? Do you want more sales? Then you will have to take action!

These common warning signs, if present, are clearly visible to your potential customers as they view your website. Contrary to popular belief, customers arent stupid. Quite the opposite, they are intelligent and can 'read between the lines' easily. They can see whether you are professional or not by just spotting those signs on your site. They probably dont know you when they first arrive at your site. They want to decide whether you are professional, reputable and trustworthy by looking at your site and judging for themselves. They want to see that you have presented the right information for them, that you havent left your site half finished or left stupid mistakes unrectified. They will reason with themselves that if you cant even get a simple thing right, how on earth are you going to get their transaction done correctly and securely? And how will you look after them well? If you dont make the grade they will go elsewhere. Its as simple as that for them. They can afford to just click their mouse and go somewhere else. Can you? All it takes is just one warning sign and they are off. Its up to you to make sure that sign isnt there planting negative thoughts in their minds.

You need to make sure the opposite is true. That you show your company at its absolute best. That you clearly show you have considered them and their needs very carefully. That you have pulled out all the stops to make sure they have a beneficial and vastly superior visitor experience. That you visibly provide compelling reasons why they should deal with you and no-one else. That you are trying your best to help them fix their particular problem. That you show them that you truly understand them and their problem and are willing to go to any lengths to help them fix it.

Your potential customers will sit up and take notice. They will want to deal with you. Are you failing to sell your company to your potential customers? Take action now and make your website really work for your company and your customers. Dont stop until you get just that.

Good luck!

Peter Simmons is editor of the DYNAMIQ EZINE. GET MAXIMUM RESULTS FROM YOUR WEBSITE! START GETTING RESULTS RIGHT NOW at http://www.dynamiq.co.uk/ezine or email me anytime for immediate assistance at mailto:peter@dynamiq.co.uk