Don't Be Lazy with Your Website!

It is almost a daily routine to get phone calls from people that are upset because they don't have enough web traffic on their website. They wine a bit and then I start yelling a them for being lazy with their website.

After looking at their site the result is almost always the same, they 5 or 10 pages with maybe 2 paragraphs each or 10 products with pictures and less that a few words in the description.

When I tell people they need at least 200 words in a product description to insure the search engines index the pages, they tell me that there is not that much to say about the product.

I am thinking that any product that can't be described with at least a couple of paragraphs of information is not worth buying, right? And if the person selling the product does no know anything about the product why would I want to buy from them?

Think of your page as the salesman. The page says "Buy this product!". You ask, "what can you tell me about it?". The sales page says, "Nothing, just buy now!". You say, "I will just lick on another page that can tell me more about it".

Would you buy a car from a sales person that tells you it is great but can't even figure out how to start it? Would you buy eggs from a farmer that does not know how old they are? Would you buy a house from 1 picture and a caption that says, "Nice House"? Probably not.

So don't expect anyone to buy a product from you with the same approach.

It is the information age, that means there is a load of information at your finger tips, People look up products on their smart phones as they shop to make sure they are getting a good deal. Ad people online, will most certainly do the same, leaving your website as quickly as they stumbled upon it.

Besides the obvious fact that they have no ability to sell, they have no ability to be found.

Without lengthy descriptions people will never find you.

Lets look at a person renting a cabin, they build a website upload 10 pictures the size of a postage stamp, add in 3 words for each picture and a button to email us for a reservation.

Without information about the area, activities, testimonials, a serious image gallery and extensive descriptions about the condition of the property, the services and costs, anyone looking to rent in that area will just keep looking for something better.

I understand that someone renting their summer cabin is not always an experienced business owner with years of advertising experience, but they are experiences at being a consumer and should understand what they want to see which is likely the same as what others want to see, After all, if the property owner does not have anything to say about the property, how can you feel good about it?

I do understand that it takes an effort to build a page, look up information and set up a website. But if you expect someone to rent your house for $1000.00 they expect more than a snapshot from your iphone.

You will never impress anyone with a 5 page website. Hell, I can write 5 pages about how to pour a cup of coffee, so you should be able to write 5 sentences about your products.

I don't know if I am more stupefied when I see someone renting vacation property with 2 small pictures and no information or just witnessing the ultimate in laziness.

Anyone that thinks they can build a 5 page website and get anything from it is severely mistaken.

In today's "INFORMATION AGE" you need to give people information. The search engines look for it, the customer looks for it. If you have it, you can compete, if you don't, they you will forever be calling us and complaining the website does not work.

What I can tell you is that websites do work. The Internet is overwhelming proof of that.

What does not work is being lazy and thinking 10 minutes of work will return unlimited riches. And i promise if you call pageBuzz support and show us one of these site we will tell you like it is, get off your lazy ass and add some content to your website.

Sometimes I have to point people to our sample sites. I will some them a site that has 10 times the content of their website and it is not even a real website. Something we spent a few hours on as a sample is better than their entire business website, that is very sad.

I tell people, look at us as an example. We have hundreds of pages of information about our website, hundreds of help pages, videos that explain how things work, a working demo and hundreds of articles about website hosting in general. Why would we do all that if we could just have 5 pages with a home page, contact us and signup page?

I ask, if they would have hosted with pageBuzz if we had a 5 page website and I don't have to wait for an answer.

So even if you are not an experienced sales person or have years of marketing experience, you do understand what a consumer wants, because you are one. In that case, there is really no excuse for not building an informative and useful website.

Sometimes I am on the phone with people for hours and they tell me something huge, like they make the product themselves at home. Stunned I ask, "why don't you have that on the website?"

Typically, I get responses like, "Oh I planned on it, but have not had the time", or "I have videos and pictures but I am not sure what page I want them on". Come on people, get with the program, just do it!

I can go to you tube and watch a video on how to tie my shoes, build a house or even install electrical wiring in my home made by a 12 year old. But on your website, you don't even have a page showing how you build or use your product.

Look, in closing. If this article has more text that your entire website you are in trouble before you start. If your website does not accurately reflect your product and entice people to buy, just close it now and save us the support calls.

Building the website is the easy part, the marketing is the difficult part. If you are too lazy to get the easy part done, don't expect the rest to just fall in place.

Any business requires effort and a website just like any business will work as hard as you do on it. If you build a 5 page website and wait for the dollars to rain down, you will be waiting forever.