We all know that web sites have become standard marketing procedure for most businesses today. Whether they are used to sell products, educate potential customers, distribute products or services, or communicate with customers, web sites have really become necessary for businesses.

So if you have created a web site for your business, make sure you are using it to your fullest advantage. Here are three ways to avoid some common mistakes that many web sites make:

1. Pay Attention to Design, Content, and Capture.

Make sure your site design, site content, and information capture mechanisms are up and working on your site. For example, a poorly designed site can be confusing to customers and reflect badly on your company. If your site looks unprofessional, customers will assume your company is also unprofessional.

Content is probably the most important element in building traffic to your web site. Make sure your site is updated often and information is “fresh”, or the search engines will stop visiting your site, as will your customers.

Make sure you have a registration process in place so you can capture visitor information. Make it optional, of course, but offer visitors a way to communicate with you, sign up for your online newsletter, get on your mailing list, etc.

2. Optimize Your Site!

Optimizing your web site is a necessity today, since so much shopping and purchasing is now done online. If your site can’t be found, then that’s a problem. Staying on top of the all the changes to search engine methods and techniques can be a huge job. Educate yourself on what it takes to keep your site optimized, or hire a professional to optimize it for you.

3. Watch Your Stats

Do you know how your visitors interact with your site? Which pages are popular and which are not? How long do they stay on your site? How many unique visitors are coming through each month? All of these statistics (and many more) should be freely available from your web hosting company. Make sure you check your stats on a regular basis so you can make adjustments based on what is working or what is not.

By paying attention to these three "biggies", you can make sure your web site is working for you and bringing new traffic and visitors on a regular basis.

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Lauren Hobson is editor of Biz Talk, a free, subscription-based resource sent to our clients, friends, and associates interested in tips and techniques for helping small businesses make the most of their web sites and marketing efforts without spending a lot of money. Biz Talk is a publication of Five Sparrows, LLC, specializing in web sites and marketing for small business.

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