RSS feedsDoes your firm have a corporate website? If so, what is the reason for having one? Does it enhance your firm’s reputation? Does it reflect your firm’s personality and how your visitors perceive your organisation? Does it win you additional business? You would be surprised by the number of people directly responsible for their firm’s corporate website who cannot answer these fundamental questions.
To get the most out of your website you need to think of it as your hardest-working employee, rather than merely a bit of modern-day technology. After all, who else is going to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year?
And just like human staff members, if you don’t set up targets and objectives for your website, and measure its progress regularly, it may soon lose direction and focus and become unproductive. You also know that to retain your best staff you need to reward them financially. Similarly, you need the right level of investment to get your website up and running, and then keep it fresh with regular updates.
Without the correct level of business support, your website may flounder. One of the main conclusions drawn from our recent research report – Intendance’s Fast Fifty Solicitors’ Websites 2006: Who is Winning and Why? – showed that top-performing websites invariably have a ‘champion’ at senior level. It’s absolutely vital to find a senior person within your organisation who believes passionately in the benefits a good website can offer and who is prepared to take on overall responsibility for its development, ongoing management and visibility within your firm.
Looking at a random selection of medium-sized accountancy firms’ websites, it is clear that while many are keeping up with the times, others are not. Even without the experience of Intendance Research it is easy to spot some of the strengths and weaknesses manifested online: listing sector expertise, for example, demonstrates a client-centric attitude that will help differentiate the firm, but the dreaded Flash intro sequence immediately dates a website and creates an unnecessary obstacle to the visitor.
To ensure your website is effective, you need feedback on how it’s being used. There are some excellent website usage tracking tools on the market that are relatively inexpensive and easy to use, such as www.3dstats.com. Tracking tools can help you compile some useful statistics on the numbers of people visiting your site, where the hits come from and which areas of your site are attracting more visitors. Simple amendments can be effective. For example, check the top 10 most viewed pages and make sure they are giving the right message about your firm.
You might also want to ensure your homepage is as welcoming as possible to all types of visitor, and that it can be navigated quite easily. After all, if you had a thousand people knocking on your door every month you’d make sure your reception area was as smart and comfortable as possible.
Just like your employees, you also need to ensure your website is working towards your firm’s objectives. A good website should be easy to navigate and click through, simple in design and contain useful, relevant information. This may sound obvious, but organisations often overlook even the basic rules when building a site.
As well as looking after your own website, you need to check what your competitors are up to on a regular basis. Always try to be objective when evaluating competitor sites and work out how you can improve yours.
Websites really do work, which is why forward-thinking firms know how to get the most from them – in the same way that they know how to get the most out of their best employees. A website is not just a piece of technology; it is the public face of your organisation, your firm’s personality and your people.
James Tuke is head of Intendance Research
