Top 5 Mistakes made by Businesses using the Internet

1 Paying to advertise someone else's business

What is the bit that comes after the @ in your email address, known as a domain name? Is it your business name or a similar trade mark of your company?

If the answer is No, then you are advertising another business every time you give out your email address, or place an advertisement that includes your email address. Look through display ads in the Yellow Pages. Look at all those businesses that are providing free advertising to Bigpond or Optus or Hotmail or Gmail. In addition, they are missing out on great opportunities to reinforce their business name in the minds of potential customers.

To some potential customers, these businesses appear unprofessional.

If you ever become unhappy with the service offered by your Internet provider, it is difficult and disruptive to take your business elsewhere.

It is easy to register a web address or domain name based on your business name, and use it for all email. You do not need to lose the address you have now, and in most cases your existing email and the email to the new address can all go to the one place for you to access.

2 Using your business name in your web address, but not in your email address

Some businesses have a web site at an address that uses their business name, but their email address advertises another business such as Bigpond or Optus or Hotmail. This has the same drawbacks described in Mistake 1, but includes a couple of extra ones.

It is confusing for customers. One of the advantages of a web address that uses your business name is that it is easier for potential customers to remember how to reach you. Having your web site and email address as similar as possible helps people remember you, and find you in the future.

It is unprofessional. Some customers will wonder why you were organised enough to have a web site, but did not bother with a matching email address. Are you forgetful? Are you not good at completing a task?

In most cases it is easy to switch to using your existing web address or domain name for your email as well. You do not have to change or move your current web site, though of course you can if you want to. You do not need to lose the address you have now, and typically your existing email and the email to the new address can all go to the one place for you to access.

3 Using the wrong type of web address for your target market

In general, if most of your customers are based in Australia, then your web address should end with .au. If it does not then you will be much harder to find.

Most Internet search engines, such as Google, have an option for searches to be limited to Australian web sites. This is very useful for people who want to buy from an Australian company. But how will Google know you are in Australia if your web address does not end with the magical .au, which is reserved for use by Australia?

Conversely, if most of your customers are not based in Australia, you should consider web addresses that do not end with a country code. The most common in this category are the .com web addresses.

If you aim to serve both the Australian and world-wide markets, you should consider both .au and .com addresses.

However there are reasons why these general rules may not apply to your business. We can help you determine which strategy will be most effective for your business, and organise your email and web site to work with your optimum web address or addresses.

4 Not having a web site

In these days of Internet ubiquity, more and more people are making their purchase decisions after researching their options on the Internet. If you do not have a web presence, many potential customers will never know you exist.

For some businesses, an effective web site might consist of a single page explaining what they do and how they can be contacted.

More commonly an effective web site will have several pages which attempt to engage the prospective customer, and explain to them why your business will be the best choice for them. This may include comments from previous customers, examples of projects you have completed, or information on what makes your product or service better than the others on the market.

A web site might also provide after-sales advice and support. Not only does this reduce the time you need to put into these activities, but it helps potential customers feel that they will be treated properly should they have any problems after parting with their money.

5 Having a web site that potential customers can't easily find using Google, Yahoo, Live and other search engines

There is more to having an effective web site than making sure it looks good, has the right content, and is easy for visitors to use and navigate. It must also be easily found, or you won't maximise your volume of visitors.

It is surprisingly easy to have a great looking web site that search engines can't "see" at all. Perhaps you have happened across a web site in the results of a Google search, where the summary includes "You need Flash Player to view this site". That is just one example of a site that search engines can't "see", and hence won't include in the search results when appropriate. That site is missing out on lots of visitors.

A site with too many pictures and not enough words will also be a problem. As will a site with the wrong words.

And then there are the gimmicky "search engine optimisation" techniques used by some site designers to improve search engine listings, that are actually in violation of Google's conditions. Steer clear of these on your web site. They will temporarily give your web site increased visibility, but eventually result in your site being banned from the search engine. An example of this was in the news a while ago, where a business had used these techniques to unfairly increase their Google visibility and were taking in over US$100,000 per week. Google banned them from the Google listings, and the income disappeared overnight. If they had designed their web site within Google's guidelines, their weekly income might have been slightly lower, but it would have continued for many more months, if not years.

What to do?

If you are concerned that your business may be making these or other mistakes, and therefore not getting the most out of the Internet, we can help. Our Internet Marketing Capability Assessment Service can expose any problems, and offer solutions.