Your Website's New Year's Resolutions

In January we revise business plans and make New Year's Resolutions, so include your organization's Website in the process. Stick to the fundamentals and your return on investment can make even your CPA nod with approval.

One. If you don't have a Website, get one. You wouldn't dream of not having a listing in the yellow pages, so make sure you, at a minimum, your Website repeats that information, if only on a single page. Why? Millions of buyers - consumers and b-2-b - don't touch phone books anymore. Instead, they search the Net to get the listings they want.

Two. Review your meta tags. Meta Tags, comprised most essentially of key words and a "description," are imbedded in the code on Web pages, particularly the home page, and are used by search engines as a guide to whether your site should be listed in search results. Google "Tucson Medical Center," for example, Google's listing states, "Tucson Medical Center's health care services/treatment includes maternity, neurology, cardiac, orthopedics, urgent care, cancer, ER, mental health and ..." This statement is from the Meta Tag in the code, not from the wording in the body copy of the page itself. Chances are good that either your meta tags never were adequate to begin with or that your organization has changed enough in the past year to merit some adjustments.

Three. Evaluate your Website address(es). Because you can have several addresses all pointing to a single Website, consider whether you are using all the domain names that best serve you. Domain names can serve you in many ways. For example, Universal Avionics Systems Corporation uses the domain name www.universalavionics.com because that's the most logical, intuitive name anyone would try. The company also uses the domain name, www.uasc.com. This second domain fits better on business cards and letterhead and is probably easier to say over the phone.

While you're busy considering domain names, consider using one that's related to the to kind of business you are in. A veterinary medicine practice with a specialty in bird care might want to healthybirds.com or birdspecialists.com pointed to that section of its site.

Four. Burn your entire Website to CD, label it by date and store it. That way, you'll have both an archival copy and a back up.

Five. Make sure that your spyware and virus protection for all the PCs in your organization is up to date. Depending on your network, you may have one server protecting all your computers or you may need to have the appropriate protection on each individual computer. At a minimum, you need anitvirus protection and spyware protection. Make sure someone in your organization checks every PC to ensure that the most current anti virus software is automatically updated on that PC. And if you have people doing business work at home, make sure they're protected there, too. The Coke and Pepsi of this business are Norton and McAfee. Some computer consultations prefer one over the other. Some prefer one of the also-rans. What's vital is that you have both spyware and anitvirus software installed so that it keeps current. The Coke and Pepsi of Spyware are harder to identify. Microsoft has an entry in this category.

Six. Go to Google and do a reverse look up of sites that are linked to yours. Just read the directions under "Advanced Search." If you are Bob Edison, Executive Administrative Director of the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, you would be pleased to learn that there about 440 sites or pages linking to the museum's site. No wonder Google rates the Desert Museum site a 7 on a scale of 1 - 10. Do the same link lookup for a prominent Tucson veterinary practice and you'll find the site has two - w - sites linking to it, according to Google. Check to make sure that the Chamber of Commerce, professional association, or any business affiliation that is willing to link to your site does so. Linking strategies can become complex and involve all kinds of schemes to optimize your search engine results.

Seven. Analyze, department by department, how well your site serves your organization. Often times one department is served well because that department head is Web oriented while another department remains served not because there is no need, but because that department head has little or no interest in the Internet or has bought into one technology myth or another.

Customer services and sales are two areas that can often be improved online. For example, in health care, some physician practices and hospitals have begun to offer patients the opportunity to register online, before an appointment. Some patients like this practice because they can fill out forms in the privacy of their home, with all their records at their fingertips. Customer satisfaction surveys, information sheets, and more can all help improve your relationship with existing customers and help create new ones.

These seven ways to improve your organization's Website can really pay off. That's a fine resolution for the new year.

This article first appeared as a column written by Dave Tedlock, NetOutcomes' president, for Tucson Business Edge, a monthly magazine published by the daily newspaper, the Tucson Citizen.

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