Feb

18

Truths About Websites for Brick & Mortar Businesses.

Filed Under General Advice | 2 Comments

Here’s two questions for you.

What are the three things that people are looking for when they’re visiting your brick and mortar operation’s website?

  1. Your Address. They want to know where you are so they can come there and give you money.
  2. Your Hours of Operation. They want to know when they can come to your business and give you money.
  3. Your Phone Number. They want to be able to call you and get answers that may allow them to give you money or make reservations to give you money.

If these are not immediately viewable above the fold on your front page, then you’re going to lose business.

What are people not looking for when they visit your brick and mortar operation’s website?

  1. Fancy splash screens. If they want to watch cartoons, there’s a whole network dedicated to them.
  2. Music, unless you are a music store. Are you selling music? No? Then there should be no music on your website. If you are selling music, then make it optional.
  3. PDFs. Restaurants, I’m talking to you and your menus. If you’re that worried about the formatting, offer it as an option, but there’s no reason I should have to fire up Adobe Reader to check to see if you’re offering clam chowder.
  4. A link going to your MySpace page instead of any actual content. That this happens in 2009 when there’s any number of high-quality, free content management systems is galling.

Should your site be well-designed?  Of course.  Should it reflect your business’s overall aesthetic?  Undoubtably. Should your site make people work to get to the three things they want?  No.




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2 Comments so far

  1. philip on February 18, 2009 11:18 am

    It’s rather sad that you even had to write this. It seems like it should all be in the “it goes without saying” category, but …

  2. Chris on September 25, 2009 9:00 am

    Kevin, this breakdown of the three basics brings clarity to an otherwise messy and confusing array of options.