Re-evaluating Your Web Presence:
by Steven Brightbill, Assistant Editor
Ten New Year’s Resolutions
for Neglected Agency Web Sites
I looked at nearly 500 agency Web sites last month, and, boy, was I disappointed.
Most showed signs of significant neglect. If these 500 or so sites are any
indication of a general trend, it appears that most agencies view their Web
presence as a “once-and-done” project and expect things to run on autopilot.
That’s unfortunate, because a Web site can and ought to be a well-crafted
marketing communications tool. Instead, many agencies, it appears, have been
frittering away their Web presence and losing credibility without realizing
it.
If you know or suspect that your Web effort has not received the attention
it deserves, here are 10 things you can do in the year ahead that will help
get things back on track.
- Get rid of the junk. It amazes me that so many agency Web sites still
use visitor counters, animated gifs, and “last update” notices. These elements
were popular when Web sites were a novelty, but they are now so outdated
that it’s a dead give-away that you’re out of touch with Web site reality.
- Get rid of bad links and dead ends. Every time a visitor sees a 404 error
message, that means someone hasn’t been paying attention to site functionality.
Look at your own site frequently — daily or weekly wouldn’t hurt. As soon
as you spot a 404 error message, get on the phone, tell the person who maintains
your site, and get it fixed immediately.
- Get rid of “under construction” signs. There’s no need to advertise that
your site isn’t complete. Besides, your Web site should always be under
construction in one way or another. An “under construction” message, especially
that little icon of a worker using a shovel (hmm?), is just as annoying
as those 404 error notices.
- Add site-tracking software. It’s obvious to me that most agencies aren’t
monitoring site traffic. If they were, they wouldn’t be clinging to the
outmoded concepts their Web sites exhibit.
- Update content and graphics. Your Web site is a work in progress. To test
some of my suspicions, I look at the same group of sites on a regular basis
and have noticed that nothing has changed. Also, too many Web sites maintain
news items of questionable value that are more than a year old.
- Consider a site make-over. If you’ve done little or nothing to your site
since it was first built, and it’s now over two-years old, your site has
been sorely neglected and is a candidate for a make-over. If nothing else,
Web site styles and trends have changed, and your site may appear antiquated.
- Drop your online newsletter, if you can’t keep it up to date. An outdated
newsletter is an obvious sign of neglect. Most newsletter efforts run out
of steam after the first two or three issues. Besides, visitors, if they
visit your site at all, must come to your site to read it. There are better
and more proactive newsletter strategies.
- Consider a Web site evaluation. No apologies for promoting our agency
Web site evaluation service. It doesn’t take any special insight or genius
to observe that many agency sites need one.
- Drop links to services that indicate you have another, but non-related,
business. Believe it or not, some agency Web sites appear to be back doors
to other business activities that are not remotely related to insurance.
Kind of makes them look like insurance hobbyists, eh?
- Add at least one out-facing service. It’s time for most agents to take
their sites to the next level. Your site can actually do something for your
customers other than being an online brochure.
© Copyright 2002 by Sound Internet Strategy. All rights
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