I spend quite a lot of my day on the web – surfing for information about event management, looking at event suppliers, venues, other event companies or event freelancers. Its amazing how many websites I come across put me off, rather than make me want, to work with someone. Here are a few things that put me off:
1) No address – if you don’t put your physical address on your website how do I know that you are for real? You could be a scamster, working in Nigeria or just trying to rip me off… You want me to trust you with my business/ email address/ contact info then put yours on your website
2) No real phone number – as above, if you don’t put a phone number on your website, why should I trust you?
3) Mobile number as main point of contact – sorry, unless you are a freelancer, if you put a mobile number on your site then I just think of you as being a small organisation. As I say for consultants and freelancers this is fine, but if you want me to consider you as a serious player, get a landline number (even if you then divert it to your mobile!)
4) Out of date information – if your last news story on your website was before this time last year, you need to update your site because either, you aren’t doing enough stuff to be credible or you are so busy you haven’t updated your site – either way, this makes me question whether we should be working together.
5) Poorly written copy – as someone who needs to work with people who have a great attention to detail, errors on your website (often your main marketing material) really aren’t acceptable.
6) Tired or out of date looking – I guess this one is more subjective, but I can usually tell by looking at a website if its not been updated for a long time – often just by the way it looks. If you want your visitors to think of your organisation as forward thinking then make sure your website reflects this.
7) If you are taking payment from me, please make sure its on a secure server – it should start https – if you want my credit card details, you could at least look after them!
Just my thoughts – what do you think?