Trust the Website

What to look for…

In the midst of a super competitive marketplace in nearly every niche online and offline, how do you vet and decide who to work with. In all of my years choosing vendors and industries, and doing sales and customer service in nearly every industry on the planet, I have learned a few things. I have learned more than anything to TRUST THE WEBSITE.

• Well organized design – Not a flashy design or a sexy or frilly interface but a well organized, well constructed interface that is easy to navigate and find more information.
• Well written content – This lots of content, but well written and compelling content that causes you to think more about your decision making process.
• Physical Infrastructure – A list of physical locations, multiple phone numbers, multiple offices, etc. These are signs of physical infrastructure and stability and equal lower risk sometimes for the customer.
• Community/Industry Involvement – Look for memberships to associations and industry specific organizations inducing Chambers of Commerce and BBB.
• Consistent Color Scheme – Sounds dumb right? However, a consistent color scheme has a dramatic effect on the appeal of a website and the presence of a consistent color scheme is a sign that the company understands their brand. If they understand their brand, the chances of their inside reality of being pretty good are much higher.
• Web Pages – More than just a few pages – We would like to see more pages than the bare minimum. If it seems that they skimped on this portion, please keep moving. Very few web pages is a sign of a tight budget, a weak infrastructure and a sub-par marketing team.
• A Blog – THe presence of a blog is a great sign. This means that the company views themselves as a potential thought leader. Look for the blog, look for how many posts they make each week or month. Look for blog authors and bios. This piece is a major sign that the industry knowledge is getting led or at least kept up on but this company.
• Social Media Activity – This is a great sign because it likely means that they have a following on social media and that they feel it important to keep in touch with customers.
• Search Rankings – This is a great sign that they ARE an industry leader. Google is the ultimate filter for industry leaders. Not presence in paid advertising section, but in the organic listings.

My Disclaimer

These tips are not a sure fire way to never miss a vetting decision, but they are simply guidelines for mitigating risk and increasing your chance of success while quickly vetting without wasting too much time.

The Signs

Now, to be clear, we aren’t asking if the list we just gave is true of the company you are vetting. We are asking if those items are apparent on the company’s website. If these SIGNS are not on their website, you should think twice about doing business with them. The website is the great equalizer and the great vetter of our generation.

Nearly EVERY time I have found a company that had a terrible website, had a sub-par inside reality. Obviously, this is not always true, but it is a fantastic place to start.

Nearly every time I chose to do business with a company that did not have a great website, turned out to be a bad decision.

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