My boss found a nifty little software program on line the other day that had to do with search engine optimization. In fact, it looked so nifty that he wanted to buy it provided he got an answer to one, nagging little question that was bothering him. And he wanted an answer --- NOW. That's when the fun began.
First stop was the web site to hunt down the contact info. I don't remember what the site was ranked, but let's say it had a PageRank of 5 – certainly respectable, right? A nice respectable PageRank, a seemingly good product, finding the contact info should be a no brainer, right? Wrong.
I spent over an hour trying to locate the telephone number of that company on its web site. I scoured the web site, to no avail. A colleague thought he heard that the company resided in Canada, so I got on the phone with a Canadian information operator, and she had no listing of the business, at least under its website name. I tried a few other avenues, not the least of which were more Google searches using just about every word on the company's web site, as well as the name of the self-espoused software's guru. All of these efforts came up blank, so guess what? We said, we're not going to touch that product with a ten-foot pole, because if we can't find them to ask a simple question, what happens when we have a product problem?
We also wondered if this wasn't an instance of vaporware, a suspicious operation trying not to be found for reasons we could only imagine were unethical and perhaps even illegal. We couldn't wait to flush this company and its products down the proverbial toilet, never to be seen or dealt with again.
But, you say, how do you know this company is unethical, or into illegal stuff? Isn't that rather extreme? Yes, it IS extreme, but that's just the point. There are over 8 billion pages indexed on the web by Google alone. As a potential customer, why should I waste my time tracking down contact information for a product about which I have questions anyway?
The average time you have to capture a visitor to your web site is 7 seconds. My over-an-hour far exceeded that time frame, and I only remained engaged "because the boss said so!" We are among that type of potential customer who wants our answers NOW, and when we couldn't get them, and couldn't even figure out HOW to get them, that left a rather sour taste in our mouths about this company and its perceived methods of doing business.
There's a point to be had here for those of us in SEO, and of course, the irony that this was an SEO company couldn't be more tantalizing in a literary sense. No matter how superbly optimized your web site might be, what good is it if you make it difficult for people to contact or find you? And, as shown in our little story here, think of the potential damage it could cause your business and reputation.
So what can you do to avoid becoming the cyber ghost in your business category?
1. Show them brick and mortar: People want to know they can touch and feel your operation, to know you are "real" and physical. Give them an address, a real, honest-to-goodness street address, not a post office box. Post it on the front page of your website. If you don't want it on the front page, then at least make an obvious link to it from the front page. Better yet, put a photo or illustration of your place of business on your web site, if possible. A friend of mine has a quaint little, indie bookstore in a small town near by, and he has several photos of the shop on his site, including the fireplace, complete with roaring fire!
2. Give your telephone number: Be accessible to people. Just like in story above, being available to answer those quick questions over the telephone may make all the difference. You've got to take into consideration your audience: not everyone wants to communicate just by email, some people want to hear the sound of a real, live human voice. And if you have to have a second line put in your home to handle calls, it's a small price to pay for success. But do make sure you have an answering device with a professional message, including the business/website name so people will know they have the right place. It's also a really good idea to change the recording daily, including the current date, so callers know they have reached a real, live, working business.
3. Tell them about yourself: Put a face to your site; talk about your credentials. Tell people something (true, of course) to give them confidence in your site and yourself. It's all part of the "Let's Make it Real" campaign!
One last thought here. I got to thinking that in its efforts to give users quality, respectable results in their searches, Google certainly wouldn't be happy with sites such as the one we ran across that leaves visitors in limbo. What if they altered their algorithms to take into account the kind of contact information offered on a site: where it's located, whether it's a "real" address or a PO box, if there's a telephone number, and also, a contact name?
Knock, knock, are there any Google engineers listening out there??
Mary Anne Donovan is both a scholar and a practitioner, a balance that "gives me the best of both worlds: the theory behind digital communications and the hands-on experience to know what really works and what doesn't." She is in her tenth year as a professor of technical writing and business communications while at the same time serves as Vice President and Director of U.S. Operations for
SEOLinkingCourses, Inc., a search engine optimization consulting and training company. Mary Anne has worked with computers since they first came out of the closet and into more general application, starting with computerized quality control systems for Kodak photographic and printing processes and now with the fine points of SEO theory and application.
Let's Make It Real, or How to Avoid Being a Cyber Ghost - Is Your Site User Friendly? 
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