I recently watched an episode of Kitchen Nightmares USA. I like Chef Gordon Ramsey and I love this show. For those of you unfamiliar with “Chef” he is a top-ranked, world renowned Chef that knows the restaurant industry like the back of his hand! What’s fascinating to me is his willingness to engage and support family run businesses that are struggling; he has a plan and it almost always works.

In this particular episode he begins the show by standing out front of the restaurant with a tablet device in his hands. He starts by saying;

“A restaurants reputation can live or die, in seconds, on the Internet.”

He proceeds to check out the restaurants website. This is the restaurant he is about to visit. Ramsey reads for the camera, “A young, very talented, 22 year old Chef … a youthful maestro.” “Promising!”

When he enters the restaurant he meets the Chef mentioned on the website. “Hold on a second, you’re not 22!” Ramsey exclaims! “No, I’m 51.” the owner announces! Hold on is right! Chef Ramsey has come to help the restaurant not rebuild and maintain a website!

Stagnant websites happen for many reasons:

• The site is built by a developer who “holds the key”; changes become costly or challenging
• The site is built on a platform that is too difficult for a non-web designer to comprehend
• The “We built it they will come” mentality; it’s live, what more do I need to do?
• Time vs Marketing; many business owners claim they don’t have time to make changes and they clearly don’t value the marketing potential in a good website
• No Strategy; no one has explained the potential of combining a great site with great social media and blogging – not to mention video!
• There is no way to measure ROI; common but unsatisfactory reason to abandon a website

There comes a time in every business owners life that change must be embraced. You thought you had changed by putting up a website. Yet a stagnant, unmaintained and un-promoted site is doomed. Here are a few suggestions – that require you to change – so get ready:

• Blog: if you aren’t a blogger get a staff member to blog, if there is no one capable then hire a ghost writer. Blog content is new and search engines still love new!
• Increase your content output: not only should you be adding new content, you should be changing it and updating it in case Chef Ramsey shows up!
• Drive traffic using Social Media (SM): I’m not talking about selling on SM I’m talking about talking! Communicate with your customers and potential customers!
• Analyze: it’s not difficult to see how your Internet actions create reactions, aka sales!
• Invest: marketing is rarely free. Even free SM like Facebook and Twitter take an investment of your time to make it truly effective.

Indyzign is uniquely positioned to help make you a mover and a shaker in your business. Do you have questions? Let us know!