The Internet Junkyard

By: Thomas Young, MBA

If you have ever visited a large junkyard, then you will remember the seemingly endless amount of rusted metal, tin cans, long-forgotten car parts, tires and heaps of useless items that at one time where part of something. People go to junkyards looking for a replacement part or something that might just work for a project. They are looking for stuff at a good value, yet most of what they see remains junk and never leaves the yard.

A part of the Internet is beginning to resemble a junkyard, cluttered with old, clunky Websites that lost their value long ago. These sites have not been updated in months, or even years, and the information is outdated and stale. Businesses that allow their sites to become "junk" are missing a great opportunity to improve their marketing efforts and gain a competitive advantage. The difference between the Internet and a real junkyard is that junk can only be recycled, but old Websites can be brought back to life and developed into efficient marketing tools for your business. If your Website is a part of the Internet junkyard, here are a few things to consider when restoring or re-designing your site.

"Our Website is Embarrassing"

If you are embarrassed about your Website than ask yourself this question: "How many people visit our Website?" If you have no site visitors, then there it doesn't matter. However, you will be amazed at the amount of traffic a Website can attract. Many sites average hundreds of visitors or more per month, even sites that have not been marketed extensively. Get an accurate count of the number of visitors that come to your site each month and this will help you understand the impact your site is making on your target market and the importance of designing a new site. Your Website hosting company can provide you with site traffic reports.

"It is Too Expensive to Re-Design Our Website"

Every business has fixed costs, variable costs and opportunity costs. Opportunity costs have to do with the cost of not taking a particular action. In this case, a poorly designed Website has two big opportunity costs. Firstly, the potential customers that go away because of the lack of credibility a poor site communicates or they simply do not find what they are looking for on your site, and secondly the loss of new customers who are so impressed by your site they call you to pursue your business. Smart companies understand that money invested in the business will return a profit. A strong Internet presence is an excellent way to develop great marketing return on investment (ROI). It may too expensive not to build a new site.

In our seminars, we put Websites in front of the group and ask for reactions to the site. Oftentimes, this is the first opportunity for the seminar participant to see a group reaction to the site. If your Website is really bad, then it may be doing more harm than good and you may want to bring it off-line until it can be updated.
"Making Changes to My Site is a Pain"

The way changes are made to many Websites contributes to the Internet junkyard. Site owners are too busy to make updates and developers don't have the knowledge to update their client's sites. The end result is outdated sites with old designs. But don't blame your site developer. They are doing the best they can with what is given to them and the skills they bring to the table. The key is to turn the site over to a project manager who can generate content and material for the site or hire the right people to get the job done such as marketing consultants, photographers, graphic designers, content writers and others.

A Few Examples of Junkyard Websites

• The visitor to the site does not understand the message or how to use the site.
• IT manages the Website with little design or marketing input.
• The site is ugly with a poor lay-out, colors, graphics, photos and small fonts to busy noisy and cluttered.
• The site breaks or has empty pages and links.
• The site talks about the company too much with no meaningful content.
• The site is over-designed with too many images, photos or too much design.
• The site is not updated on a regular basis.
• No contact information on every page.
• Does not have a secure connection.

Two Sides of the Internet

There are really two sides to the Internet. The first is the Internet Junkyard, a wasteland of un-kept and poorly designed Websites and the second is the real Internet where innovative businesses see solid returns for their Internet marketing investments.