Merge

Today I was looking for a local company to provide a service to Merge for which we'll end up paying 1,000's of dollars in the years to come. In other words, I'm looking to hire a company to provide a pretty significant service. I didn't know where to start, so I turned to my friend, Google.

I couldn't believe the state of the web sites I visited.

We used to call them first impressions. We might as well change it to web impressions, because your web site is where most people get their first impression of your company. The only problem is that you don't know your company just made a first impression. We come. We visit. We observe. We leave. You just made a web impression. How did you do?

Three different companies made a web impression on me today and I don't think it was an impression they wanted to make. The first company's web site was more or less broken. Pages were jumbled. It looked sloppy. I took off.

The next website was obviously done in house. It was unprofessional and straight out of the late 90's. Web impression? Not good, so I kept searching.

The third company I found via Google didn't even have a web site. Are you kidding me?

The fourth website was marginally acceptable, but because the other three company's websites (or lack there of), I chose to contact that company for a meeting.

The problem with first--or I mean--web impressions is that they are superficial. The first three companies may have been great. Unfortunately, perception is reality. As they say, "Never judge a company by its web site" (or a book by its cover or something like that). The web impression these companies left behind didn't instill confidence or trust, so I couldn't even make it over the small hurdle to contact them to find out about their services.

In today's age, it's likely the majority of the first impressions your company makes will be through the web. It's unfortunate that a bad web impression is essentially a silent killer. You don't even realize you've made a bad impression. The person never buys, they don't call, email or contact you in anyway. They just shrug their shoulders, hit the back button and keep searching until they find the company that makes the right impression.

Great companies don't skimp on their web sites. They understand that making a great web impression is just as good as making a great first impression in person.

How great is your company's web impression?