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Nice Website But What About the Potential Customer Where does the customer fit in A large business not very far from me recently published in a local newspaper that they had a new website. They said they wanted only the best for their new website and had chosen a graduate graphic designer to undertake the commission. In addition they undertook research including focus groups, to find out the needs of the customer. The result a very nice site with many firsts of what can be done on the site. The website owners are pleased and believe they have the jump on competitors. I have no problem with what they undertook or who did it; it is a job well done but while concentrating on the website with all the bells and whistles available to the customer, they overlooked how to get the customer to the site. No doubt the owners expect people to type the URL, but what if people do not know the URL, I suppose it is then expected people will use a search engine and because it is a 'brand' people will find the site But it is large 'brand' with many products and services and people usually search by what they require so in this regard by not undertaking search engine optimisation for the website the owners are very likely to miss out on at lot of traffic and thereby negate any advantage they had over competitors. About the same time an acquaintance mentioned that they had a new website, so I looked, yes very nice, and being curious I searched for who built it. The developer company has a portfolio of about 27 websites all very nice but in investigation they all suffered from the same problem, no search engine optimisation, not even the basic, Title Tag or Meta Description Tag. So 27 business owners have nice websites for which they paid a fair amount of money but no attempt had been made to attract the potential customers to the websites. Now I know it is fashionable to say don't worry about SEO the search engines will find the site, yes I have heard these words from website designers but I don't believe them. The search engines publish their requirements for a website to be found and I don't think they publish these requirements just for the hell of it. So my money is on the search engines and other people qualified in these matters not the designers. But some how the business community has overlooked asking the important questions how do we get customers to our nice websites. A website is not a display ad as you may find in the newspapers, a website requires action by its owners to ensure it can be found in the search engines, the vehicles people use to find things. So the priority when commissioning a website is to ask, where does the customer fit in, how will they find us, and does the website follow the policies and guidelines for being found. If these questions cannot be answered satisfactorily, find someone who can. Contact Firstsearch