Being Web 2.0 Website Ready

Having a Web 2.0 website is more than just employing blogs, wikis, or RSS feeds to attract more interactive users and business. These alone will probably do something to increase the number of people landing on your web pages. But to really put your business where you want it to be your web pages need to be engaging.

Although there is a great deal of fuss and excitement about user driven interactions like wikis, blogs, widgets, and others the real question to ask is, “Are these what your customers want?” What the customer wants must be part of the equation for any company that wants to be successful in internet business and be a part of what follows Web 2.0. You can design and create all the elegant applications you want, but if your customers don’t find them useful or want them then they will just sit there on your website wasting space and cause you to lose money because your visitors will become bored and move on to another website. Here are a few tips to help you.

Research

Some types of products or services are very important to some consumers and not so important to others. Income levels, age, sex, location, etc., can help you determine where to best market what your business has to offer. Knowing who your users are is vitally important to the success of your business and there are some inexpensive methods to discover this information.

Web analytics – The application of web analytics can help you to understand how visitors behave once they have landed on your website. Analytics can show trends, but doesn’t show intent. For example, analytics can show visitors leaving a particular page at a high rate, but won’t reveal the reason why. However, by changing scenarios and retesting you may be able to get a clearer picture.

Surveys – Surveys are a good tool to find out why people visit your website as well as how they perceive the experience of it. Surveys are easy to build and can be launched via email or right on your website. Zoomerang, Constant Contact, and Survey Monkey are some of the more popular surveying tools.

Usability Testing – After identifying potential issues and user needs from the survey data and web analytics you can run scenarios through usability test to determine specific problem areas.

Third-Party Research – These are consumer panels, that when coupled with other research can help you define even more specific interactive strategies. For example, if you have a specific target audience a third-part research company can survey that specific group for specific on-line activities they engage in.

Listen To Your Customer

Listening to customers in the above mentioned ways you can begin develop an understanding about to best accommodate the things the value and want to see on your website. When you are able to this you will find customers spending more time and money on your site because they will feel comfortable there. This part of what being a Web 2.0 company is about.