by Allison Carter, Intern

I recently received a great white paper from Steve Schmidt with Effect Web Agency on the 3 major risks of casually investing in the Web. I will be talking about some for the key points in a series of blog posts, but the entire white paper is worth the read.

The first danger is a lack of brand awareness and visibility. According to a 2007 survey, 65.3% of B2B buyers and 70% of consumers begin their search for products and services with a search engine. So if you don’t have a Web site at all, kiss more than half of your potential business goodbye.

Even if you have a Web site, if you aren’t optimized for search engines, you’re also losing business. 70-80% of Web traffic comes directly from search engines, and 68% of Web users will click on a link in the first page. So if you’re languishing at the bottom of page 3, your chances of being seen decrease dramatically.

Let this be a wake up call: If you don’t have a Web site, you need one. If you have one, do a quick Google search for your industry and geographic location–for instance, “business consulting, Indianapolis.” Where do you rank? If it’s not on the page, consider an SEO overhaul.

If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Roundpeg, an Indianapolis web design firm.