blankblankAs the “hip” saying is today, “You gotta web 2.0” has never been more true.  In my previous posts you’ll learn exactly what Web 2.0 is, so today I’m not going to go back over all of that, but in short, it means that its the social network, easy to read (and access), optimized way of developing and maintaining a website.

Today though many people don’t really realize how many potential customers and clients they are loosing because their site isn’t Web 2.0 or because their site is only “SEO” friendly and not human friendly.  Goldsboro Web Development devotes more than 20 hours per week (that’s more than 7,000 hours per year) into researching and providing studies in what really makes the websites tick.  And here is a result.  We have found that like malls and other points of commerce in your home-town, you pick and shop depending on convenience.  Lets examine; Wal-Mart usually places their stores (at least around here) in some of the oddest areas, however once you get there you can best bet that you can find what you’re looking for, quickly, easily, and you know you’re getting a decent price and they most likely will have what you need in stock.

From what I just said there pretty much sums this entire week’s worth of research up.  People loose their clients and potential customers on their websites through excessive clicks, broken links, hard-to-read text, and from not having a product clearly listed.  Wal-Mart has ingeniously addressed all of these problems; sure, you may have to drive to the other side of town to get to Wal-Mart but once you’re there, the convenience makes all the difference in the world and visiting Wal-Mart becomes habit.

As you need a light bulb, can of oil, and a 2-Liter soft drink, you tend to pass up the convenience store that’s 500 yards from your own house just to visit Wal-Mart.  Some people will argue that it is cheaper, and the better deals are to be had at Wal-Mart; this is where our study proves this wrong.  Supermarket vs Convenient store prices differ by only 6-7% retail, while we’re talking a few dollars for the item’s you’re wanting, we’re talking about paying only about 70 cents more at the convenience store vs a supermarket.  Now when you add up the cost of gas, and time traveled, the math doesn’t make sense and this is what we dug into.

What makes a consumer spend more money to buy the same products from a supermarket?  That was the quest this week and the answer was structure, variety, and habit.  That is what made us even more so dabble into a few website studies using these as examples and we found that clients make more purchases on sites that they feel comfortable with, that are structured, and allow for easy return versus sites that were just simply easy to use or easy to find.

So there you have it, a site that shows structure, integrity, and one in which is easy to “get back to” bares the most weight when it comes down to the “bottom dollar”.