What is your website’s job?

A website is like an employee : it does what it’s trained to do and often at no more than the level at which its compensated.

Most businesses unwittingly give their website the job of receptionist. The receptionist is the face of your organization. Anyone who comes in your door sees him. He is expected to know all of the basic information about your company and answer any basic questions. This saves time for the more important employees to work on more valuable things. It’s also convenient for the prospect or client. She can get basic information easily without the effort of contacting more senior members of the company.

In most cases, the receptionist usually has a relatively low salary and very minimal responsibilities :

• Greet people pleasantly
• Answer basic questions
• Connect prospects and clients with the right internal resources

For many businesses, the receptionist website is all they need. Their website’s real job is just to answer basic questions :

• Who is this company?
• What do they do?
• Where are they located?
• When are they open?

For these businesses, the website does the same thing a receptionist does

• Greet people pleasantly
• Answer basic questions
• Connect prospects and clients to the right internal resources

The Problem with Website Receptionists

• People engage with websites to solve problems and receptionists are not equipped to solve problems
• Receptionists don't build leads and businesses need leads
• Google favors websites built to solve problems, and receptionists don't solve problems

Receptionists are not paid to do sales and marketing and are not trained to do sales and marketing. If your website was built to do a receptionist’s job, it’s not going to be very good at getting new business. And the chances are high that if you paid a receptionist price for your website you probably got a receptionist website. If your website is going to generate traffic, leads, and revenue for your business it’s going to need training and investment.

If your website was built to be a receptionist, it’s not fair to expect it to perform well on Google searches. Most people don’t choose to do business with companies based on the company’s receptionist. That doesn’t mean that a good (or bad) receptionist doesn’t impact a sale. A pleasant and intelligent receptionist can go a long way in helping make a prospect feel comfortable. Similarly, a pleasant website can go a long way in making a prospect feel comfortable. But don’t expect Google or your clients to find you or seek you out because your website is pleasant.

You Know Enough to Help Your Clients, Let Your Website Help Them Too

If you want your website to be found and valued by Google and your prospects, build it to help those you seek to serve. When your website is built to be helpful, it naturally becomes more “findable”. Google is an engine built to help people find what they are “searching for”. People who are looking to do business are usually not searching for receptionists. They are looking for a solution to a problem. They are looking for who is the best, not just who has the best receptionist. How do you prove that you’re the best? By showing time and again you are the most helpful and the most authoritative.

Build a Better Online Avatar, Not a Better Receptionist

An online avatar is someone who stands in your place. It’s someone who can do many things that you can do, although not all that you can do. If you want a website that will sell and be found, build one that’s as good as you are. Build a website that has as many of your abilities as you can afford to put into it. Make it the most helpful, intelligent, insightful, and trustworthy agent that you can.

There is nothing wrong with investing in a more pleasant receptionist… unless your job is to get more attention and trust. There’s only so much attention and trust you can get with a pleasant receptionist. Traffic to your website will grow as your website becomes more helpful and consistently makes people smarter, happier, and more effective.

What You Should be Doing Next

How can you serve your future clients? What do you know that they don’t? Write about it. Post it on your blog. Post the blog on social media. See what happens.