During the past 6 months, I have been asked by some small businesses to fix a few web sites that were developed by “High Tech Gurus”. In a couple of cases, fix meant start from the beginning and do it right. Now I’m not a programmer. I don’t even pretend to be one. But programmers shouldn’t pretend to be web designers either.

With the departure of Walmart’s top 2 marketing communications officers, we’re all filled with questions. Does this signify a desire for Walmart to get back to serving their regular customers? Or, were these 2 executives just not able to upscale Walmart while not alienating their base? It reminds me of the old days with Sears. You may remember that Sears once owned the regular folk market. Montgomery Ward, and many others tried to unseat them, but Sears unseated themselves.

Almost every business web site has an element right on the home page that may reveal how effective it is as a marketing tool. What does this element say about your web site? You’ll usually find it at the very bottom of the site. That means that it will be the last thing a visitor will see if they scroll down because they are actually interested in your message. It usually shows up on every page, so it leaves its impression everywhere. And it’s so small that you may think that it irrelevant but its effect is often subliminal on visitors…and it just may make them click on to a competitor.

When I lived back in the city I got a DSL connection as soon as it became available. Suddenly I could send and receive large files in minutes instead of almost an hour for some files. Internet telephony was a novelty. A few years ago, I moved to a rural area. Since I work at home and have to send huge files to my customers, I needed a high speed connection. The only option was a cable internet connection. Wow, it was a lot faster than DSL. But I had a plain old telephone service. My wife and daughter maintained their connections with their friends back home on the phone. The first phone bill included almost $200 in long distance charges.

I’m getting disappointed with small business and the world wide web. There seems to be a great deal of confusion about what a company web site is and what a web designer is supposed to do. In the old days (notice I didn’t say the good old days), a company would call their ISP, or the boss’ sister-in-law, and ask for a web site to be put together. When it was completed, it was usually allowed to just sit on the server.

Does your company try to find new talent using the internet? If so, be aware that you are delivering a marketing message to future customers or competitors. You see, that resume that your company didn't even acknowledge receipt of may be from someone who just will go to work for one of your customers or competitors. Those people that didn't make it through your online application process because of frustration may have something to say about your company at the next trade show.