A retail-store owner called and asked me to look at his website. I always try to find something nice to say about a prospect’s website, but this one was pretty challenging.

It looked like it had been done in the early 1990s. It was slapped together, with glaring colors, strange navigation, and too much bold text.

I wasn’t as diplomatic as I should have been.

The owner was skeptical of my comments and defensive. He said, “Our site looks just as good as the others in my industry, so I don’t see why we need to change.”

I asked him to tell me the name of one of those sites. He did and I looked it up. My prospect’s site was no where near as good as the other site.

But that’s missing the point. What if his site had been just as good as competitors in his industry? Is that all he should want?

Is that all you should want?

I don’t think so. You should strive to develop a website better than your competitors.

Competition is too stiff. A website that is thoughtfully and carefully developed can drive more qualified prospects to your site, keep them on on your web pages, and convert them to customers.

But you’ll never get there, if you settle for “good enough.”

Easy Web Tip #123: Strive to develop a website better than your competitors. It doesn’t necessarily mean glitz. It does take skilled web content development.