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Effective Web Sites for Small to Medium Sized
Enterprises
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Mike Thelwall
School of Computing and Information Technology, University of Wolverhampton,
Wulfruna Street, Wolverhampton, WV1 1SB, Phone: 01902 321470. Fax: 01902
321491
Abstract
In the UK millions are now online and many are prepared to use the Internet to make
and influence purchasing decisions. Businesses should, therefore, consider whether
the Internet could provide them with a new marketing opportunity. Although
increasing numbers of businesses now have a web site, there seems to be a quality
problem that is leading to missed opportunities, particularly for smaller enterprises.
This belief is backed up by an automated survey of 3802 predominantly small UK
business sites, believed to be by far the largest of its kind to date. Analysis of the
results reveals widespread problems in relation to search engines. Most Internet users
find new sites through search engines, yet over half of sites checked were not
registered in the largest one, Yahoo!, and could therefore be missing a sizeable
percentage of potential customers. The underlying problem with business sites is the
lack of maturity of the medium as evidenced by the focus on technological issues
amongst designers and the inevitable lack of web-business experience of managers.
Designers need to take seriously the usability of the site, its design and its ability to
meet the business goals of the client. These issues are perhaps being taken up less
than in the related discipline of software engineering, probably due to the relative
ease of web site creation. Managers need to dictate the objectives of their site, but
also, in the current climate, cannot rely even on professional web site design
companies and must be capable of evaluating the quality of their site themselves.
Finally, educators need to ensure that these issues are emphasised to the next
generation of designers and managers in order that the full potential of the Internet
for business can be realised.
Management and policy implications
• There is a large online population in the UK, probably over ten million have used
the web, and many are prepared to use it to at least influence their purchasing
decisions. It is, therefore, apparent that businesses of all sizes should consider
having a web site.
• The design of a web site needs to be viewed primarily as a business task, not a
technical task. The web site design needs to be appropriate to the needs of the
company and should focus on supporting business goals.
• Business managers need to exercise quality control over a web site designed for
them by their IT technician or an external web design company because the
evidence shows that a majority of sites are substandard.
• Managers, to fulfil their quality control role, need to understand that simply
having a home page on the web does not mean that anybody will visit the site, this
depends upon appropriate site design and registration in search engines.
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Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 7(2), 149-159, (2000)
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• Small businesses should consider placing immediate responsibility for the site
with the person that is also responsible for marketing, rather than an IT expert.
• Simple mainly non-technical tests need to be carried out on any web site designed,
including checking how easy it will be for potential customers to find it by typing
relevant key words into major search engines.
• If using an external agency to design a web site, other sites designed by the
agency should be evaluated, using the same tests, before it is hired.
• The large number of sites not registered with search engines is causing the
potential of the web to be unrealised. Businesses with an existing web site may
need to redesign it and reassess the potential of the web once the results of this can
be seen.
Keywords : Internet, World Wide Web, Small and Medium Sized Enterprises, Web
site design.
Introduction
In mid-1999 the UK was the fourth biggest Internet user, having perhaps ten and a
half million of its inhabitants online by the end of the previous year (see table 1). This
represents a large potential market, with 30% already having made a purchase online
and with more using the Internet to aid purchase decisions despite not buying online
(CyberAtlas, 1999). In this context, web sites represent an important marketing
opportunity for business. Many Small to Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the UK
do now possess a web site, often one constructed for them by an outside agency or by
an enthusiastic employee. Exact figures are difficult to calculate, but a survey of UK
sites found that 90% (159 out of 177) had less than 250 employees (Thelwall, 2000)
and the survey described here found 3802 business sites from a limited subset of the
web. However, the web presence of businesses can be extremely ineffective, leading
to a lost opportunity and wasted money (Callaghan and Pie, 1998; Lee, 1998). In a
recent survey, a majority of businesses believed that their web site had not increased
their turnover (56%, with a further 13% unsure from 98 surveyed) (Hooi-Im et al.,
1998). The situation is likely to be much worse for SMEs than this picture reflects not
only because of the inclusion of large businesses and Internet based businesses, but
also because the survey method only included web sites that had been registered with
Yahoo!Directory, a process that filters out some of the least ‘visible’ sites, a concept
discussed later. Web site under-performance is an extension of the recognised
problems of enterprises coping with IT (Earl, 1996; Peppard and Ward 1996) that has
led to the growth of outsourcing in recent times. Peppard and Ward (1999) summarise
the situation for larger businesses: ‘achieving high performance from IT is not just
about the IT function’s ability to build, maintain and deliver systems, but is an
organisational wide activity requiring a strong business/IT partnership’.
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Table 1. Selected online populations. Data obtained from various sources (Nua
Internet, 1999)
Country Estimated numbers
online (Millions)
Estimated Percentage
online
Date of survey
US 106.3 39 July 1999
Japan 18 14 December 1998
Canada 12.7 42 June 1999
UK 10.6 18 December 1998
Germany 8.4 10 March 1999
Australia 5.5 31 May 1999
Sweden 3.6 41 May 1999
Norway 1.6 36 May 1999
Iceland 0.121 45 December 1998
Similar problems seem to be met by smaller businesses (Fink, 1998; Mitev
and Marsh, 1998), with Balantine, Levy and Powell (1998) proposing that the lack of
a business and IS/IT strategy could be a widespread problem. Smaller businesses tend
to make less use of the Internet than larger ones (Sillince, 1998) and in the area of
business web site design, there are particular problems that exacerbate this already
problematic IT situation (Briones, 1999). Three of these problems are that web sites
are relatively easy and cheap to construct for a computer literate person and as a result
may not be created as carefully as other media; designers seem to often focus on the
technology rather than organisational needs; and many managers do not have the
experience to judge the potential and value of the Internet. These issues are all of
more concern to an SME that is not large to afford to spare the time of an employee
and/or a manager to become knowledgeable in Internet technologies and be able to
design a good quality web site or provide effective quality control over one externally
created respectively. It is believed that many companies must be in the situation that
they have paid for a web site but it is never visited or does not seem to attract any
customers and draw the conclusion that the Internet is not useful for them. In fact
creating an effective web site needs to be taken seriously in the face of all the
competition already on the Internet (Lu and Yeung, 1998). It is first and foremost a
marketing task (Angelides, 1997; Dholakia and Rego, 1998; Saaksjarvi, 1999) and
should not be left to computing professionals. The issues surrounding effective
Internet use for traditional SMEs that are not already Internet orientated, will be
examined by focussing on taking full advantage of the potential of the web, drawing
upon a survey of UK business web sites.
Types of web presence (site content)
Most UK businesses have by default some web presence, if only from directory type
facilities such as the Yahoo! business search (www.yahoo.co.uk) which indexes basic
contact information for over 2 million enterprises. Of course, a much more visible
presence is a company web site, which need not cost more than £1,000 per year (1999
prices) for a domain name such as www.company-name.co.uk, space on a commercial
web server, and the creation and maintenance of a simple site by an external design
company. There are many ways in which a business can use the web (Gascoyne,
1997; Bento and Bento, 1998) but this paper focuses upon web sites designed to
promote the company, its products or services. There are, however, many common
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types of suitable financial engagement from a simple web presence with no product
information to an electronic commerce solution that sells products online (Koh and
Balthazard, 1997; Cockburn and Wilson, 1996). Not all of the five levels shown in the
table would be appropriate for every business; for example electronic commerce
presents its own set of issues (Nath et al. 1998). Those not supplying multiple copies
of a uniform product or service may well only be able to use the first type of site.
Beyond a basic site, the company is obligated to keep the information up-to-date. It is
now possible to accept secure payments online through a third party site, avoiding the
complex and costly process of setting up the software. Some merchants will not even
charge a set up cost, but will levy commission on sales instead, making this an ideal
starting solution for small businesses unsure of the demand for their products on the
Internet. This allows them to jump straight to the fifth level of engagement for little
more set-up cost than the fourth.
Table 2. Levels of Financial Engagement
Type of presence Site content and examples
1. Company
information
General details about the business including contact
information: (postal) address, email and telephone number.
http://www.bof.co.uk describes the nature of Bridgend
Office Furniture business.
2. Product
information
All of the above, plus specific details of available products.
http://www.dat.co.uk describes all of the training
courses that Digital Automation Training provide.
3. Online catalogue All of the above, plus pricing information.
http://www.hwm.co.uk gives a price list of the current
stock of Aston Martins at HWM.
4. Online mail order
catalogue
All of the above, plus the ability to buy by mail order.
http://www.sandpiper.co.uk sells books and does not
have a secure online order form, but gives a fax number
and postal address.
5. Cyberstore All of the above, plus the ability to accept payment online
through an automated process
http://www.blackstar.co.uk/ is a site where you can
choose a book or video and pay for it with a credit card
online.
An alternative dimension for assessing web sites is entertainment value. This would
not be appropriate for most SMEs and so it will be discussed only briefly here. Many
large companies in certain industry sectors such as jeans manufacturing have web
sites with no financial engagement, but which are designed to promote brand image
through the use of online entertainment. This could come in the form of computer
games designed in an Internet-portable programming language such as Macromedia
Shockwave, or in support for virtual communities perhaps through chat channels.
Creating an attractive interactive site of this kind will take more development time
and cost more, perhaps an extra £1,000 to £5,000 for the development of significant
new site tools. This may be prohibitively expensive for small businesses that are not
reliant upon image or confident enough of reaching their market through the Internet.
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Web site quality
An SME that creates or buys in a web site needs to be able to judge the quality of the
product. Web site design comes at a variety of prices, from under £100 for an
enthusiastic amateur trying to get in to the market to tens of thousands of pounds from
a well-known specialist design company. It can be difficult for the business to assess
the quality of the product created for them because some of the mistakes, such as
browser incompatibility and effectiveness in search engines, are subtle and because
the technology can obscure the real potential that may be there to be tapped.
The quality of a web site at any of the above levels must be evaluated with a
number of different criteria.
• Site visibility in search engines
• Ease of use
• Design quality
• Ease of site maintenance and updating
These are discussed in the subsections below except for the last, which is the subject
of the next section. In all of these areas there are some general rules as well as issues
that are contingent on the type of business concerned and the chosen aim for the site.
Visibility
The issue of visibility is one that is easy for the inexperienced to ignore. An otherwise
excellent web site may be completely ignored because few potential customers ever
find it. A potential customer can arrive at a web site in three ways: by typing in its
address; by following a link from another site; or by following a link from a search
engine. If a company is using its web site as an important marketing device, then it
needs to advertise the address in various places, certainly on its own literature and
advertising literature but also perhaps by the use of Internet adverts placed on other
sites such as search engine sites. For the majority of companies that are primarily
using the site as part of the marketing strategy to attract new customers, it may not
make sense to spend additional funds on promoting it. The main strategy must,
therefore, be to attract genuinely new business through links from other sites, most
importantly search engines, but this is not an obvious point for many companies
starting out and often gets ignored, as the survey described below reveals. There are a
number of design and other issues that need to be addressed in order to get the page
registered with search engines. Some search engines such as Yahoo! have a large
number of human site reviewers and the business needs to submit the address of the
site in order to have it reviewed and registered so that it can be found in a search.
Other search engines such as HotBot use automated programs known as ‘spiders’ to
trawl the web and index pages.
An important issue with this type is the use of ‘frames’ based pages. These
allow web pages to be split up into a number of separate rectangular areas in the
browser window, each independent of the others. The problem is that only the starting
page can be referenced correctly with an Internet link, pages deeper in the site have to
be accessed indirectly via the starting page. The automated spider will often ignore
frames-based sites beyond the home page, omitting them from its searchable database
and significantly reducing the chances of users visiting it. Some spiders will index the
site but will link to the individual frames, resulting in a partial display of the site,
often with disastrous consequences, such as missing all the site links held in a
different navigation frame and consequently being unable to access any of the rest of
the pages. Frames should, therefore, not normally be used for the majority of sites
hoping to attract casual visitors.
