I attended my second Networking4Business event today, and as a representative of the web design industry, got to listen to business owners and professionals vent about their frustration with poorly designed websites.

I got an earful regarding websites with out of date information,  links to contacts that don’t work, sites that are just plain ugly and so on.

One person told me that no matter how good a company’s products or services was, he wouldn’t do business with them if they had a poorly designed website.

And yet  I still come across loads of  badly designed websites on the internet.  If only their owners knew how bad  this is for business.

We were at the Networking4Business conference in Thirsk and met owners of many different types of businesses.  We realise that when we design and develop a website for a business, it is crucial for us to understand that business and how it attracts and retains customers.

We just got back from Leeds, where we attended the  Think Visibility conference for web design professionals. We got the latest info on SEO, web analytics, blogging and social media.

Marcia’s market research background, in particular, her knowledge of demographics and customer segmentation, and her ability to work with statistics, seems to be a real asset when it comes to analytics.