Graham Cooke of QuBit Digital says many websites need a major overhaul to be truly effective business tools.
We are about to go through another internet revolution as people increasingly realise that the internet is not just a fun tool, but an essential utility. Websites have of course become a serious business tool, but the next ten years will see them becoming the essential way to sell and communicate with customers for an everwider range of businesses.
Broadly speaking, websites are in need of quite an overhaul. Most businesses are fully aware of this, but there has been a reluctance to address this for two reasons. Firstly, it hasn't been particularly necessary to make a change to your site. As the internet has grown, there have been many places to buy very affordable traffic (potential customers) – anywhere from Google AdWords, which drives tremendous opportunities to businesses, to ad networks.
As more businesses start to use these systems, traffic is becoming more expensive. Costs are based on an auction – an increase in demand from businesses means higher prices.
The second big factor is not knowing where or what to start with when it comes to fixing your website. At the heart of the potential solution is something called website analytics. It includes products like Google Analytics, but without the right people or the right insight it's difficult to know where to start.
We founded QuBit Digital at the start of this year. We're currently a team of five ex 'Googlers' who over the last five years have worked across product management, marketing, business intelligence and strategy. Our aim is to help businesses better understand their data and improve their websites in order to drive online profits.
QuBit Digital is building a set of technology and advisory solutions that aim to solve these problems. By applying the right algorithms to a set of website data you can quite quickly start to understand why people are leaving your site. When you combine this insight with revenue data you can start to create a blueprint of what needs to be fixed. Starting with the areas that will drive the most revenue helps you not only optimise your business, but motivate your teams, as the fruits of your labour are felt much quicker.
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