Un-Site-ly!

We’ve had a number of clients come to us and say, “my website is really awful, but I never really look at it, and I never tell anyone to go to it, so it probably doesn’t really matter”. I couldn’t imagine that it didn’t “matter”, but I am terribly biased because I am “in the business”, so I decided to revisit a client, Adrian Burt, who came to us about a year ago to develop his brand and his website for his financial recruiting business, Bearing Advisors ; and ask him to weigh in on the importance of having a good website.

Here’s what he said (or at least what I transcribed from the chicken scratch I scribbled with the phone wedged between ear and neck):

AB: Having a good site is a priority. After all those years at a good-size recruiting firm with a website that you would never send anyone to —- it was embarrassing that we didn’t have something more streamlined. My competitors were certainly putting an emphasis on their websites. They were advertising, buying banner ads and directing the world to their sites.

KR: Well, now that you are on your own, do you find that your site has given you an advantage?

AB: My site, coupled with me talking to them is what convinces them. I have people looking for me online who have worked with me in the past, and when they do not find me at my old firm, they Google me and I come right up, and then they go to my site.

I am in a business where people need to see that you are professional, there has to be that to create a level of trust. I have had colleagues from my old firm refer people to me and have said, “by the way, great site”. These are people who would not go out of their way to say anything if they didn’t really think that.

KR: So, since my neck is cramping, and I am a terrible interviewer, what would you say as a “wrap up”?

AB: My site has definitely been very important in my business. It’s just a great place to send people, and I know they go there… from my business card; from my signature on my email; and some advertising I’ve done on some very specialized sites. I have really received so many compliments from colleagues … two of them said it was the best recruiting website they’d seen.

KR: Geesh Adrian, now people are just going to think I made this whole interview up!