Get with the (web) times

An interesting thing happened last week. Upon launching our new website www.superhot100.com we decided to undertake a survey of 100 financial services companies. It makes interesting reading... There was a broad spectrum of companies surveyed, firms such as mortgage brokers, IFAs, estate agents, accountants,etc. Of the 100 firms, 21 didn't have any web presence at all. Of the 79 remaining, an incredible 38 firms had not updated their sites for at least 6 months! Out of 41 left, 31 of them do not do any promotion of their sites at all although they do update their content regularly The 10 remaining sites do actively market their sites and refresh their content on a regular basis. I don't know about you but to me that makes staggering reading. How often are we told that content is king? It is a crime not to have an online presence in 2005 but it is also completely unacceptable (in my humble opinion) to launch a site and then do nothing with it! So remember, it is not enough just to have a web presence, you must promote,publicise and have fresh, relevant content. This way means that you can try and increase your website traffic without having to resort to PPC. Financial Services companies must realise this if they are to gain their share of direct to consumer business from the internet.