Website quality factors: Websites of small enterprises
The rise and rapid growth of the internet have led to the storage and sharing of vast amounts of data. As a result, millions of websites have been created, making it increasingly difficult for the average user to efficiently find relevant information from a spectrum of millions of websites. Turku University of Applied Sciences is currently developing a website assessment tool that will help organisations improve their online presence, by identifying areas for improvement and success in their most important customer contact channel: their website.
The topic of small enterprises’ websites had not been studied comprehensively earlier (Gritta, 2023; Simmons et al., 2011). Lack of studies and research related to small enterprises’ websites stirs up reasons such as small enterprises’ lack of financial and expertise resources, limited use of research conducted, limited data availability, the evolution of the internet environment, and unattractiveness towards smaller companies as targets of research.
The uses of research related to small companies’ websites may be limited or unclear. Academic literature tends to prioritise larger organisations over smaller ones because they often have a greater economic impact. Also, larger organisations usually operate in more complex digital environments, such as websites, making them more appealing for research.
Users’ website preferences
Users require accurate and truthful information as quickly as possible so that they do not go to other websites to find the information they need. Websites need to provide rich information, but at the same time, they need to be user-friendly. Incorporating creativity and innovation into the website design and technical implementation processes is essential to achieving customers’ psychological satisfaction (Liu & Arnett, 2000).
The most important factors listed below affect how users perceive the website.
- Quality of information (accurate and true)
- Visual initial impression
- Website loading speed
- Contact information
- High-quality photos
- Language selection function.
Conclusions
Small enterprises generally understand the purpose of their websites, but they are not always aware of their potential. Studies have shown that small businesses prefer social media as a marketing tool more than a website itself because of the website’s unfavourable risk-return ratio (Gritta, 2023).
Social media as a marketing channel is more user-friendly, and requires fewer company resources than maintaining a website, making it cost-effective. However, the literature revealed that search engine optimisation (SEO) is considered the most important channel to obtain more customers and improve website accessibility. SEO is a combination of various factors affecting the website’s visibility in search engines (Saeed et al., 2024).
Future research
In the future, research focusing on the quality of small businesses’ websites could help shape small businesses’ strategies, and how they plan to grow their business. Only a few theoretical frameworks and models have been introduced to evaluate small enterprises’ websites (Simmons et al., 2011).
Research should be focused on customer behaviour as it seems to evolve over time.
References:
Gritta, F. (2023). The Impact of Web 2.0 on the Website Use of Small Italian Hotels. International Journal of Management, Knowledge and Learning, 12, 123-132. https://doi.org/10.53615/2232-5697.12.123-133
Liu, C., & Arnett, K. P. (2000). Exploring the factors associated with Web site success in the context of electronic commerce. Information & Management, 38(1), 23-33. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-7206(00)00049-5
Saeed, Z., Aslam, F., Ghafoor, A., Umair, M., & Razzak, I. (2024). Exploring the impact of SEO-based ranking factors for voice queries through machine learning. Artificial Intelligence Review, 57(6), 1-28. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10462-024-10780-9
Simmons, G., Armstrong, G. A., & Durkin, M. G. (2011). An exploration of small business Website optimization: Enablers, influencers and an assessment approach. International Small Business Journal, 29(5), 534-561. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0266242610369945
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