We caught up with Lynsey. Lynsey works in the Edinburgh offices for BT Websites.

Hi Lynsey, can you tell us a bit about your role and how long you've been at BT?

I have been working with BT websites for 4 years as a senior website consultant. I work with small/medium businesses to achieve their online goals which include getting more traffic to their existing site, helping new customers to choose a new website package and explaining the features like the ability to edit and update content themselves easily which is new to many or offering a web review of an existing website and looking at the performance, design, content, features and administration tools.

My day to day duties do vary; I work from a diary system and often spend time building my customer base. one minute I can speak with a client for whom online is totally new, the next with a business who has been online for years and is sophisticated and clear on what they want achieve. I also work with new business start-ups and dot com entrepreneurs with some amazing ideas on new internet concepts, and this allows me to provide advice on the functionality and what would work best.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

I love taking clients from no online presence to a website that has increased their sales and growth. I enjoy analysing websites, suggesting improvements and helping clients get more from their online presence. The variety of consultations is really stimulating and we help so many businesses that we become very familiar with the majority of business sectors and commercial models.

We're after some of that expert knowledge now.. What do you think are the key things that make a good website?

A good website needs to be professional designed, after all this is your shop window and first impressions do count and online are formed within seconds. It should also have a good volume of pages i.e. if you offer 6 services you should have a page of each service with good content which also helps Google understand what services you provide.

You must get asked lots of questions when talking to all those customers, what is the question you get asked the most?

The number one question customers ask me is - do I have to come back to BT to make changes to my site? The answer is no, BT train all customers on how to edit / update and add content and pages to the website so clients have full control and can feel comfortable and confident in managing their own site.

If you could give one piece of advice to SMEs wanting to improve their web presence, what would it be?

My top tip would be to ask all clients to go and check out their online competition! It may not be the same group of companies that they often regard as their competitors.  Design and up-to-date content are key. The website should be easy to navigate and always have a call to action and contact form!

And when you are not helping businesses get online, what do you spend your time doing?

I am currently planning my wedding and my website expertise is helping me find great suppliers and great deals! I also am a keen fitness fanatic.

Congratulations on your engagement hope all the wedding plans are going well. Do you have an interesting fact about you that you can share with us?

I ran the Edinburgh marathon last year and came in before the boys relay team at work!

If you'd like to speak to Lynsey or one of her colleagues, you can take advantage of our free 15 minute web review.

And if you'd like to see some of the websites we've recently created, why not take a look at our portfolio?