Every Company needs an Effective Website
“A website can be a key marketing tool or a huge missed opportunity.”
If you run a business of any size and you still have not made the jump to the Web, why not? If you know your business can make money online, (i.e. you sell or generate enquiries for a product or service) then investing money to build your web presence is almost a no-brainer. The question then becomes, how to do it right so you can be profitable. It is important to not only consider the website itself but also the online marketing once it has been created.
Having an effective website design doesn’t just mean having an attractive website as this doesn’t automatically translate into web success. Many designs that look pretty are also poor performers in terms of visitor usability and search engine friendliness.
Things such as colour integration, navigation layout, site architecture are all just as important as the actual design of the site. Hiring a web designer that only makes attractive sites but ignores some of the other important aspects of web usability is like hiring a painter to build a good car. Sure they can paint one, but there is nothing under the canvas.
Like a stylish car needs a good engine, an attractive website needs good code, usability and architecture in order for it to be able to perform for you online. Before you hire any designer make sure they have the skills to do more than make your site look good. Make sure they know how to make it perform good as well.
Each business has different needs. And what the business owner needs their website to do will vary greatly. More often than not you'll have to go beyond the basic design and usability elements to build a site that has the functionality that you want. Figure out what you need versus what you want but isn't absolutely necessary. Once you know how much things cost then you can focus your budget on what is most essential first.
There are dozens of factors involved in website hosting and you're better off comparing on quality than on price. To keep your site live and accessible, quality trumps price every time. Who ever designs your website should not only be able to advise, but also arrange and set up without charging a big fee.
I'm often concerned at how many people seemed surprised that Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Internet Marketing costs more than building the site itself. The site, aside from needed functionality improvements, is generally a one-time expense.
Marketing is an ongoing expense. Making a website perform in the search engines is just one aspect of marketing, but an important one for online success. Most business can't get by just by renting space and opening the doors. They have to do some form of advertising and marketing. The same is true online.
Any marketing you do online needs to provide you with a positive return on investment. This can be quickly accomplished with Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns. SEO can often take months for the ROI to be realized. However, once the SEO campaign begins to take root the ROI is generally greater than what you'll see for PPC campaigns. It often makes sense to get the PPC campaigns going while the SEO is being implemented and both campaigns can compliment each other.
Building a successful site online doesn't have to be expensive, but it will cost money if you want to do it right. But it's not about how much money you spend but how well you plan and how wisely you spend. There is no way to provide estimates on how much all this should cost because it's different for every business, depending on the specific needs. But a little bit of research will help you find the best value for your money (again, cheapest isn't always the best value) that will provide you the results you need without breaking your budget.
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