The much touted Infobahn is littered with the wrecks of abandoned websites and chugging antiques that barely keep moving. Sure, there are success stories aplenty but they are not as common as media reports would suggest. In short; do it right and your website venture will deliver and meet expectations, and perhaps even revolutionise your marketing strategies. But if you don't plan it properly and get it just right, it's destined to become just another spluttering and non-performing website casualty.
If you're already rolling down that highway you need to ask yourself - "Is our website really working as we'd planned it ?"
If it isn't, then maybe you should contact us for a Free, No Obligation Opinion on how to fix it up and get back up to speed with a productive site.
The days of putting up a copy of your product brochure and waiting for thousands of eager customers to come battering down your doors are long gone. But most sites are still being designed on that premise! These flat product displays add little value to a visitor's experience, they usually have no marketing intelligence gathering capability, and they do nothing for your company or products. Simply put; you'd be better off donating your website design budget to charity and getting some philanthropic mileage in the local press!
A Few Simple Rules To Follow .....
The market is still essentially naive and if you don't understand some of the basic elements of internet marketing then you're a prime candidate for breaking down on the Infobahn. Everyone seems to know some spotty whizzkid who is an internet boffin who designs webpages for next to zip and who can even arrange complimentary hosting. Better book the tow truck now! Successful websites are the end result of effective marketing strategies which require a lot more than a set of pretty pages. Remember that the proliferation rate of new websites is staggeringly high, and the resultant competition for site visibility is fierce. You need to build the right type of site, get focussed people visiting in healthy numbers, and then maintain that visibility. And, most importantly, you need to achieve the objectives that motivated you to commission the website in the first place.
Choosing the Web Design Service
Your choice of supplier is critical. Most of these concerns will be addressed if you select a competent web design service with a proven track record of successful site establishments. If they claim that then they must have reference sites, and plenty of them. It is also important for the web designers to maintain and control their own servers as that is the only way to effectively exploit site interactivity with the visitor. Analysis of server access logs will reveal telling statistics about visitor behavior. Who came, from what countries, when, where did they enter, what pages did they move to, what route through the pages did they follow, how long did they stay, have they been before, what are the peak days of week and hours of day for traffic, in what way is the traffic trending and why. And the most important information is where are our visitors coming from; which search engines are sending them to our site ? This is all critical information to feed back into site design and maintenance - can the web designers guarantee you will receive this information ?
The importance of server log analysis cannot be overstated. If you run an ad, then the logs should show you (preferably graphically) the exact result. Who arrived, from where, and what did they read. Change your pages or search engine registrations and see the effect within hours. Running a website without log analysis is like driving a car blindfolded, except maybe with more expensive consequences.
Be wary of ISPs (Internet Service Providers who supply your dial-up access) who are claiming to be web design specialists! It is not their primary focussed business. And that also goes for advertising agencies and others who are seeing their traditional adspend clients moving budget portions away to the new medium. Is the web designer structured to service your size of site and will you get a continuing level of attention and care ? It's cowboy country in the web design business at present and you should approach your commitment to a web design service with care.
But whatever route you take, ensure that you;
- Establish clear objectives from the outset.
- Design for success *.
- Register on the critical search engines.
- Promote, promote, promote. Then promote some more.
- Follow up the registrations regularly - test your position visibility.
- Promote some more.
- Review results against your objectives.
- Review your objectives if necessary.
* Designing for success.
- Is the site offering value to visitors ?
- Are visitors enticed to part with e-mail addresses to fuel your secondary marketing ?
- Have you considered what your competitors are doing ?
Of course, we think you should be choosing us !
Search Engine Registration
The art of building and maintaining traffic.....
Not all websites require deep search engine registration. Local engines only may be used for restricted regional site publication while other sites may be available only to authorised customers with password access. But most sites require a deep registration on both the international and local search engines. This is one of the most critical tasks to get right and it is dependent on both design considerations and a comprehensive, ongoing "check and submission" programme. Feedback from the analysis of server logs identifies which search engines are underperforming and indicates where resubmissions are required. An effective web design service should be able to completely manage the registration process and be able to report on the site's traffic statistics from the search engines. An example of these statistics can be sampled by clicking here.
Your Web Design/hosting service should be able to guarantee you premium search engine positions for your optimised keywords. If they don't, then you need to be asking why. Can they deliver on this most critical aspect? We sure can! Contact us for some ideas on how you could improve traffic for your current website.
In Conclusion
Planning your website venture is not rocket science. While the terms and technology (buzzwords abound here) might be confusing, they are easily understood when explained. As with most business decisions you will find that if common sense prevails, and these guidelines are followed, then you'll be moving into that Infobahn fast lane and your planned objectives should all be met.
other Related Webpro Pages .....
Webpro's Web Design and Hosting Services - All you need to know about what we are capable of, and to give you an idea of what it might cost.
Frequently Asked Questions - Different hosting costs, remote maintenance, domain names, and more...
What next?
Why not Contact Us for a Quotation for that website development you're considering, or maybe a Free Opinion on Your Existing Site? In both cases it helps a lot to know what your site objectives are, and we're sure that we'll be able to give you Good, No Obligation Advice.
E-mail Us: webpro@webpro.co.za
Phone Us: +27 (31) 563-8344
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