Technology Toolkit

With so many websites, for so many businesses, it is important to create one for your business that is as unique and personable as your company. A custom website is a great way to show your customers that you are not a cookie cutter operation. If it is personalized to suit your needs, and engages your customer in what they want, then it is one that will be successful.

Although a custom website used to be extremely expensive and one always suited for a small business, they can now be done at an affordable price, which allows even the smallest of companies to showcase their goods and services in a way that that is a closer representation of what they are really about.

With the internet business being as competitive as it is, and so many companies offering websites, it is not only important to be unique, it is practically a necessity. A custom website gives the company the opportunity to show more than a black and white version of what they do, and what their goals and visions are. It not only provides the difference, it adds more dimension to the business by offering something that their competitor perhaps, may not. A custom website could be the difference in a sale or someone that just looks quickly at the website. It shows that the company is serious about their products and is willing to go the extra step by giving their customers more than a basic version of their company.

As the economy tightens, and the market becomes more and more competitive, it is crucial to not only give the customer what they want, but do so in a way that will bring them back again and again. A custom web site has the ability to do just that.

A custom web site also gives the company a way to add their personal touch to their virtual storefront. With a site that is designed specifically for them, they can not only have a high performance website but they can offer something their competitors cannot, their personality.

Although custom website designers used to be high priced luxury, with so many companies out there, it has become very affordable. The money spent on hiring a website designer for your custom site will be money well spent. If the customer can not only easily navigate the site, and see other goods and services that are available, in a way that is different than anyone else, they will be more likely to not only buy, but to return to you in the future.

When you design a website, it’s easy to focus on what your visitors are going to see. The main reasons that people produce websites are either to make a profit, provide information on a subject area or to entertain. A best designer is the person who can draw the dream concept of his customer in his art and can make the site as it is as his client wishes for and there is no secret for it at all, just you make to sure that you are not enforcing your professionalism over customer project.

What you have to realize, though, is that you’re going to have another kind of visitor with a completely different agenda. So if you want your website to be truly successful at what it does then there are certain points that you need to take into consideration when it is being designed. They’re not going to be looking at your pretty logo and they’re not going to be passing judgment on your background color. Just by applying these simple rules to your website you will be giving your business more of a chance of being successful. What they’re looking for is the content and structure of your page.

The main purpose of the web designing is to create a web site. Sadly many websites suffer from lack of design variation, a lack of imagination and/or development ability. Web site interprets the information about particular topic and website design is creation and arrangement of web pages that can be done by web development that includes but not limited to. Having a website designed in the correct way means it is accessible and usable as well as being search engine ready.

Web Development, ecommerce, CMS, Content Management System, shopping Cart, Business Website Design, Flash Website design, and business development. These can help your site from getting stale and we make sure they are not too different from one another, so as not to confuse potential customers.

Main intent of designing/developing a website is to promote the business, advertising, access of online products, publishing news, giving information, education, money matters, etc. Many of the web developers around have a graphic arts background, meaning they may pay more attention to how a page looks. It is important that the website must be well developed and designed, not under construction, and content must be specific and near about the particular topic, otherwise, rather than considering other issues such as how visitors are going to find your site via a search engine.

SEO is experiencing an increase in popularity, as traditional marketing media decline. But as far more companies become target customers, is there a need for a change of approach?

Many sectors of the media are experiencing a decline in advertising revenue, as people fast-forward through TV ads, and wonder about the value they’re getting from magazine advertising. Online marketing is still on the increase, and as more people become aware of what can be achieved online, there’s a need to start providing different styles of offerings for the very different customer profiles out there.

SEO Search Engine Optimisation (Optimization in the US) is one area that has tremendous growth potential, but many people think it is super-technical and it needs re-positioning if it’s going to appeal to the masses.

Of course SEO is not very technical at all. The process is much more about marketing… understanding the keywords people are putting into the search engines, optimising the web site and submitting press releases, articles and link submissions. It really is a marketer’s job. If only more of the marketing industry understood that, they’d be on to a goldmine.

Then there’s the SEO offerings in the market. Many SEO ‘experts’ prefer to let people think that it is highly technical, or a black art.. something they’d never understand. What’s really needed is a response to the marketplace, which caters for all sizes of companies in all kinds of competitive markets.

Perhaps larger companies, with complex websites, and very competitive markets, require a consultancy approach where they can involve their marketing and IT people in the process and build their own in-house capability in the longer term?

Perhaps there’s also a place for the ‘Do It Yourself’ approach for some companies. Maybe they could use computer aided training to learn the fundamentals, and then have someone on hand on the phone to help when they’re stuck.

You see, the potential marketplace is huge, but there will always be a large part of that market that would be put off by large up-front fees, and on-going monthly maintenance costs. The SEO specialists are actually missing out on a large portion of the market by restricting the way they do business.

So this is a rallying call to the SEO market. It’s time for some evolution. This isn’t a time for the misguided notion that ‘knowledge is power’. Let people know what it’s about… You would ALL benefit.

There is a lot of debate when it concerns the best web page design. Keeping it simple and clean with the minimum of graphics but adequate yet concise information is half the battle won. There are those that think the best business web page design is one filled with all kinds of graphics and data while others will advocate a more sleek and streamlined web page. Zero in on what it is you want the visitor to do; do you want her to purchase a product from you, read information or gain knowledge and design your site accordingly. Some people think that having flash in website design is a must to have best presentation while according to me it depends on the designer that how good he is with his professional art as if he is then even he can make your website design more crispy even without having flash in it.

If your purpose is to design a web page that is a profile type web page that will be used primarily as an informational web page for friends and family. Avoid cluttering up your page with too many graphics. You will also want to put photos on your web page. The more images you have, the more time it takes for downloading. Strike a good balance between graphics and text. This type of web page design can be accomplished with just about any type of web page design program.

The best web page design in this circumstance is generally to design a web page with multiple images and scripts. If the page is too cluttered with information and graphics, it will annoy the viewer. Try to make the page look clean and simple; it must be both legible and navigable. This type of web page design is done with a more advanced web page design program and requires quite a bit of experience. The proper use of white space is one of the critical elements that distinguish a professional design from an amateurish one.

For those of us who market products as an affiliate they are many approaches to use, figuring out the best web page design can be a bit tricky. Plan the design of your site before you start building it. All the content, graphics and links must be carefully thought out during this phase. One way to accomplish your goal is to create a review web page. Always use a light background with dark text. If you are ever in doubt, use black on white. This type of web page can be built with much different type of web page design programs.

If you see your website as an extension of your business, simply online, then you’re on the right track. Otherwise, you are probably throwing money away each month to host a website which only a drains your financial resources.

Many companies in early 2000 rushed to develop an online presence. Basically, companies reproduced their printed brochure with content and placed it in an online format. For most companies, their brochures and direct mailers was the number one marketing tool used to solicit new business and maintain current relationships, so it made sense to create their online presence out of this material. Webmasters and agencies across the country launched websites for their respective companies and clients and waited to see the results … many are still waiting to see them.

Most companies launched an official website, but didn’t create an official web presence. A website contains information about your company. It has information that may or may not be current and is somewhat stagnate related to content. You and your close associates know about your website, no one else does. A web presence is a living entity, a marketing tool, which interacts with your potential and current clients 24/7, 365.

What turns a website into a web presence?

Effective Search Engine Optimization
Potential clients can’t find your website unless you tell them. The best way to get the message out that you exist and can fulfill their need for a particular product or service is to get ranked on the search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Ranking on the major (and minor) search engines is strategic process which can take anywhere from 12 weeks to eight months. There are a lot of factors involved. If anyone tries to tell you they can get your site ranked at the top of Google in six weeks, it’s a scam.

Search Engine Marketing
Take your product or service directly to the top of the search engines, in the form of sponsored links. This is by far the easiest way to rank high on the search engines, but there is a “cost per click” for each potential customer. Google, Yahoo, MSN and many other search engines offer a paid listing on their engines. Although it is easy to sign-up for the paid listings, there is a strategy behind the development of the actual text or image ad, how much to pay for each click and which keywords and key phrases to use. You also need to have a marketing budget in mind.
Now that your audience knows you exist and where to find you, you can begin utilizing the full potential of your website.

Add Ecommerce
Now that you have reached a new market; sell them your product or service. Selling online has not only become commonplace, but quite inexpensive. If you take credit cards at your physical location, you can easily accept them online through your website.

Collect Information
Offer your audience a free report or some other small gift in return for their email address and contact information. This data will come in handy when you want to reach a large audience with an announcement about a new product or service available at your website.

Get Feedback
Want to know what your audience thinks about your product or service? Collect the information online. This data can be valuable in several ways. Number one, you can use this information to contact potential customers at a later date. Number two, you can use this to create a testimonials section for your website. Potential clients always want to know what other customers thought about your product or service and will use this information in their decision process.

Add Interactive Elements: Flash Video
Create an experience for your customers by providing an introduction to your company or demonstrate a product or service.

Update your Content
If your content doesn’t change on a routine basis, you won’t receive return visits to your website. Search engines also keep an eye on content and rank sites accordingly.

Use a Reliable Host
Don’t waste money on “fly-by-night” hosting companies. Most cheap hosting companies who offer 99% uptime with their hosting package know you don’t check and you wouldn’t know if your website was down. Use a company that provides uptime reports or a company that you can trust to monitor your site. If your audience can’t find your site because it is down, you have wasted marketing dollars.

The Next Step
There are literally hundreds of ways you can interact with your customers online and the few above should help you get other ideas rolling your way. The next logical step is to review your own website. Is it providing a source of revenue, or is your site simply a bill you pay every month? If the latter is true, you may want to rethink your current online marketing strategy.