by Guest Blogger Matthew Harper of Oval Solutions Inc.
“I was told I could get a website created by a high school kid for $500.”
This is one of the most common phrases I hear in my day-to-day activities as a web designer. Sure, lots of people can make you a website for $500, including some children. In fact, you can even create a website yourself using pre-designed templates and WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors. However, the end product is the same every time: a boring website that doesn’t work well in all browsers, has no artistic appeal, and no bottomline value.
If you have a website, what is it doing for you? Does it send the image of your business that you want it to? More importantly, is it increasing sales? Or, is it just sitting there with little or no revenue or awareness building traffic?
Creating a phenomenal website that captures your visitors’ attention and engages them in your website is a very fine-tuned art that is developed through years of experience in graphic design and programming. Some of the things that are often left out by an inexperienced web designer are:
WC3 compliant code: This is the standard for writing code. Many inexperienced web designers don’t write their code in compliance with the industry standards. The result is a website that can have unexpected problems as new browsers or browser updates are released. Compliant code ensures that your website, for the most part, looks identical in every browser and on every operating system.
Visitor reporting software to track the success of your website: The most important component of a website is the visitor tracking software. Good visitor tracking software will show you such things as how many people are visiting your website, where your visitors are coming from, what keywords visitors are using on the search engines to find you, and what other sources visitors are using to find you. By analyzing this data, you can pick out some trends that, when acted upon, can greatly increase the ROI of your website.
Relevant information: A website can quickly become unimportant to your target audience unless you keep it updated. Your website can be updated by an experienced webmaster, or by you or your staff through a Content Management System (CMS) to keep your website up to date and fresh. This will keep your visitors interested in your business and coming back regularly. Don’t have a lot of information to change on your website? Use Web 2.0 features such as polls, blogs, and forums.
Artistic appeal: Only a graphic designer well-versed in the latest trends, techniques, and design tools can create a long-lasting and effective design for your website. Businesses hire professional graphic designers for their printed materials for a reason. A website is no different.
As the saying goes, “You get what you pay for.” Websites and other online media are quickly becoming the cornerstones of marketing for businesses, which means you need to invest in them appropriately. $500 will not cover the cost of producing a good quality brochure–let alone a web presence that drives potential customers to buy from your organization. The truth is, you’ll need to pay to hire talent unless you have a web developer in house.
Be realistic about what you need to represent your company online, then find a reputable, experienced web developer to help you through the process, their input and expertise will be worth their weight in gold.
