For most businesses, a web site is one of the most important investments you can make. Entrepreneurs are either overspending or underspending on their web sites, and many have no idea what they’re doing or why. So today I’m going to talk about why a good, solid web site really matters to your business, and in the next two weeks, I’ll follow up with articles on the core components your web site needs to work well for you, and how to hire a solid web firm to build your site affordably.
1. Your web site reflects you as a business owner and professional.
If your web site looks professional, your potential clients will think you’re a professional who has enough clients and enough income to have a site built for you. If potential clients visit your web site and it looks half-assed and home-built that’s how they’ll perceive you.
If you’re a web developer, by all means, build your own site, as that will reflect your capabilities. Everyone else, hire a solid company that can do a good job, not just in building your web site, but in getting it seen and in building it wisely to maximize the traffic you’ll get.
2. Your web site can mean extra local business.
Even if you’re primarily brick and mortar, having a solid web site can mean extra business. Local clientele often perform seaches online and find your web site, encouraging them to walk into your store. If they find your competitors and they look more reputable or solid than you (or if they have a web site and you don’t), you’ll lose business, just because of your web site. And, when you’re mentioned in the media or on review sites like Angie’s List, you’ll need a web site to help people find you.
3. Your web site can mean global business.
Did you ever think about getting orders from Australia or Malaysia? Launching a fantastic web site means you’ll instantly become a global business, allowing you to expand your clientele to a much larger audience. Your web site is visible in almost every country around the globe, and that means you expand your potential client base by millions. You’ll still want to keep your target market in mind, but an international audience may still find you appealing.
4. Your web site can generate media interest.
If a journalist is looking for an expert in your field to quote for an article, s/he is more likely to choose the business owner whose web site looks professional and clean than someone who looks like they don’t really know what they’re doing. And as most of you know, a mention in the media can be powerful for your business!
Don’t do your business a disservice by putting up a shoddy web site. Take care and invest wisely in your business web site by hiring someone who knows what they’re doing. Next week I’ll talk about what components you need in your web, and in two weeks, I’ll cover how to hire a web company.
Dead on. But many businesses fall on their face with their website.
Hiring a cut-rate friend of a friend that is handy with HTML is NOT how to get a great website.
Making your website yourself in Front Page is also not an option.
Honestly, bite the bullet and hire a pro that can show you some examples of their work. They need to use real tools like Dreamweaver or other real tools and not some “website in a can wizard”. IF they use MS Word to make wesites or Publisher… Run AWAY.
Your website is not going to be dirt cheap, but in the long run it is cheaper than TV advertising. If you spend about $1000-$3500 for your website with a professional, you will get something that looks good and works well. If you spend more you can save money by doing updates yourself if they write or use website software to allow you to adjust or add content, instead of hiring them again to change the text.
Finally, dont expect a website to be a magical money maker, it will not be. It’s another place for people to find you. And they do not know it’s there unless you advertise it’s location.
“If potential clients visit your web site and it looks half-assed and home-built that’s how they’ll perceive you.”
Well put.
I wholeheartedly agree. It pains me every time I talk to a friend who is uber-excited about their website, not knowing that what they have wouldn’t even be design-forward in the mid-90′s.
@timgray: good point about websites not being ‘magical money makers:’ I have personal built beautiful and very functional websites for clients who have then proceeded to not touch them for 2 or 3 years, all the while wondering why they aren’t part of this ‘Internet revolution’ thing they keep hearing about. A website is like any other part of marketing; you’ll usually get back about what you put into it.
Great points. I was just talking with a reader who suggested I needed to make more obvious what the purpose of my site is. I will utilize your advice. Thank you
Spot on! I’ve known too many people who practice their grammar, table manners, and coordinate their clothing a day in advance before meeting with clients but have near-zero web presence. It’s especially ill boding if your peers have very web-savvy pages.
Speaking as a professional freelance web developer, I can’t even begin to say how accurate timgray’s comment is.
The designs and sites you’ll get from a cousin’s friend or someone that hacks sites together in Word or Frontpage are unspeakable. And not just from a design standpoint, either. Often they won’t be accessible to people with disabilities or to web spiders (basically the same thing, without the person, though). Paying the extra money for a professional that can explain things like SEO, accessibility, and web standards to you will save you tons in the long run.
Also with technologies like WordPress and Perch, there’s really no reason not to spend a little extra and get your site built to where you can customize the content yourself later on.
Its important to remember that a great looking and easy to use website is enough to get you into the race, the real competition begins when you start work on SEO..but thats another topic completely!
A simple website is just what the user need to navigate without any problems.
I read about a new website in film business and i found it rather unique.
if you want to take a closer look:
http://www.infilm.org
I know first hand of the importance of having a website for a business. I owned my own business in the service industry, but the website on the back-end of things was not up to par of what we were trying to communicate as a whole. It is very possible that I walked into meetings, pitched my idea, and then the prospect client went right to our website and was confused. So it is very important that you have a website that reflects your business and is done professionally.
Actually SEO is far less important than getting your site linked to in other places. Making sure that whenever you post information about your area of expertise you have a link to your site. Better yet a link to an article or information on your site (real info not a link to links.) that can add more information about the topic.
Links to you on other sites are far more important than SEO of the website. Having real content on the website is also far more important.
timgray, having links from content relevant sites and having an appropriate amount of keywords plus solid, valuable content on your site are both a part of SEO, thus I don’t really rank any of these are more or less important, but all integral parts of the same thing.
Kenneth Love, I don’t know of a single business that can truly thrive on a WordPress site. As for Perch, why use a for-pay solution, when open source is available?
Yup, A first look at your website is all that needed.
Simple, easily navigate and yet elegant.
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I think it’s funny, timgray, that you would say, “IF they use MS Word to make wesites or Publisher… Run AWAY,” or that you would suggest that a teenager couldn’t make a professional site. I’m an 18 year-old web designer/developer, and I can tell you my sites are high quality (more so than yours, by the way, which failed the w3c validation test). Furthermore, Dreamweaver isn’t required of all web designers. I write the code for my sites in Notepad++. It takes longer to do, but the result is a cleaner site, cleaner code, and a greater amount of control over the final product.
the website is like a business card. If the user find it ugly, with a bad design, and without style, or without enough information than he will defined go to yuor competitors. A good and valuable site is a plus for your business.
Absolutely agree with you here. The website is the face of the business – critically so if the business is an online one. I’ve been spending a lot of time getting my blog design right, especially I noticed I was getting a lot of first time visitors but not a high conversion to repeat traffic. I suspected it was likely the non-user friendly site design that was not letting users get to the content. It’s a work-in-progress situation for me at the moment – I’ll be happy to hear feedback from others if any too.
Nice column interesting comments.
We do a lot of web design and application development. One neat aspect of this business is the talent is global.
For example, we have a network of coders and designers from New Zealand to Romania. This affords us economies of scale, a deeper talent pool, and 24/7 operations. Local face, global reach.
Aloha from Hawaii!
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good article, I hope this is use for us
thanks
I didn’t say a site could thrive on WordPress alone. I said WordPress and Perch could help power the dynamic parts of your site and (meant to infer) that it could be cheaper than a custom solution.
As for why to pay for Perch instead of using an open-source alternative: for-pay products USUALLY have a better turn around on support and innovation. I love open source and do my best to use it whenever I can, and contribute back to the community, but open source isn’t a magic bullet. Also, knowing the developers behind Perch, it’s made to be as friendly and capable as possible without all the hassle of many open source applications. It’s plug-and-play, more or less.
In the end, though, it’s all a matter of what you’re willing to pay your developer for and what they’re good at/comfortable with.
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[...] Las empresas, con sus marcas y productos, y los responsables de marketing y comunicación, necesitan adaptarse, y mirar al nuevo mundo con los ojos de hoy. La inversión, en ese tu lugar en Internet, proporciona un beneficio a medio / largo plazo, que en ocasiones, las menos, pueden llegar a sorprender en el corto plazo. No es cuestión de confianza y ser creyentes, es estar hoy en la mente del consumidor del mañana. Y los datos, crisis mediante, dicen que tu audiencia está en Internet buscando a tu empresa, y esto tiene implicaciones importantes para tu negocio. [...]
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Websites are becoming a very important aspect of business nowadays, as the internet is rapidly growing.
I think first impressions count, and if a potential customer sees a unfinished not very well designed site, they will take their business elsewhere!
We do a lot of web design and application development. One neat aspect of this business is the talent is global. Was a very good article. Thank you.
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Its a great article, website design is much more importance because it can capture the visitors and to increase traffics and get more business
[...] Why a website is still important Posted on June 12, 2009 by Roberto For most businesses, a web site is one of the most important investments you can make. Entrepreneurs… [...]
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Great points. I was just talking with a reader who suggested I needed to make more obvious what the purpose of my site is. I will utilize your advice. Thank you
Consumers compare websites for several reasons. If you
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websites for clients who have then proceeded to not touch them for 2 or 3
years, all the while wondering why they aren’t part of this ‘Internet
revolution’ thing they keep hearing about. A website is like any other
part of marketing.
Great points. I was just talking with a reader who suggested I needed to make more obvious what the purpose of my site is.