“A website is
a commodity”
All sites are not created equally, and all sites
will aim for different goals. Your business’
website is a unique marketing and sales tool,
and should be perceived, created and managed as
such.
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“My
business needs a website because every business
needs a website”
This is not always the case. Some businesses
simply cannot benefit from the web at this time.
Now, this is not to say that their needs will
not grow in time to match what a website can
provide.
In truth, it is quite rare to find a business
that could not benefit in some way from having a
website. Some universal applications include
email addresses, company contact information,
listings of products and services, as well as
brand recognition and proliferation. But getting
a website just your neighbor has one is
definitely the wrong attitude to take. Your
needs and goals will be unique and your website
should therefore be unique.
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“If
I build a website, visitors will come”
Sadly, this is not true; at least not very true.
It is true that, in time, the major search
engines will eventually find your website and
index it, but this may not happen for many
months and they may not index your site
favorably (i.e. visitors searching on your
products or services may not be able to find
your website).
Active and passive techniques should be employed
to bolster the amount of ‘targeted’ traffic your
website receives (‘targeted’ traffic consists of
visitors who are actually interested in your
business and its products and services, as
opposed to visitors who wind up on your site by
accident or misleading techniques). ISITE5's
complete web strategy approach focuses heavily
on garnishing high quality visitors to your
website. There is an assortment of different
ways to promote your site, and ISITE5 can
help you get started, or take your existing
strategy to the next level.
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“All
I need on my website is my corporate brochure”
While displaying some standard, ‘corporate’
information on your website can be valuable, the
ways in which content is delivered and read
online vary greatly from the ways it is
presented in print. The content you display
needs to be written for the web; in other words,
it must be short, to the point, highly
organized, and very hierarchical in importance.
Also, a website without goals is a website that
won’t achieve any. Simply placing your brochure
online is not the answer. You must consider
certain factors such as ‘what do I want my
visitors to do on my website’, and ‘what do I
want to tell them’?
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“My
website’s image should be totally unique from the
rest of my marketing efforts”
This is a big mistake. You have invariably spent
lots of time and money creating a brand for your
business. You have certain fonts, colors, and
styles that are already associated with your
brand. When someone who knows your company
offline visits your website and sees something
completely different, they may feel as though
they have landed on a different company’s
website (who happens to have the same name as
your business). This dilutes your brand and can
work against your marketing efforts.
Your website should be closely linked and tied
in to your other marketing and branding efforts.
You need to present a unified front to your
customers to be memorable in the marketplace.
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“My
secretary’s husband’s nephew, Billy, knows
computers. I’ll get him to build our site”
This is probably the single largest and most
common mistake people make when having a
website built.
 If
you think you are going to save thousands of
dollars and receive professional results, you
are going to be sorely mistaken. Although Billy
may know a little about building basic web pages
and manipulating pictures of snowboarders, he
will almost certainly miss many important
aspects of site design, not to mention site
management, promotion, analysis, usability,
accessibility, etc. After all, Billy's in 10th grade.
Most businesses who undertake this low cost
approach will be sorely disappointed in the
results. Their website will typically lack
focus, cohesion and direction, and will not have
been built for scalability or the changing needs
of a business.
You wouldn’t entrust someone with an interest
in watching ‘ER’ to perform your heart
surgery, no matter how close of a friend
they were or how well they could pronounce
'angioplasty'. You would trust the professionals
– that’s us (not at heart surgery, though - we
tend to focus on websites).
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“I
don’t need a custom website. I’ll just use a
template”
It is true that using a template or having a
junior website firm develop your site for you
using a template will save you money. But just
keep in mind the age old business adage, ‘you
get what you pay for’.
A template site may in fact be a good starting
point to ease your business onto the web, but it
is definitely not a tool for taking your online
strategy to the next level. Your website should
have specific and measurable goals, and these
goals will be unique to your business. More
often than not, a template will be unable to
facilitate meeting those goals. It would be like
trying to fit a square peg into a round hole –
it’s just not a perfect match.
At ISITE5 each site we design and manage is
built to exacting specifications based uniquely
on your business and its needs. No templates
allowed.
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