Is your business thinking of redesigning its website? Polls show that, on average, about 76% of companies are dissatisfied with their website design.Given that the quality, functionality and find-ability of your website plays a major role in new business acquisition and industry reputation, there are tens of thousands of dollars at stake here.
Unfortunately there are many amateur web site design firms in Dallas all claiming to offer much the same thing. So how you you choose the right web site design firm?
Let's start with what NOT to choose. Here are the three top mistakes companies make when designing or upgrading their website:
1• The GRAPHICS web guy: these types tend to be individuals or boutiques. To them it is all about your "image" and, to them, that means graphics. If it looks cool, then it is a success.
Wrong. There is more to a site than its look and its graphics. Yes, it has to look professional, but these guys often saccrifice a truly professional look for a "cool" look in their taste. The result is a trendy-looking web site that does not really serve the users. It may accomplish the goal of being a fancy online brochure, but these days web sites can be and do so much more than that.
The other no-no is that a site based on graphics or flash is unfriendly to the search engines. That means it actually HINDERS your business form being found. And with competition more intense than ever, what you actually end up with is burying your business.
No only does the "graphics guy" website cost you to build, it costs your business much more than that in lost visibility.
2 • The Web PROGRAMMER: The second pitfall when making a business website is to go with a web programming firm. Why you ask? Well the problems are the opposite extreme of the "graphics guy."
Your site will look sterile... boxy... impersonal. And while the site may function properly from a programming standpoint, it turns off your prospects with an unfriendly user experience.
You see, there is also more to a successful web site than programming. Yes programming is an important part, but programming-minded people should not steer the ship when it comes to developing a professional web site (unless you only deal with other programmers). From a mental and personality standpoint, only 15% of the population likes an "engineering" approach to web sites. That means, while your site may be a functional success, it is ALSO successfully turning away 85% of your prospects. Not good!
When your visiter uses your web site, it should be pleasing, professional and intuitive. It needs a humanizing element to reach your target at where he or she is. Unless your target audience are all Vulcans, the "programmer type" of web site runs off the road to success in the opposite ditch -- costing your company plenty of lost revenue.3• Outsourcing Your Web Design Overseas. This is a disaster waiting to happen. Web companies from India are the worst. Because Covenant Designs Marketing Communications is provides professional web development, I get about 4 contacts a week from this or that person in India wanting a chunk of my business.
One problem is this: overseas companies don't understand the American mindset, so they cannot communicating or marketing to, Americans. Not only are their linguistic skills lacking, and their time zone completely off, their problem-solving ability crippled, and their customer service lacking, they simply don't get what is needed in today's American web site.
So don't be lured in by cheap prices. 100% of people I encounter who try overseas end up regretting it sooner or later.
Now that you have avoided those pitfalls, just who DO you use to do a web site right? You need the right combination of skill sets
• professional look
• intuitive design
• functional programming
• marketing savvy in terms of information presentation
• information ergonomics so your user can find, use and be MOVED TO ACTION by your website
• and, last but not least, Search Engine Friendliness (also called Search Engine Optimization -- SEO)
I’m not going to lie to you. This is not an easy task. Let me emphasize that last bullet on SEO -- this factor will severely impact the results your site gets after it is running. After all, it is ONLY when your web site is found by your customers and prospective customers that you even have a chance to introduce your products and services. Sadly most web site designers don't have time or inclination to stay up on their SEO expertise.
As a side note: all Promise Productions web sites come with full SEO built in. That fact alone adds well over $1,000 in value to each web site we deliver.
This combination of skill sets, to our thinking, means that you need a Marketing Communications firm. We believe that Marketing should have the uppermost hand in directing the content, presentation and programming of your company's web site.
After all, your site is there to present your image to your prospects, deliver your value proposition and give them a compelling call to action. Those are all functions of good marketing.
Now right here is where I have to give a little commercial for Promise Productions. You see, that is who we are. We apply marketing communications to deliver your message to your audience through the web for optimum results. We have all the skill sets for success. Our experience communicating, designing, programming, marketing through the search engines and persuading means we deliver a web site poised to deliver solid results.
Learn more about our professional Dallas Web Site Design and Development services or simply take a look at our web site design gallery and you will see that each site is unique because it it tailored to be effective in its particular market.
You may like some and not like others. That is perfectly OK, because again, each one is meant to accomplish a specific marketing and business development goal that may not have anything to do with what your company needs to accomplish through its web site design.
Promise Productions' approach: we look at the online landscape, your marketplace and your competition to deliver a solid business class web site -- one designed to DOMINATE your chosen market. You want your website to MAKE you money, not just cost it right? That is why our marketing expertise drives the design and programming of your web site. Its simply the best way to enjoy happy clients!
If you are ready for the results a truly professional web site design can make possible for your business call us today at 214-703-0360.
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