Do you have a great idea for a product or service? Maybe you have an innovative idea for a website that people would rave about, but you’re not sure where to start.
Seven years ago, I was in the same position. I’d come to the end of a career and I was looking at starting my own business. It would need a website if I was to launch it in the best way possible and I didn’t know much about how to build one so I called some web design companies to get quotes.
How much?
When I’d picked myself up off the floor I wondered what I was going to do. None of the companies I spoke to had really asked me anything at all. They didn’t ask what features the website would need, whether it was going to be an ecommerce site, or just provide information. They basically said, “5 pages, £2500” and not a lot else.
What did I do? I started to learn about internet marketing, social media, building websites, SEO and lots more. It wasn’t long before I was being asked to help friends out. I’m sure you can connect the dots from that position to where I am today, having a business that provides internet marketing services or internet marketing solutions as I call them. I call them ‘solutions’ because internet marketing is about so much more than just websites.
Mobile friendly websites
With the growing trend of people accessing the internet solely through smart phones and tablets, the importance of having a dynamic website that suits all platforms should be a mandatory component in any business plan. These are known as mobile friendly or responsive. For these kinds of websites, it doesn’t matter what size the screen is that the website is being viewed on, the website adapts and displays sensibly and clearly, for example horizontal menus automatically become drop down menus making it easier to navigate on a mobile device.
I won’t bore you about Google’s menagerie of pandas and penguins (sorry, bit of an internet marketing joke) but Google’s algorithm changes had a massive impact on how websites are ranked and consequently how they should be constructed. If you’re talking to a web designer and they don’t know about Google’s petting zoo (Panda and Penguin), then walk away. Its a reasonable assumption the website you’ll get from them, will not work for your business in the way that it should.
In my humble opinion I would avoid someone who offers to provide you with a website but says you should get SEO from someone else. It’s a good indication that they haven’t kept up to date. Providing a website without inbuilt SEO, is a bit like going to buy a car but the car dealer says, “Sorry we don’t do engines. You’ll have to get that somewhere else”. Be careful about other claims from web designers, that border on being illegal, putting it mildly.
“We can get you on the first page of Google, honest!”
I saw an advert this week offering cheap websites that rather generously came with a guarantee that your business would also be on the 1st page of Google and if you wanted they would also get you 1,000 likes on your Facebook page too. To the business owner who thinks that is attractive, you are being played.
Achieving a high rank on Google for a useful keyword or chain of keywords, takes a lot of time and effort. It doesn’t happen overnight. If you have a unique business name or product name, then of course, even I would offer to get you on the first page of Google, honest! Anyone could easily rank you on the first page of Google for something as unique as: ‘Zaphod Beeblebrox elastic trousers Timbuktu’.
I can see it now. The triumphant web designer beaming as he shows his client the search engine results. This kind of result is worthless. Quite frankly it’s an insult to the people in the industry that do provide quality services rather than employ cheap ‘snake oil salesman’ tactics to dupe unsuspecting people. This result is worthless because nobody will likely search for that series of words and it will therefore not bring you traffic. No traffic, means no sales. The whole point of getting a high rank is that people will find your business organically, i.e. they will find your business in the natural search results rather than you having to pay that search engine to feature in the paid for advertising areas on the page.
What is a clickfarm?
As for this joker guaranteeing a business, ‘likes’ on Facebook, or ‘followers’ on Twitter, its also worthless. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a powerful hook to get people interested, but in reality it is meaningless. These kinds of cheap results, though they may seem like great value for money, are usually achieved by paying £50 to a clickfarm in India (as is often the case) where people spend hours logging in and out of fake accounts clicking on your page or profile. Not only is it unethical (giving a false reading to others that your business is being spoken about and thus implying it is popular and therefore legitimate), but there are a number of legal opinions that believe it could constitute fraud. On a lower level, it almost certainly is false advertising (governed in the United Kingdom by the ASA). Some major brands were recently caught out using click farms, mainly by third parties rather than using these methods themselves, and if they can be caught out, then so can you. Facebook’s comment to one journalist was that they would remove any such actions on an account, and could remove the account altogether. That’s a massive risk and one that I don’t think is worth taking.
What features should you look for in a website for your business? Interactive and engaging (encouraging sharing on social media), mobile friendly, inbuilt social media sharing and connectivity, smooth efficient ecommerce transactions with the fewest clicks possible, fast loading times and also a menu that is easy to navigate and has no more than 3 layers deep.
If you’re thinking about getting a website make sure it has all the right features and remember, internet marketing is about so much more than just websites.
If your website was built before or around April 2011, AND it has remained relatively unchanged since then, there is a good chance it is losing you business to your competitors that have updated their website. There’s a very good chance your website will not be optimised for Google’s current search criteria.
Many websites with certain characteristics saw as much as a 50% reduced traffic rate overnight, when Google Panda (algorithm change) went live. If your website needs a service, get in touch and we can provide you with an evaluation and full report.
