Do You Need A Web Site?

We think this is an interesting question.  We have definitely seen an explosion in Web use. If you're like us, you bank online, shop online, find movies online.  But, how effective is the Web in attracting new business for small firms selling products and services?  There are 50 million daily visitors to the World Wide Web.  They go online to do research, buy, and sell.  The number of Web visitors is growing.  For years, businesses relied on yellow pages, trade magazines and newspaper ads to broadcast their message.  As the Web has grown in popularity, the importance of traditional advertising media has diminished.  Who needs a Web presence?  Ultimately, you have to ask yourself whether your target audience is more likely to dust off the yellow pages to find you, or use the Internet.  I'll bet, more and more buyers are using the Internet to locate products and services like yours.  If your competitors have a site and you don't, will you be left out in the cold?  We believe that while a Web site may not be sufficient for all or your marketing needs, not having one is getting riskier every day.

Types of Webs - Brochure Sites versus Interactive Sites

Use your Web site to send a consistent message of quality.  One of the most important marketing strategies you can adopt is spreading a consistent message of quality.  The message you send comes from the appearance of your premises to the professional look of your letters and invoices.  Many company's strive to take advantage of every chance to interact positively with prospects and clients to re-enforce the quality message.  A well designed Web site can be used to further support this goal.

Getting Started

There is a lot to a Web site.  Less is more.  The presentation should be pleasing graphically, words and phrases should get your visitor's attention and score well with search engines measuring key word position and density.  It's like 3-dimensional chess!

The first step, if you don't have one, is getting a domain name that visitors can type into their browser address bars to get to your site.  If you're a business, these names end in .COM, .NET, .BIZ etc if you are a government or organization they end in .GOV or .ORG.

Step one:  choosing and registering a domain name.  

If you are just starting out, you need to identify your target audience and build your site around a theme that resonates with your audience.

Once the site is developed, it needs to be indexed with the search engines and optimized so that when searches are conducted using key words and phrases relevant to your site, your pages show up in the top ten.

Much has been written about web site positioning and while a well-established site can consistently show up in the top ten listings with lots of work (depending on the topic), or show up in sponsored listings using Pay Per Click (PPC) services from Overture and/or Google, it may be better initially to direct clients and prospects to your site using phone contacts and print advertising referencing your web address.

Brochure Web

Most sites start out as a brochure web featuring your products or service, telling your story and offering visitors something of value.  Your site can have one page or hundreds of pages.