Full page Yellow page ads don’t draw new business like they used to and phone companies are struggling to keep advertisers in their once monopolizing book of ads. Local newspapers are becoming sparse with fewer ads, many big names in print have even stopped the presses. Even the US post office is in financial trouble, in need of a fix to continue operating. The common thread? They’re all involved with printed media!
With these old school media options on life control, companies need to make their best marketing efforts on the internet. Now more than ever, if you’re not online with a website that turns up on the first page of search results, your ability to attract new clients will be limited. 78.3% of the North American population used the internet to search in 2011 according to Nielson Online.
A few large companies selling DIY (Do It Yourself) software and websites have wrongly implanted in the public mind set that anyone can build a website. They blast the public with TV ads. “Build you own website.”, “It only takes a night.” “Only $14.95 a month!”
Victims of these campaigns contact us regularly (sometimes only days after they’ve begun working with their DIY site) explaining that they’ve bitten off more than they can chew. Some successfully complete their DIY site. Put it up on their free or dirt cheap bulk hosting account. Finished, they sit by their phone waiting for the flood of internet traffic to come rushing in and ring it off the hook with orders. Time passes, the new business anticipated doesn’t arrive. A year or more later they realize their DIY site doesn’t rank highly or broadly on Google. Friends tell them how nice other websites are but reserve comment on theirs. They come to understand their DIY site doesn’t present them to new prospects in the best light. They’ve lost the time invested in creating a DIY site, but worse – they lost a years’ worth of new business!
Do Your Own SEO… after You Build Your Own Site!
Some think they can perform SEO (Search Engine Optimization) themselves. Stories on the internet claiming DIY SEO and save. In the earlier days of the internet websites were crude. SEO was unrefined. Goggles SPAM filters where an idea of the future. The playing field has changed forever by Google’s mission to serve only the most relevant results and provide the best experience to searchers. Most trashy websites have been eliminated, penalized by Google for improper SEO. Sent to the end of the long list of results returned for virtually any search or worse – removed from the search engine altogether.
Internet marketing has allot of subtle layers that an experienced internet marketer will have years experience working with. Be careful, unfortunately their are countless unscrupulous companies who use this depth and complication to take advantage of unknowing customers every day. We know they solicit our business too!
Valid Code
In July of 2011 Google confirmed that valid web code is one of the 200 plus factors used in their search engines ranking algorithm. Valid code you ask, what is valid code? Another reason you need a professionally designed and constructed website to compete in today’s high speed online marketing world.
Cross Browser Rendering
Ever heard of cross browser rendering Issues? Most would be web designers have no idea what that means. It means your website may not display correctly or function properly across the assortment of popular browsers. Today’s internet differs dramatically from that of 10 years ago. In 2002 Internet Explorer (IE) used by 83% of surfers ruled the web browser world. Bill Gates told everyone they could build their own website using his Front Page web design software. Flash forward to 2011… Bill has been retired for years. Front Page never produce professionally appearing websites. And, IE is used by only 22% of users. Today Firefox is the top browser at 40% with Google’s’ Chrome not far behind at 30%. Creating a website that will work and render in popular browsers is a challenge today, even for professionals. Another reason you need a website designer.
The Fateful Browser Back Button
No matter the browser a visitor uses it’s been proven that if your website does not put your companies best foot forward, visitors will quickly use the back button on their browser and click on the next search result! With new client acquisition costs ever growing can you really afford a sub par website? Can you afford to go it alone?
Slow Site Speed & Long Page Load Times Effect Everyone!
Most would be DIY web designers have no concept of how a web page should load into a visitors browser. Yet, studies have shown that if your web site doesn’t load in 4 seconds, surfers will click their browsers back button!
Even Google has stated on their Webmaster Central Blog that “users place allot of value on speed – that’s why we’ve decided to take site speed into account in our search rankings.”
A professional will be able to make certain that your website looks great and loads quickly. We have our own collocated web servers that we can manage and optimize for fast performance!
If you’re ready to reap the advantages a professional web designer and SEO can offer – contact us at 717-569-2484 or use this link to fill out our contact form and we’ll call you.
