Articles

Developing a profitable web presence

18th July 2006

Whether you spend hundreds or even thousands of pounds on the development of your website, the site could still fail to achieve its business goals due to a number of common traps.

1) Usable site

Most companies can put together a standard looking website which shows your products, has a home, about and contact page, and allows people to shop and buy your products online.

The best websites provide something unique or different, and that needs an agency that can think outside the box. But the most profitable websites are easy to use, have good navigation and are accessible to all.

Before you start thinking about what your customers really want to see and do on your website, think carefully about its content. What would be of extra value to your customers? Perhaps special offers or interactive features. With this in mind, still continue to ensure you keep your eye on the bottom-line: selling your products and services. At elaborations we specialise in producing websites that work hard for your business.

2) Managing your website

Too many businesses only look at the initial cost of setting up a website when trying to determine value for money. You also need to look at how your site will be maintained in the long term - costs for a web design company to change content, make additions to the site and so on, may take time and can be expensive. Going for the cheapest option doesn't always make sense. Remember that although the initial cost could be cheaper the service you receive will reflect this cost. With an inefficient website company, you may have to continually chase them to do your updates, they may fail to deliver on time and the design itself may not be unique. All this can lead to sites which stay static - and which ultimately is as bad as not having a website at all. Visitors only return to websites that change regularly. And the same content month in and month out can damage your brand and mean your site does not register with search engines.

To reduce ongoing website maintenance costs and enable you to keep your site up to date without the need for a web design company charge, we can provide you with a Content Management System, so you can update your website yourself, anytime, anywhere.

3) Optimisation for search engines

Work on your website to get it ranked at the top of search engines. We all know that around 80% of users who come online start on a search engine.

At elaborations we take your website optimisation seriously. We ensure your site is hand coded with plenty of internal links and navigation; the content contains a high density of relevant keywords; that each page contains different meta tags (our Content Management System allows you to edit the meta tags of every page yourself without having to touch any code) and we work hard to help you get as many relevant sites as possible linked to your website.

4) Driving traffic to your site

It's no good having a fantastic looking, highly useable website if no one can find it! And likewise, it's no good getting lots of traffic to your website if your site looks terrible and the first thing a user does is click on the back button and goes back to where they came from and onto a competitors site!

At elaborations we can help you to build up traffic to your website by optimising your site for search engines; helping you create Pay Per Click advertising campaigns and creating vibrant email newsletters that engage your customers and have links back to your website. And remember - print your website address on everything - business cards, letterheads, adverts and so on.

Just because you have high traffic coming to your site, doesn't necessarily mean you're doing well. It is crucial that the traffic you get are from genuine prospective customers that can be converted into clients by your website. So it's important to analyse the traffic that comes to your site and monitor where it's coming from and your conversion rate of clicks into sales.

5) Remember, not all web design companies are the same.

Be careful. There are some web design agencies that are very good and some that are poor. Unfortunately it is not always easy for those outside the industry to know which is which. Luckily you can always check the agency's portfolio of previous clients. Many clients miss out this step, but it's always important to get references before signing any contracts. Some useful tips:

- Look at the style and designs on the agency's portfolio - do you like their work?
- Try to speak to or email previous clients to find out what they thought.
- If possible meet with the web design agency and have a chat with them - do you get on? Even if you can't meet face to face, call them up and speak to a project manager - do you feel comfortable talking to them on the phone? Do they listen to what you have to say and take into account your requirements? Have they told you what they will provide you with exactly when giving you a quote for your website?


Finally, chose an agency that listens to you and works with you. Good agencies will work hard to understand your business and customers, preparing the ground before they start to design. At elaborations we are committed to you and dedicated to increasing your online presence while offering a standard of customer service that is second to none.