I know it doesn’t make sense, yet it happens all the time. An impatient entrepreneur has a website built with little more than a vague concept of how it should work or what it should do. Or he fixates on what he wants in a website without analyzing what he needs.
A smarter way to design a website or site revision is to hire an experienced Web consultant who can help you “aim” properly. Although Web consultants specialize in different things — such as social media or search engine optimization — they usually offer advice in one of three primary ways. They gather competitive intelligence before your site is built. They measure the search engine presence of an existing website. And they analyze a site’s marketing effectiveness.
Competitive intelligence. Studying the online arena in which you’ll be competing is vital to the success of your Internet marketing endeavors. This requires an analysis not only of your online competitors but of your online prospects — how they search, where they hang out, what they look for. You can lose a lot of money if your site is built on an assumption rather than analysis.
If you don’t do this early in your business planning, you might be unpleasantly surprised.
For example, I was asked to build a site that would rank well for people searching for “home loans” in Columbia. No problem — except people don’t Google “home loans”; they Google “mortgages” by a factor of about 12-to-1. If I hadn’t looked that up, my client and I would have wasted a lot of time and money on a website that didn’t give him much return on his investment.
Knowing in advance how easy or difficult it will be to gain market share online can help you choose the right domain name, plan site content, budget for SEO and might even steer you away from a website.
I’ve recently recommended LinkedIn advertising for one person and Amazon.com’s Fulfillment By Amazon program for someone else. For both, I felt these were faster, cheaper and easier ways to reach their target audience than building a site and getting it to rank in the search engines, which is what they’d originally asked for. I run into a lot of entrepreneurs who have a “great idea” for a website — until someone with less emotional involvement does this kind of research.
Web presence assessment. If your website is already live, it might be performing poorly because it’s not easy to find in Google. Determining how to optimize your website for the search engines is a key outcome of a Web presence assessment. Such research uses many of the same tools as the competitive intelligence analysis; many consultants who do one also do the other.
When I do a Web presence assessment, I look at local profiles and directories, social media, video, content and online reviews. I review search terms, or key words, and compare my client’s site to competitors’ sites. When I identify the issues that are keeping the site from ranking high, I can suggest a plan for improvements. Often, relatively minor or inexpensive changes can dramatically increase site rankings and site traffic.
Marketing assessment. Another way a consultant might offer information to improve your site’s performance is to look at its marketing appeal. If you’re getting traffic to the site but the phone isn’t ringing or the orders aren’t coming in, perhaps your message isn’t getting across clearly.
This type of Web consultation doesn’t concern itself with search engine rankings or website competitors. Rather, it helps you identify boring or misdirected copy, confusing navigation or ordering procedures, design that inhibits conversions and other details pertaining to online copywriting and information architecture.
Finding a Web consultant can be difficult, and you can’t assume a Web designer has this type of expertise. You might have learned the hard way that many attractive, expensive sites don’t return a profit. Look for someone who markets themselves as a consultant and ask what kind of training they’ve had. Ask for references or proof of expertise.
You wouldn’t build a house without having a plan or plan a trip without consulting a guide. Exercise the same care when building your Web presence.
And Web design is an ongoing process, not a one-time event. Things change: Five years ago, mobile phones, online video, social media and online reviews were nowhere near as important as they are now.
Spending several hundred dollars on professional Internet expertise upfront can often save you several thousand dollars later on. And regular “checkups” of your website’s health can help ensure it makes you money for years to come.
Source http://www.columbiatribune.com/
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