In an online marketing project, the first and most important decision is selecting the type of website that you must purchase to meet your business objectives.
If you have been appointed by a steering committee as the responsible for the project of the design of the new website for your company, probably your first concern right now is to determine what web design agency will be in charge of site development, how long it will take to finish the project and how much will likely cost.
If you have been appointed by a steering committee as the responsible for the project of the design of the new website for your company, probably your first concern right now is to determine what web design agency will be in charge of site development, how long it will take to finish the project and how much will likely cost.
Every web design agency uses a different methodology to define the cost of the project. Some offer services in a package and others quote the site based on specific requirements. Generally, services that are sold as a package including registration and hosting for the first year and design a basic website to have some presence on the Internet. In the event that your company requires a more comprehensive website, you will have to exclude the packages option and then the cost of the project will be determined based on three criteria: type of site, site size and number of languages.
Of these three data, the number of languages is usually the first and faster to define, since the same target market tells us in what languages we should publish the site. The size, or amount of content, it is also somewhat easy to determine, because all you need for a start is simply an index of the topics you want covered. Unlike the first two requirements, determining the type of site is not as easy as it sounds and most companies fail at this point. In an online marketing project, the first and most important decision you make is the selection of the type of site to be acquired to meet the goals your organization has to accomplish.
Without going into further technical descriptions of the details of Internet marketing and trying to be as specific as possible, you can normally find two main kinds of web sites: conventional sites and professional sites. There are important differences between them, but there are two characteristics that distinguish one group from another perfectly, which is the scope (performance) of the site and its price.
Conventional web sites
A conventional web site is one site that has been designed only for the sake of just having a website and a presence on the internet, not to reach the widest possible exposure on the Web. In fact, once designed, a conventional website will inevitably require some external means of promotion (press release, radio, television, print advertising, pay per click, etc.) to generate visitors.
If what your company is looking for is to have a presence on the internet and your department has a limited budget, a conventional web page is then your best option. There are many alternative sites that offer packaged services that include domain registration, hosting and web design.
Conventional websites work excellently in combination with other means of promotion. For example, if you have already visited a client to show the full line of products and services your company offers and you gave him/her your card and / or other document with your printed URL, they can go to your website to expand the information you provided them. In the case of conventional sites, visitors must always have prior knowledge of the website, as they rarely find the page through a search engine like Google, Yahoo or Windows Live.
Conventional websites developed in movie formats (Flash) have been widely accepted in the market, above of static sites developed in standard formats (HTML), because the animation is much more attractive to most people, primarily for managers and directors who make purchasing decisions. However, sometimes a website turns out to be inappropriate in flash formats, such as sites containing a comprehensive product catalog with descriptions and technical information.
Almost all small businesses websites fall into the category of conventional websites. I do not have precise figures, but according to my experience there are very few companies that choose to hire professional websites. Part through ignorance and largely due to the increased supply of web design services in that are precisely from conventional sites, not so much because companies do not require professional sites.
Professional websites
If the purpose of your business is promoting your products and services to generate greater business opportunities through the website, then you should hire a professional website design developed by a SEO specialist (search engine optimization specialist).
The most important feature of a professional website is the ability of promoting and generating business opportunities on its own, which is accomplished through the large number of qualified potential customer visits coming from search engines. Definitely the most notable difference between a conventional web site and a professional website, is that the latter is designed to achieve search engine positioning and the other just to have a presence, or as they say in business jargon, "to have my web page".
Professional websites developed in standard code (HTML) or with a content manager (CMS) are the best option in the market, even above websites developed with animation formats (Flash), because the animation (Flash) greatly reduces the possibility of achieving the desired search engine rankings.
A professional website is different in scorpe, development methodology, standards of design and price. It's true thou that the costs of developing a professional website are higher, but also the greater are the benefits obtained.
Comparison Chart
| Concept | Conventional Website | Professional Website |
| Scope | Presence only with only limited promotion | Promotion of products and services and brand positioning |
| Development Time | From 2 to 6 weeks on average | 6 to 12 weeks on average |
| Cost | $300 to $5,000 USD o more | $3,000 to $15,000 USD o more |
| Package Services | Yes | No |
| Minimum Content | One page and above | 25 to 50 pages minimum |
| Pages Loading Time | Whatever | Minimum |
| Total pages | 3 to 5 pages or more | Direct access to information |
| Development platform | FLASH, HTML and CMS | HTML and CMS |
| Search Engine Positioning | No | Yes |
| Search Engine Registration (1) | Yes | Not required |
| Ranking | Low or void | Medium or High |
| Traffic | Low | Medium or High |
| Benefits | Limited promotion, good results in combination with other types of promotion | Promotion, generates business opportunities and brand positioning |
| Professional Services | Web Designer | SEO Specialist |
| Notes: (1) Many web design agencies offer search engine registration service as a key to search engine optimization, but the reality is that registration is only a simple request and has no effect on the positioning of the site, in fact in practice is not even necessary. | ||
Get the right product
Avoid making the same mistake that many companies incur every day. If you are looking for promotion, hire a professional website. These are two different products and is very difficult if not impossible to convert a conventional website to a professional website. If you purchased a conventional website and now you're interested in further promotion, you're likely to have to discard the current website and build a new one. This seems like a smart move, but when you have already prepared the budget for the website development is not easy to convince the steering committee that is necessary to design a second site, where only a few months ago resources were invested in the project. You should properly define the type of website that your company needs BEFORE investing in development.
If you want to know what type of website your company purchased, it is easy to determine. Do some Internet searches for products and services your company offers and if your website never appears within the first 30 natural search results, it is a conventional site.
RELATED POSTS
If you want to know what type of website your company purchased, it is easy to determine. Do some Internet searches for products and services your company offers and if your website never appears within the first 30 natural search results, it is a conventional site.
RELATED POSTS
About the Blog Author: Timpa has the mission of providing all entrepreneurs, whether experiencied or not in online business strategies, with the right information to help them manage their businesses online in the best, most time-effective and cost-effective, smarter way.
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