Tag Archive | "web"

How the Cost of Websites Has Come Down Over the Last Couple of Years

Posted on 08 January 2012. Tags: , , , ,

In today’s technological advancement, having a website or online presence for your business has become a very essential part for marketing your company. Those businessmen who have websites built for their company have observed that they gain more income because having an online presence allows you to gain more potential buyers since the customers gain access to your company’s products and services all around-the-clock.

Businessmen who depend on the traditional way of marketing their company and who depend solely on the sales they get from their physical storefront have a slow growth on their customer base than those businessmen who exploit the benefits of having a virtual storefront and physical storefront.

Although there’s the benefit of having the sales increase more than usual, there are still some businessmen who are skeptical and reluctant to invest in a website for their business. One of the reasons for this is that some business owners do now know the expected cost for building a website. They believe that having a website built or redesigned is expensive and they assume that having a website does not help their business at all. Some business owners wrongly conclude that the investment will not pay off eventually because they already have encountered bad experience with some web agencies and some of them are just unaware of its benefits so instead of investing their money in websites, they opt for spending it more on production or on the traditional way of marketing their business.

The cost for developing a website has drastically come down over the last couple of years. From $7,500 to $12,000 which was the price range for developing a website fifteen years ago, it comes down to approximately $1,000 today. Well, there are many important factors to consider when estimating a web site cost but the point is that the cost for building the same professional website with the same number of pages and features has changed a lot over time.

For some of you who are interested to have their websites built or redesigned, you might wonder how the cost of websites has come down over the last couple of years and you might also wonder if you can really rely on these websites when the price has come down for up to 7 times lower than before. I will answer these questions in the following paragraphs.

Just like other high-priced goods and services, the cost for developing a website has come down over the last couple of years. The reasons for the massive drop in website development cost are the following:

  • Modern and high-end web development tools already exist nowadays. These tools have made it possible for web developers to build professional-looking and powerful websites easier and faster than before. Moreover, there are plenty of reliable open-source software for developing websites today so web developers are not forced to use proprietary software products which increases the web development cost. Also, the prices of the components needed to create a website (such as domain name registration and web hosting) have also come down drastically because of improvements in technology.
  • The competition to produce powerful yet very affordable websites is growing every year. As years pass by, business owners and regular people have realized how important it is to have a website or online presence for a company so the demand for web developers and web designers have increased extensively. Moreover, there are more and more web developers each year who are able to build nicely designed websites with fast loading speed and full of useful features who charged as little as $1000. There are also plenty of freelancers online and web development companies who compete in providing the most cost-effective websites besides developing interactive websites with superior quality for all customers. And because of the existence of the internet, a business owner can now hire a web developer or web development company from the Philippines or India which will significantly bring down the cost of developing a website.

The above paragraphs have clearly stated the conditions which made it possible for the cost of websites to come down over the last couple of years. Hopefully this article has helped clear some confusions and questions you have regarding cheap websites. Of course, you can rely on websites developed nowadays even if their price is 7 times lower than before.

Low cost websites which are offered by many web development companies, freelancers and developers does not necessarily mean that the quality of the website sucks. In fact, the decline in the price of websites over the last couple of years is something that we should all thank for because now, it is possible for every one of us including businessmen to enjoy the benefits of having a website. Just remember that when you invest in a website, make sure that the person or company who will do the job are trustworthy and when the website is already available, make full use of it.

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Meeting Visitor Expectations: Hate To Tell You This, But It’s NOT About You

Posted on 03 January 2012. Tags: , , , ,

When you access a web site, do you think about the owner of that site? Do you care if that web site succeeds as an on-line business? Do you have certain expectations when you visit for the first time?

As the owner of a web-based business, you have certain objectives. Your objectives might include:

  • selling a product
  • selling a service
  • collecting email addresses through an opt-in module
  • signing up subscribers to your newsletter
  • enticing site visitors to pick up the telephone and call you
  • providing incentives to visit your store or place of business (local search)
  • gathering information through the completion of a form

These are one or more of your objectives. However, they aren’t the objectives of the site visitor who may be shopping around for a better price (comparison shopping), seeking the advice of a business or financial consultant or printing out directions to your store across town.

The fact is, the objectives of site owners and site visitors are often at odds and that leads to a high bounce rate. Visitors arrive on site, at some expense and effort on your part, however they fail to find the information they’re looking for and they bounce – they leave before they perform your most desired action.

The key to site success is to meet all of your site visitors objectives simply, clearly and transparently. Any attempt to “fool” visitors is bound to fail. Today’s sharp web users know a come-on when they see one. The tactics that worked five years ago don’t work today.

For example, when you offer a free eBook download in exchange for an email address opt-in, that visitor knows that her email client inbox is going to be loaded with spam as you send out auto-responder after auto-responder in a fruitless attempt to back sell that visitor to the grave. Even capturing an email address with an ethical bribe no longer works. Web users know why you want their email addresses and many are reluctant to provide that information in exchange for a 10-page download on keeping tropical fish. It’s just not worth the hassle.

Navigation Simplified

As a web site owner, you don’t know where a new visitor is going to land on your site. It MAY be your glitzy home page with a fancy Flash animated carousel and a complete, 20-minute video sell piece, but a site visitor is just as likely to land on an interior page – a landing page deep within your site accessed by an in-bound link from another site, a pay-per-click ad (PPC) or even organic search engine results.

The fact is, many visitors arrive on a site page that doesn’t interest them. That’s why web site navigation is so important. Clear, concise navigation enables visitors to find the information they’re looking for quickly, keeping them on site longer. And the longer a visitor stays on site, the more likely they are to perform that all-important MDA.

Website navigation simplified:

  • keep the navigation simple
  • always place the navigation bar or column in the same place on every page of your site
  • use descriptions that are unambiguous for navigation tabs
  • always provide a HOME link that equips new visitors to start at the beginning, or to start over in their searches for specific information
  • never mislead visitors by redirects or “tricks”
  • make navigation pop, i.e. stand out from sales text and informational content
  • use navigation to draw visitors deeper into the site through the use of drop-down and fly-out sub menus

Use navigation to simplify and enhance the on-site experience for the uninitiated. Confusing navigation creates confused visitors – visitors who don’t want to “figure out” what a navigation tab means. Keep it simple and keep them on-site longer.

Benefits, Not Features

Features describe an aspect of a product or service. A benefit describes an advantage given to the site visitor.

For example, if you sell lawn mowers, you might be tempted to stress the fact that this particular model uses a key to start the lawn mower engine. That’s a feature.

The benefits? No more pulling the start cord. Starts the first time with the turn of a key. Simplifies lawn mowing chores. Translate features of your product or service offerings into benefits that site visitors recognize and understand immediately. Tell them what’s in it for them in no uncertain terms.

It’s not about features. It’s about benefits. It’s not about you. All of your web site copy should be targeted at meeting the needs of site visitors.

And don’t expect site visitors to determine benefits of features. TELL them what your products or services do to them and for them.

3-2-1 Contact

This is perhaps the single-most important step you can take to create a client-centric site.

Provide numerous means for site visitors to contact you. They may have questions before they buy. They want more information before they sign up. They may want an order status update. The ability to contact your help desk or order desk easily, using a number of common tools, indicates that your on-line business is all about site visitor satisfaction.

So, how can visitors reach your people? Some suggestions:

  • Provide 24/7 access to a human being by telephone, even if it’s an order capture service. Your web site is open 24/7 and you never know when a prospect needs a little hand holding.
  • Provide flexible scripts for the employees who man the help desk and empower them to deviate from the script within certain parameters. When you see an unidentified charge on your credit card and discover it’s a late fee, for instance, you can often get that charge reversed simply by talking to a human who’s empowered to credit your account.
  • Talking to a human, rather than the typical call-answering maze is always a pleasant, welcome surprise.
  • Install an email module on your site – a link that opens an email box into which visitors can enter questions that don’t need an immediate response. It may be a billing question or a question on your latest service offering. Simplify the contact process.
  • Consider live chat. Many larger companies employ this tool. Visitors click on the LIVE CHAT link and are connected to assistance in real time. Often, it’s easier than trying to get through by telephone and the advice sent back to the visitor has been vetted, i.e. it’s accurate and correct.

Keep the Focus On the Visitor

If your site is industry specific, use the jargon of your industry based on the assumption that site visitors know what SIPs are or what a sell sheet does.

The plain truth may be a little painful when you weigh the amount of time, energy and capital you’ve laid out to build your on-line web business but it’s true: site visitors simply don’t care about you when they land on your web site. They don’t know you, they don’t care what your objectives are, they don’t care that the rent is due on Monday.

The first question any site visitor asks is “What’s in it for me?” Answer that question quickly and easily, equip the visitor to move through your site without a lot of headaches, simplify the checkout or contact process and talk about visitor benefits, not product or service features.

In the end, visitors will recognize that you value their business and they’ll be back. A lot.

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Create Your Website With Visitors In Mind

Posted on 18 December 2011. Tags: , , , ,

There are thousands of web sites on the Internet and it is a sad thing to say but most of them just don’t get it. The whole point of building a site and publishing it on the Web is to attract visitors and get them to take the action that you desire. This can be to purchase your product or service, opt in to your email list or become a subscriber to your page eagerly awaiting more interesting and engaging content from you.

The other mistake that people make is not considering the search engines when they design their pages. At the beginning of site creation the first thing that you should do is undertake some keyword research to find out what terms people are entering into the search engines so that you can get in front of this traffic with your site. A lot of small business tend to have sites created around their company name and will register a domain name in the same name. It is better to get a domain name with the keyword you are trying to target in it. If you own a hairdressing business in Chicago then it is far better to register hairdressingchicago.com then it is to get sallysalon.com. Google and the other search engines need as much help as they can get and they will never realize that sallysalon is a hairdresser in Chicago.

Keyword research is so easy but a lot of people are put off by the word research as it sounds like a lot of work. You can use the Google Keyword Tool for free to find out if the search terms that you have in mind are popular or not. If they are not then look for ones that are. All you have to do is enter the terms you are thinking about using and the tool will respond with the search volumes for these and some other suggestions. It really is that easy. Once you have chosen the most appropriate keywords then save them as you will be using them to create pages for your site later on.

When it comes to creating content for your pages, make sure this is related to the theme of your site. Google and the other search engines reward relevance and if you have a site about hairdressing and suddenly start creating content about rocket science then the search engines will penalize your site for this.
If you are in business online then offer people genuine incentives to call you or purchase your products or services. For a hairdressing site or other service based business you could have a special coupon on the page which people can quote when they call to make an appointment which could entitle them to 10% off or a complimentary service free of charge. Also you could create a free style guide and offer that to visitors in exchange for their email address. Once you have their address you can follow-up with them offering special deals.

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