PappasDG.com » website design johnstown pa

Bargain Website Vs. Effective Website

Nate Seidel — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 13:25:06 +0000

In today’s business environment, every company needs an EFFECTIVE website.

If you’re a business with a limited budget, a $99 website special may be tempting. But what if your website was a real-life salesperson? Would your lack of investment in them set them up for failure?

People/companies that offer so-called high-quality website development services for dirt cheap, often take advantage of small businesses. PDG tries to help small businesses understand why you need to make an appropriate investment in your 24/7 sales workhorse.

You get what you pay for….really

Developing a high-quality website from scratch requires most, if not all, of the 10 services listed below. Completing these tasks can be very time consuming and they require a lot of creative and technical talent. So how do the cheap service providers charge so little? Simple. They don’t offer many of these services…

Website Strategy – Included in the Low-Cost Solution?No.

Like any successful marketing initiative, proper research and planning need to be the first step. Getting web experts involved early on will give you an outside perspective and help you profile your audiences, define their needs and adapt your corporate growth strategies to the web.

Content Strategy – Included in the Low-Cost Solution? No.

Once you have a good handle on what your customers need, your content needs to feed those needs and keep them coming back for more. A content strategy helps to keep your content fresh and establish processes for ongoing content development and website promotions.

Information Architecture – Included in the Low-Cost Solution? No.

Website users can quickly feel lost if placed within a space that is not well organized. Information architecture focuses on usability and designing an effective site organization, navigation and nomenclature, all of which are best handled by professionals.

Custom Design – Included in the Low-Cost Solution? Kind of.

Do you feel that your website was designed to fit your needs, or was it designed to fit the design companies needs.

Website Production Standards & Compliance – Included in the Low-Cost Solution? Maybe.

I’d bet that a large majority of the cheap service providers out there are not actually programmers. A good one programmer will always follow Web Standards to insure your website is Cross Browser Compatible and error free

Professional Content Development – Included in the Low-Cost Solution? No.

You can dress up an attractive salesperson in a custom tailored suit, but if his sales pitch stinks, he’s not going to convert prospects into buyers. Writing engaging copy for websites is an art and a science and getting a professional website copywriter involved is a very wise investment.

Content Management Tools – Included in the Low-Cost Solution? No.

Many low-cost providers don’t provide content management options because they are banking on the recurring revenue your website will provide.

Search Engine Optimization – Included in the Low-Cost Solution? Kind of.

Ask any professional search engine marketer about submitting your site to search engines and optimizing your site’s Title and Meta tags and they’ll tell you that those techniques are important. But if you ask them, “Will this get me to #1 on Google?” They’ll probably laugh at you. These few techniques are all you’re going to get out of cheap website service providers…if your lucky

Website Analytics Integration – Included in the Low-Cost Solution? No.

Many low-cost providers will probably include some basic traffic statistics for your site. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. Advanced analytical tools will provide so much more user behavioral analysis and conversion tracking.

Internet Marketing – Included in the Low-Cost Solution? No.

With so many Internet marketing tools at our fingertips, developing and launching your website is only the beginning. Now it’s time to promote and bring viewers to your new fancy site.

Conclusion

A small business needs to think of their website as a salesperson. A salesperson with vast potential. When you provide that salesperson with proper training (website and content strategy), a sharp business suit (great design), an engaging sales pitch (great content) and great connections to a huge network of potential customers (SEO and internet marketing), you may be surprised at how quickly your investment is returned, and then some.

Let the professionals at Pappas Development Group; Johnstown’s premier website design and development firm show you the difference between ‘good enough’ and ‘getting results’ -Click Here To Get Your Free Quote, or call 800-971-0878.

When It’s Time For A Website Redesign

Nate Seidel — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 12:14:26 +0000

There are A LOT of websites out there that, just do not look very good…and by “good”, I mean attractive and functional.We’ve all gotten a good laugh when we come across a truly horrific design…but what if that site was your business’s? Not so funny now. The ever increasing of quality websites, plus our decreasing attention spans, make web design more important than ever.

Here are a few signs that you might want to think about a website redesign:

Your Site Does Not Engage The Visitor

Your site is just text with no updated information. One-way information flow is outdated and boring. Great social networking and bookmarking sites are available to use (Digg, Stumble Upon, Twitter and Facebook — just to name a few) people are connecting in new ways every day. These users will often become frustrated if they can’t interact with your website. Blogging is a great way to make your site feel more social and up-to-date, as long as the blog is relevant. An added bonus is that the consistent new content will attract a crowd of “regulars” and will also improve your search engine ranking. At the very, very least make sure your contact information is easy to find.

Your Homepage Makes People Shudder

You’ve got a cluttered first page. Too many graphics, links every other line, ads on every side, not to mention the text content, etc. The goal is NOT to make the visitor’s head hurt! The most up to date advice is to KEEP IT SIMPLE.

Your Site Makes Any Sort of Noise

Music, unless it coordinates with your topic (such a record label) to your site content is most likely not a good idea. Keep in mind where people may be when they come across your site…at work, school, in a library, etc. – all places where a loud burst of music may be less than welcome. Another factor to keep in mind is that not everyone likes the same type of music.

Your Site Has Content No One Can Read

No one can read your content. Having too many colors on the page or choosing bad color palettes/backgrounds can lead to a site that is very hard for a user to read. The same goes for using really tiny text or a hundred different fonts. Anyone can get carried away during the design process, but let’s remember that first and foremost your website must be readable. If people can’t read the information you want to give them your website is essentially useless – no matter how pretty you think it is.

Your Site Involves the Use of a Horizontal Scroll Bar

The site has horizontal scrolling. We’re all used to scrolling up and down, making us scroll sideways is awkward and annoying.

Your Site is Ugl-IE

Your site works and looks great in Firefox and Safari, but is a train wreck in Internet Explorer. Unfortunately Internet Explorer is not the most secure & reliable web browser, and it does things differently (in a bad way) compared to the others. Make sure your design and code works well with all browsers, you don’t want to lose people before you even get started. For More Information on Cross Browser Compatibility Click Here!

Your Site Leads People To Nothing

There is no focal point to speak of. It’s important to know how people’s eyes read a page and factor that into the design. You can influence how people view your site by creating a flow that is ordered and makes sense..

Your Site Opens with a Ridiculously Long Intro

You have a long intro. In theory its a great idea – it looks great, fun to watch unfold, unique – but in reality it can go very wrong. These designs are now commonplace and people won’t sit through long intros, especially without a skip button. Granted, some flash intros can be very cool, but a common opinion among the best designers is that the intros are just another obstacle for potential visitors to overcome. Deciding to put in a skip button itself can be a catch-22, you allow the visitor to get right to your site but you are also effectively saying ‘my intro isn’t important why don’t you skip it’. In that case why do you have an intro in the first place? Its a debated issue and it basically comes down to personal taste. An intro is not an inherently bad design technique, but when abused it can hurt you. A general rule of thumb is any more than a few seconds and you start losing people.

Your Site’s Navigation Confuses Users

The absolute #1 sign it is time for a new web design is if your site has unclear navigation. How users get from one page to another on a site should be obvious. Make sure you have some sort of menu on every page – people get frustrated when they have to hit the back button a thousand times. But be careful, let them hit the back button if they want to, there is nothing more annoying than getting redirected to the page you are on when all you want is the page you just left.

Now that you know what to look for in a website how does your website match up? If your website is ready for a re-design PDG can help you. For a Free Quote Click Here. If you just want more information you can contact us at (800) 971-0878