With more and more people turning to the web for products and business services, it’s no wonder why more and more businesses are realising they need to have some sort of presence on the web in the form of a website. But with the economy being as it is, and businesses having such a tough time with start-up and running costs a website is usually something that is at the bottom of the financial list... Unfortunately this is can be a big mistake.
Due to budget constraints, and the ease of information on the internet we find that businesses are split into three groups when it comes to their business website design.
The Inhousers / Friends:
This group of people will usually try and get a member to staff or a friend to try and build their website.
The Cheapest:
This group will phone round and email as many web design companies as possible, getting the cheapest website price and then usually going with them.
The Realistic:
This group actually understands how important their website should be to their business.
The first two in the list are usually good companies just trying to make a living and keep their costs down, and thus hopefully making more profit. The third group is the company that realises how much business is on the internet and how important good web design is, from the design, coding, accessibility to how the site appears in the search engine result pages (SERPS).[more]
If companies were to relate Web Design to building say a house, then I truly believe they would understand the importance of how their website is designed. So let’s say your business needs a new extension which will house more employees to help you company grow – Now obviously you know an extension could be expensive but will be an important part of your new business.
Now let’s break down these groups and see who you are likely to choose:
The Inhousers / Friends:
You give a member of staff some cement, bricks and a Tommy Walsh ‘How To’ book and tell them to go ahead and build it.
The Cheapest:
You give the job to the cheapest builder you could find, a company that advertises themselves as budget builder - A company that doesn’t have any real credentials or references, but gives the lowest price.
The Realistic:
You give the job to a company that has good references, a company that has a portfolio of previous work and shows you how and why the way they work will be beneficial to your company in the long run.
Ok I know this is extreme but this does relate to web design – Having your website built properly is an important part of making sure your website succeeds. Not only will having a good website improve your ROI (Return Of Investment), it will help your site rank in the Search Engines. The same website built using a table based template and invalid code will never rank as well as a semantically correct website, built with accessibility and the user in mind.
Having your site found in the search engines can have immense effect on the amount of business your website generates your company, and making sure the design is crisp and the interface easy to use will increase the conversion rate. A lot of businesses just don’t realise how many people are potentially looking for their services, there are billions upon billions of searches each year on the internet – Below is an example of a random term taken from Yahoo UK (The second largest search engine in the world) which is