Two, find a web design provider who specializes in custom website design. Today, many business owners often make the mistake of going with a provider who simply re-sells cheap website templates (which have been duplicated and resold thousands of times online). This means their website looks very similar to others.
When a business owner founds a company, they try to come up with a unique name for their business, so when it comes time to showcase themselves and communicate with their customers online, their website should be attractive and original. Your website is the first thing customers will learn about you — so creating a site that’s similar to thousands of others is not a good move.
Although a custom designed website often costs more than templates one, it will generate better response from customers. If you want your website to help your business make a good first impression with potential customers and build solid brand-name recognition, having a custom-designed website is key.
Furthermore, to keep your initial costs low, you may be able to work out a repayment plan with your provider. Another option is you could possibly start out with a small website (2-5 pages) first and then as you gain more clients (and revenues/profits) you can grow your website. Again, your website is the first thing customers will learn about you, and customers’ first impression of you can make the difference between gaining new leads, or not; you want to start out your internet presence on the right foot.
Three, look for web design provider that not only are knowledgeable about custom website design, but also about business development, management, and marketing. This knowledge will enable your provider to quickly learn about your business model, operation, and needs in order to come up with a smart strategy for success.
In today’s competitive market, a custom-designed, beautiful website is not enough to optimize your website for maximum results. Just like in a car race, a beautiful looking race car will not provide a greater chance of winning a race; it’s the car that is well-optimized for performance (aerodynamics, engine, tires, driver, etc.) that has the best chance to win.
Therefore, it is important to find a well-rounded provider with knowledge and experience that can look at your business from different angles, fully understand it, and come up with an optimal solution for success. When it comes to ensuring that your business stands out optimally online and among your competitors, there should be no cookie cutter approaches, but rather innovative and out-of-the-box thinking.
Four, search for strong internet marketing companies that not only specialize in custom website design, but also in internet marketing/search engine optimization (SEO). Strong internet marketing companies are often those whose own websites are ranked in the top ten of a Google organic search for a number of competitive keywords in their own state.
After you’ve narrowed down to a few providers that meet these criteria, ask them how long their SEO campaign will take, and what results they can guarantee to you. A skillful and knowledgeable SEO firm would know their competency, after researching the keywords for which you want to ranked in the top 10.
They should be able to give you a certain guarantee for your SEO project – usually between 60-80%. This means if they SEO 10 optimal keywords for you, they could guarantee that 6-8 keywords will rank top 10 in a Google organic search, and they should only charge for the keywords that they successfully get into the top 10 for you when the deadline comes.
The competitiveness of your selected keywords, age of your website, and other factors will determine how long it takes for the SEO provider to push your keywords into a top 10 ranking. On average, it usually takes providers between four and six months to get a SEO project done. It’s important to make sure your provider puts their guarantee in the contract for you from the beginning. If the provider is in another country, you should find out how the contract will hold up for you in case things don’t pan out well. If any provider doesn’t have a contract for you and cannot guarantee SEO performance for your project, run… don’t walk, away.
As business owners and marketers, you want to know the cost of establishing a professional website, and market it effectively. Above are four important steps that will guide you while you compare qualified web design and SEO providers.
ProWeb365 is a website design company in Minnesota that provides affordable website design and internet marketing services to businesses and organizations. For our Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services, we only bill clients for results that we successfully deliver.
Beyond being knowledgeable about website design and Internet marketing/SEO, we are also knowledgeable about business; this helps us solve some pretty difficult problems for our clients. To establish a strong web presence online for your business and market it effectively to your target customers, call us today at (612) 590-8080.
