We’ve been designing and developing websites for a while. We’ve heard many excuses why companies opt not to hire a “design or development shop”. Many of them are actually reasons why they should hire someone to help their site.
Here are 5 telltale signs that you need to hire a web design company:
- Your cousin, uncle, daughter, or 5-year old son already maintains your site. Let’s be serious. Unless your son is in design school, or studying User Experience in a technical college, he or she probably doesn’t know enough to really maintain your site. Enlist someone that knows what’s out there, how best to organize your content, and how to help turn your visitors into customers.
- You design and maintain your own website in Frontpage/Publisher. How valuable is your time? If you think like I do, then you feel it is important to concentrate on services your business provides, and let others do the rest. When visitors see a site that uses 600 colors and still has a scrolling phone number, they might choose to go somewhere more “professional”. Here’s a quick stat – 46% of web sales are lost on web sites that lack the critical elements that build value and trust with website visitors.
- You have no idea how many people are visiting your website. With a simple fix and some free software any development shop can install code on your website that tells you who, what, when, where and how your site is being seen online. From simple reports to full webpage overlays, statistical results are a key part of telling what you are doing right or wrong with your website.
- You can’t find your own website when you search for it on Google. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is not an exact science and it takes work to climb the rankings. However, there are some simple things you can do to show up higher in the rankings. You need to help the search engines to help you get found by the keywords your customers will search. Good SEO starts with your website content, keywords and description and extends to the code organization, content, and links within your website.
- You don’t have or don’t think you need a website. Just a quick stat – Over 90% of prospective customers will visit your website before considering doing business with you. If you don’t have a website, what do your potential customers find? Your competition!
If you or someone you know is exhibiting one or more of these signs, contact us immediately and we’ll make sure to create or enhance the online presence of the business in need.