The limits to what the web can do is endless. Much of the focus of the web on how it can serve other people. Whether it is to inform them about the weather or connect them with family and friends to name a few. Even you reading this article demonstrates the webs ability to connect you with valuable information. Although these are great uses for the web, the web does something for businesses that is commonly overlooked. I call it the Website Reflection Principle.

The concept of the Website Reflection principle is simple, to say the least. However, this simple concept can be powerful tool for you when maintaining or designing a website. Website Reflection states that your website is a direct reflection of your business and your reputation. People judge you and your organization just by the website. Your website, whether you want it to or not, creates a picture of your organization. In a world with so much information people are forced to make quick assumptions to help them make decisions. So in order to make a decision, like whether they will do business with your or not, they judge your organization by your website. I am sure you do the same thing. For example, if you are looking for a construction company to build a new porch on the rear of your house you do a simple web search. You visit several different websites. Although you have not met with each company on a personal basis, I am sure you already have a concept of what the company is like simply based on their website. You have already determined which company offers the most quality of work, which company is the most popular in the area, which place has the most experience, which company has been around the longest. This is the Website Reflection Principle in action. People assume that your website is a reflection of your organization so they use it as a basis for decision making.

Knowing this principle, the real question becomes, what is my Website Reflection? This is a good question for any webmaster to ask themselves. If you don't like what you see there is good news. The reflection can be easily changed. The list of things you can do to change this is endless; the focus of this article isn't how you can change the reflection. However, I do get into changing the reflection in other posts. The purpose of this article is on informing you of this concept of Website Reflection. Now that you know what it is, take a second to take a hard look into the mirror. If it isn't what you want just know that it can be changed. Sometimes finding others to help is necessary. Nobody has done it alone in changing their reflection. I recommend finding a quality web consulting company to help you see your website's full potential. Don't let another day go by. The sooner you change it, the sooner you will see dramatic results.

If you are not sure how to change you image contact us today. We are always happy to help with our experienced knowledge. Call 612.483.2333 or click for a free quote.

Labels: company image, development, website reflection

Posted by Dan A at 3:31 PM | Permalink | Comments

How much should a website cost? That question is like asking how much should a car cost? On one hand, you have the discount lower quality KIAs and on the other, quality and expensive Mercedes Benz, they both get you from point 'A' to point 'B', so why spend more? Well, thats not the whole picture. Like cars, websites and web design/development firms offer different levels of quality, performance and support. In a nutshell, you typically get what you pay for!

When shopping for web designers, you need to look at many different factors such as;

• Quality
• Price
• IT
• SEO
  
• Turnaround time
• Support
• Design
• Experience
  

1. Quality - Quality, is a very broad factor and basically covers all realms of functionality, appeal and programming back-end. When you shop for a media or web design company to create your website, look at their previous work and see if it has the face appeal that you are looking for. Spend time on their previous works, click through the pages, look for a continuing effect through all of the pages. Check the support on various browsers such as Internet explorer, Safari and Mozilla Firefox to name a few. Some websites will look well in one browser, but not the others and if it looks bad on any browser, you could lose a lot of visitors and business!

2. Price - Price is going to probably be the first thing you will look at and will probably be the main factor in who you decide to choose. This is a very touchy matter because there really isn't a set or defined rate for web design and development services. Here is a general breakdown for a cost of a 10-15 page, custom designed, standard web page with no heavy programming and development.

• Large, highly qualified, experienced firm: $5,000 - $10,000+
• Medium sized, experienced firm: $3,000 - $4,000
• Small, skilled, experienced freelancer: $1,000 - $2,500
• Skilled, unexperienced freelancer: $500 - $750
• New, unexperienced, low quality: $200 - $400
• Indian or similar outsourced: $100 - $400
  

Those figures are very broad and there are definitely exceptions to those numbers. Under the $1,000 mark you will typically get unpolished, quickly developed, and end up with a website that poorly reflects your business efforts. Like most things, you get what you pay for! Up past the $1,000 range you will have a much more effective and targeted site with qualified people to back it up. For a basic 10-15 page website, I would advise not to spend more than $5,000.

3. IT - IT is the technology and back end of the site created. A qualified firm or freelancer will develop your site with the latest and most efficient languages and be valid in all W3 standards. This is typically a problem in inexperienced freelancers or individuals who have not been trained in web development. Poor efforts in this realm could result in bad indexing within search engines and unreliable compliances in various internet browsers.

4. SEO - SEO (Search Engine Optimization) efforts are essential in quality web sites. Although strong SEO marketing tactics are not common in "standard" web site development, it is extremely beneficial that your website is SEO ready and has the basic elements of SEO incorporated into your website, no matter how standard or basic your website is. When you communicate with a potential web developer, be sure to ask if basic SEO elements will be placed in your site for future compliances.

5. Turnaround time - Turnaround time is the time it takes for your developer to create your web site from beginning to launch. Turnaround time is not a direct factor to the quality of the web site, but it often a factor in the overall cost of your project. Typically, a larger, qualified firm will develop a site quicker, but that is not always the case. Very commonly, slow rate of completeness will come from outsourced firms such as India due to communication barriers. For a basic web site consisting of 10-15 pages, it should be completed in one to two weeks.

6. Support - Support is severely overlooked factor in web development service. When a development firm or freelancer creates your website, you need to insure that they will assist in all aspects of launching and maintaining the site. If you need a change done to your site and you don't have the technical knowhow or software to change it, you should be able to contact your development firm and they will make the changes within 24 hours or in emergency situations, much sooner. Before you deposit any money to your group, make sure you understand the rules of their support policies.

7. Design - Design is the face of your website, clearly. It is what people will see first and will have the strongest impact to your visitors about your company. A lot of weight goes behind a web site's design, a poor design and visual appeal quickly will indicate a poor company. Although a bad design may not always mean a bad company, visitors think that.

Design goes far beyond visual appeal, it digs psychologically into the visitors and reflects the business it represents in a dignified matter. The smallest hole-in-the-wall shop can appear to visitors as a fortune 500. Only qualified firms or designers trained in online marketing and general marketing can effectively harness this power - not cheap, unexperienced freelancers or outsourced designers .

8. Experience - Experience reflects the overall knowledge that the freelancer or firm has. Some freelancers will have loads of experience from previous work, but larger firms can be a sure bet that your website is truly quality work.

Recap

So, there you have it, a quick and easy guide to hiring a web development firm. To sum it all up in one easy sentence; You get what you pay for. A quality website cannot be found for under 3 digits. A website is an invest to yourself, and your company and should be the last thing you should be pinching pennies on.

Labels: development, how much should a website cost, websites

Posted by Phil Antonson at 3:23 PM | Permalink | Comments