Web Presence Information
Have questions, trying to make sense of all this web stuff? Don't feel bad. There's a lot more going on than meets the eye and it changes all the time. Hopefully we can shed some light, at least on some of the more important questions.
FAQ
Click on questions below to reveal or hide the answers.
- Do we really need a website?
- Yes. Well, what did you expect? At one point, that was a very valid question. Today, not so much. If in doubt, get a website; start small and monitor and evaluate. Think about the last time you... needed to find a phone number, had to check a map for a location of an address, were wondering about the weather, wanted to find information about a product/service/client/competitor, etc. Where did you go to find the information? Now ask five people around you. When searching for a website, I also bet you type in a variation or two of a companie's name, brand, or key product as a web address before you use a search engine.
- Can't we build our own website?
- Absolutely. In fact, that is one of the greatest things about the web. It is unlike any other medium in allowing anyone the ability to communicate their ideas or information. However, just because you have a toolbox full of tools doesn't mean you should build your next office or home. Unfortunately, the apparent simplicity of the web is perhaps one of its greatest pitfalls. Whether you are a social club trying to attract members, a business trying to sell something or attract venture capitalists or investors, you want to be sure that your web presence is a positive one. The knowledge base and technology within this industry is under constant change. Staying on top of everything is a fulltime job in itself. This is why Identity Developments has chosen to focus exclusively on this area. If you are not in a position where you need or are able to maintain fully dedicated staff to this task, then your time and money will be better spent outsourcing.
- What is the process of building a website?
- As you can imagine, every project is a little different. In general though, for a full development project, the process begins with an analysis of your existing site (if you have one), competitor sites, search engine placements, and a discussion of your goals. Next, various scenarios are drawn up to meet your goals and address issues raised during the analysis process. These scenarios will typically provide variations in scope, time, and cost. Next, we move into concepting, which provides you with a number of “renderings” of how various pages of your site will look. Perhaps one of the greatest challenges is moving beyond concepting into development. However, as the concepts are really nothing more than images, it is critical to quickly move into the next phase, design & development. This is critical because a tremendous amount of time & money can be eaten up over intricate details at the concepting phase. These concepts are guides for the site, but when the real pages are built, some problems may not really be problems and some things you liked may not be exactly repeatable. This is the great challenge and frustration that comes with websites. During design & development, real pages get built and tested with hopefully minor adjustments and changes throughout. After that, your site goes live to the world, additional minor changes and tweaks are addressed, and your site gets submitted to search engines.
- How long does it take?
- Longer than you think. This is another hard one because it is so dependent on specific needs and circumstances. The good news is that you are very much in control. Quick review, timely decisions, and providing the site content quickly are the key determinants to how long it takes, along with overall size. In general, it may be a matter of weeks or a couple months.
- How big does our website need to be?
- Big enough to achieve your goals. Most sites share common elements, such as a home page, an about section, a contact page, and perhaps a couple other sections. The important thing is not to get caught up in how many pages your site has. It is far more important to make sure that the needed information is there and easy to find. Many people equate number of pages with cost. Yes, a site with many pages will probably cost more than a site with few pages, but combining several pages into one may actually drive up costs. This also creates endless pages that scroll forever and take just as long to load.
- How much does a website cost?
- Because every site and project is uniquely different, this is a question that can't really be answered specifically. More important is to think of the value of the site in context with your goals. Based on this, you can compare it to existing means used to achieve those goals: the comparable cost of printed literature, various advertising costs, the cost of an additional location or salesperson, etc.
- Why does our site look different on this other computer?
- You've hit on perhaps the greatest challenge and frustration and further backed up why you need someone to build your site. Fundamentally, the web and its parent, the Internet, were not designed for visual “layout,” but rather to communicate information and the relation of information. While the web added graphics and images to the mix and over time designers have found ways to bend the system, there may never be exact control. There are a handful of different computer operating systems, several web browsers with numerous versions in use, countless numbers of monitors and graphics cards, and an infinite number of environmental variables, not the least of these is the human factor. Even at its simplest, pages on a Mac will look different on a PC... even with the same monitor. Identity Developments takes as many of these issues into account and utilizes the tools that are the duct tape equivalent within the web development world to maintain the look and feel of your website as consistently as is possible.
- How often do we need to update our website?
- As often as you need to, or sooner. Freshness of your website is very important. Freshness doesn't mean that you have to completely redo your website or that everything has to change. Back to perceptions and credibility though, fresh and timely content reassures your visitors that you are on top of things. Returning to a website that hasn't changed at all over an extended period of time and you start to wonder whether they are even still in business. The home page or other highly visited areas are key targets for more frequent updates. If nothing else, it may be helpful to utilize random images on the page so that there is a visible difference. As far as a complete update is concerned, that may be something you want to do after awhile because you just want a new look, but more likely because your site is evolving and needs to provide new features. Much of this goes back your target audience and their needs and how often they are likely to return. In general, some kind of freshening should be considered at least 3 to 4 times a year.
- Do we need to submit to search engines?
- Yes, and no. Most of the search engines will find your site sooner or later, even if you do nothing. However, like most things, taking an active role in the process is to your benefit. This can drastically cut back the time it takes before your site appears in a search. By taking control, you can also help focus placement in certain areas of online directories that will increase your chances of appearing. While this is something you can always do yourself, you may want to consider having it done for you. The search engine environment has become overly complicated with various types of placements, this engine acquiring that engine, this engine providing content to these other engines, and so on. No surprise, search engines have become an entire industry of their own.
- Should we pay for search engine placement?
- Define placement. Should you pay your developer to handle your basic submission? The small fee that usually accompanies this is probably well worth your time and hassle. Now, if by placement you mean paid-inclusion, probably not. Paid-inclusion is essentially a form of advertising that may help your site to show up more frequently or higher in the list or in a special advertised area. Unless your business revolves around the web or you are a national entity playing in a highly competitive market, paid-inclusion is probably not cost effective.
