Arachne's Sister

For a limited time, I am pleased to offer you a Website & Strategy Analysis Session. Whether your current website was developed by Whole Web Impact or another designer, I encourage you to consider this opportunity to have your current website analyzed and to discuss your goals with me so I can suggest customized recommendations.

• Is your current site search-engine friendly?
• Does it include web-marketing best-practices and must-have features?
• What does the design say about you and your brand?
• Does it reflect your current business progress and goals?
• How could it be improved for better conversions?

Included in the Website & Strategy Analysis Session:

• Professional Analysis of your current website, blog, and/or Facebook fan page.
• A 45-minute conversation with you about your business goals and how your website can support them.
• A customized Action Plan sent to you via email after our call listing the recommendations for your website. You can pass this detailed list along to your VA or web developer for implementation.

Sign up now so we can schedule your call time and you can get a jump on spring-cleaning your website!

Learn more & sign up for your Website & Strategy Analysis Session

When you are thinking about getting a website for your business, or if you are considering a redesign, probably the first thing that comes to your mind is the visual design – what it will look like.

Besides for being one of the most obvious aspects of your site, the visual design plays an important role in your marketing message – either supporting it or detracting from it. The look of your website will quickly (and sometimes unconsciously) affect your visitors' perceptions of you and your business.

A sloppy or unprofessional design will of course reflect poorly on your company, but even if your site looks professionally designed, an inappropriate design can hinder your site’s effectiveness.

Some of the things to consider include:

• Who your target customers are and what personally appeals to them
• What image you want to portray about your business – friendly, serious, trendy, classic/traditional, etc.
• What image is customary for your industry – and whether you want to go with or against that.
• Whether the design will allow enough space fore the site content and functionality you are planning.

Another thing to consider is your current branding. If you are keeping your current logo and colors, you should have a site design that coordinates with that and meshes with all of your other identity materials. Consistency in your visual branding is professional and reinforces your company’s identity and message.

Web Action Steps:

• Look at your current visual branding: logo colors, stationery, etc. and make sure your website design will mesh with those.
• Make a list of adjectives relating to mood and the impression you would like your company image to portray (Examples: fun, traditional, cutting-edge, trustworthy, etc)
• Choose the three most important adjectives, then determine the most important one.
• Consider whether your choices reinforce or challenge standards for your industry – for example, you choose "hip" for a financial planner, whereas the financial industry norm is more "classic and conservative". As long as this fits your business personality and appeals to your target customers (for example, fashion-forward young urban professionals), you can use your branding as part of your unique selling proposition to differentiate yourself from other financial planners.
• You should compile all the information regarding your branding (logo, colors, examples of identity materials, adjectives, etc) into one file.  This will help you when talking about your website design with graphic designers or evaluating design options.

Don’t be immediately impressed with a website design that looks slick or flashy – if the design isn’t supporting the business brand and conveying the experience you want your customers to have with you – keep working on it. If you need help with figuring out how your company’s branding can best be translated into a web design, please take a look at the services I offer. Your site should reflect the true personality of your business. You deserve nothing less.

There is a very sad situation that is all too common in the world of website development. Since I count myself as a member of this industry, it is with some resignation that I write about this issue. It’s just that I have heard from and worked with too many people who have been burned by the web professionals they have hired.

There are some red flags you can observe which could indicate that the person you are working with might result in a less-than-stellar experience – either now or down the line.

Red Flags

He never asks you for high-quality copies of your branding materials (logo, etc). If you have existing branding, a professional designer will take that into consideration when crafting your site design. The colors should be consistent, or at least compatible, and your logo should be on your site somewhere, so if your new designer doesn’t care, don’t count on having a design that reflects your business identity.

He doesn’t spend time discussing your business and marketing needs. You are likely to get a generic website from someone who doesn’t think your business is any different from any other business he has created a website for.

He wants to push you into something you aren’t comfortable with. Anytime you feel that your developer is being pushy and not answering your questions and concerns, beware. Offering professional advice is one thing, and most good developers have preferred ways of working and “best practices”, but if you disagree with the developer’s methods or requirements, you should find another more compatible developer.

He wants to control your domain name. This is a big warning. You should have your domain name registered in your name, and the registration account controlled by yourself. This is like allowing someone else to register your trademark. Yikes!

He wants to control your webhosting. Reputable web developers often offer website hosting. This in and of itself is just fine. There are many good business reasons for a developer to manage the hosting of sites he builds. I do it because it allows me to better manage the technical aspects of the hosting on a standard platform I am intimately familiar with. Also, since most clients, if they have problems with the hosting or email, tend to contact their developer, it’s better if the developer actually can help them – not always possible if he isn’t also the host. That being said, make sure you are actually getting a full-featured hosting account. You should have access to all your files, databases, etc. You should have login information for the hosting control panel, as well as FTP (file transfer protocol) login information. If your developer doesn’t want to give you this, you are essentially being held hostage – you can’t access the files you rightly own, you won’t be able to update your site without his assistance, and forget moving to another web host or developer if things turn sour or he disappears. Make sure you will have at least FTP access to your files before agreeing to a hosting plan.

There might be other small things that indicate a developer will cause you headaches – not listening to you and answering your questions in a way you understand, failing to return your calls or emails for weeks on end without explanation, putting down your business or your ideas, etc. The most important thing is to trust your gut instincts and communicate any concerns early. Some issues can be resolved and don’t indicate a “bad” developer, but you will want to make your expectations clear early so that you are both on the same page.

Web Action Steps

• If you are experiencing any of these warning signs, discuss them with a tech-savvy friend or another developer whom you trust. Let them help you decide on a reasonable course of action
• If you don’t have access to your online files, request that your developer create a ZIP file or CD-ROM with all of the website files and send it to you
• If you do have access to your online files, download a backup immediately, in case things turn very bad and he cuts off your account
• If you don’t control your domain name, ask your developer how you can gain control of the registrar account
• If you have any other concerns, try respectfully discussing them with your developer. It might just be a misunderstanding that can be resolved.
• If your relationship with your web developer ever becomes seriously problematic, try to get whatever files you can, and cut your losses. You will find that the hassles and delays caused by an ongoing battle won’t end up being worth your while, and will keep your business from thriving.

It can be anxiety-producing to embark on getting a website, and when you start having problems with your web professionals it can become very stressful. Hopefully being aware of these warning signs will help you head off troubles early. If you are looking for a new web developer, I hope you will consider contacting me.

Maybe you have a website, or maybe you need one. When you are considering growing your business online, you need a solid plan to guide you. The first step in developing your plan is to look at your current situation. Clearly knowing where you are will help you (and any web professionals you work with) determine what the priorities should be for moving forward. For example, you might have a website that is a few years old, but not delivering the business you want. An analysis of what you like about your site, and what you don’t, what is working for your business, and what isn’t will help you decide whether your site just needs tweaked, or if it needs a total overhaul.

If you don’t yet have a site, you should focus on your current business and marketing and how a website will fit into that. You should have a good idea of what assets you have (branding and written copy) and what resources (financial and human) you can devote to your new website, both to get the site launched, and then to maintain it regularly.

In either case, you should evaluate how you are currently obtaining customers and decide what your goals are for your online marketing. Consideration should also be given to what sorts of administrative things can be moved online, such as information distribution (FAQs, product/service info, announcements, etc.), payment processing, event registration, or product delivery.

You should also set some quantitative goals in relation to your website. How many backlinks and visitors do you want to have 12 months from now? How many prospects in your database?  What sort of PageRank and search engine positioning would you like? These goals will determine how much effort you should devote to your online marketing in the coming months.

The most important thing is to plan long-term – at least 6-12 months out – because your future needs might influence your current technology choices. For example, you might want to start an e-zine now, and perhaps start processing payments online in 6 months. Knowing this, it might make sense to get a full shopping cart system now, even if you will only be using its email distribution functionality for the time being. If you were to sign up with an email-only service, you might find in 6 months that you have a big project to move your data from your email service to your new shopping cart service.

Web Action Steps:

Take a look at where you are…

• If you currently have a website, evaluate it:
  • When did you launch your site? If it was more than 3 years ago, it might be time to freshen it up.
  • Do you still like your site’s graphic design?
  • Has the structure of the pages become overgrown through time? Is it time to reorganize?
  • What are your current statistics in relation to your Google PageRank, search engine positions, backlinks, visitor traffic, etc? Have they been trending up or down over the last months or years?
  • Is your site missing some obvious “modern” features you’d like to add?
    
• What assets do you have available for your website (branding, graphics, written content, etc)?
• How much time can you and your team devote to getting your site launched? How much can you devote to weekly or monthly maintenance?
• What is your budget for your website – both for the creation (or redesign), and monthly after that?

• How are you currently dealing with prospects? How could your website assist that process?
• What administrative and sales task could be handled by your website?
• What are your goals for 12 months from now in regards to traffic, prospects, etc? What will you need to do to accomplish those goals?
• Make a list of all the features you’d like to have on your website within the next year, even if you don’t plan on implementing them all immediately. What can you do now to make future implementation easier?

Knowing where you are with your web marketing now will help you best prepare for where you will be next year, and creating a comprehensive plan will keep you focused on your desired results, as well as get your whole team, and any contractors, on the same page. It can be challenging to create this type of analysis and plan, but well worth your efforts. If you aren’t sure how to evaluate your needs or what goals you should set, please take a look at the services I offer: http://www.wholewebimpact.com/services.aspx.