Do you think having an expensive website is good for a business?

[snoopjiggy]

It's upto the customer how Mich they pay to Google, if they haven't done their homework I can imagine it getting out of hand. £300? I pay a tenth of that and people searching for my services see me either at the top or usually the top 2 or 3 of the first page.

 

Agreed, I paid nothing and I was top within a month for the 2 main searches.

 

Whether that was because it isnt a very searched phrase is another story :hihi:

[richard]

I hate to put a dampener on people, but you need to be careful when searching for your own company on google. If you regularly visit your own website and search for it in google, it will realise that, for you, you are usually looking for your site.

 

Often your site appears higher for you than it does for others because of this. Check you've logged out when searching.

 

Logged in for a particular term I'm #10, logged out, #51

[Love2print]

I find the best thing to do is go into private browsing mode. Even logged out I have seen erroneous search results.

 

Firefox: Tools> Start Private Browsing

Chrome: Tool Icon> New Incognito Window

[shadow]

I've run a web development company for nearly 10 years now, and know that as with any industry, 'expensive' doesn't guarantee value for money. If you are going to invest in a third party to deal with your site, you have to ensure you are getting a good return on your investment.

 

I've seen all sorts of clients in my time - some simply want to concentrate on running their business, so are happy to pay a lot of money to have a company deal with the site for them. Some want to retain a level of day-to-day control, so we'll make sure they have a good content management system in place.

 

If you want to deal with it all yourself, that's fine if you feel you have the skills and time to dedicate to it. Using a DIY hosted solution is always an option, but you'll normally have to accept being somewhat confined in what you can and cannot do within the limits of the system you are using.

 

Also in the case of these hosted DIY services or anything provided by a third party, make sure you know what your options are should you find (for example) the hosting unreliable, or you are generally unhappy with the service. Can you take your site away with you? Who owns the design? Who owns the 'site' as a whole? What about the actual content and product database - will you be provided with an export of this, or is it simply a case of being switched off, end of story? Can you walk away with everything you need for your new developer to quickly recreate your site, or do you have to start completely from scratch? What happens if the service provider goes under?

 

TBH, there's plenty of great free and commercial scripts out there that can get the job done, but there are a lot of skills you'll need to learn - design, coding, copywriting, hosting, site admin, SEO, marketing, dealing with web enquiries and customer problems, browser testing, usability, accessibility, legal issues and requirements, web traffic analysis etc etc.

 

For me, I think it's all about getting the marketing nailed and then working on your conversion process once people come to the site. Sites do not need to be gorgeous, but they need to do very specific tasks well - i.e. customers need to find what they want quickly and easily, and your desired conversion 'goals' need to be achieved (i.e making a sale, getting them to contact you with an enquiry, sign up to newsletter etc).

[pcvlicence]

Content is king. Then, in order of importance, the next most important things for a website are:

content

content

content

and

content

 

Expensive doesn't guarantee you results - useful information and giving people what they want is important.

[Andy-TWDG]

What do fellow small businesses think?

 

Is paying to have a professional money well spent in your opinion?

 

Did you have an expensive website and did it increase your business or not make much difference, What are your thoughts on this?

 

Professional websites dont have to be expensive, becareful who you choose, professional built sites often perform better in the search engines, and are faster to download / use.

 

I wouldn't try to build a house myself i would get a professional building contractor to do it...

[Andy-TWDG]

I hate to put a dampener on people, but you need to be careful when searching for your own company on google. If you regularly visit your own website and search for it in google, it will realise that, for you, you are usually looking for your site.

 

Often your site appears higher for you than it does for others because of this. Check you've logged out when searching.

 

Logged in for a particular term I'm #10, logged out, #51

 

You can turn on private browsing mode now in modern browsers which removes all browsing history / cookies etc.. giving you more accurate Google search results.

 

but yes if you dont turn this on your search results will be tailored to your specific search behaviour.

 

 

Andy

[Andy-TWDG]

I built my own website by buying a package from 123-reg.co.uk, I'd never done it before and found it very easy to do. The support from 123 is great also. The hardest bit really was getting it in the search engines under something different than the company name, as people need to know your company name to google you and well if they knew that, then generally they'd already know your website one would think. So I found having an eBay shop and blogging on blogger.com helped loads. Dont pay for the google Adwords, you can end up with huge £300 bills every month (this has happened to quite alot of people I know). My site is easy to navigate and is full ecommerce, costs me £18.99 a quarter - bargin!

 

You have to be careful when buying packages, as often these site builder sites are not Search Engine Friendly.

[indizine]

I hate to put a dampener on people, but you need to be careful when searching for your own company on google. If you regularly visit your own website and search for it in google, it will realise that, for you, you are usually looking for your site.

 

Often your site appears higher for you than it does for others because of this. Check you've logged out when searching.

 

Logged in for a particular term I'm #10, logged out, #51

 

That happens if you have the history enabled, so it needs turning off in your Google account as it's enabled by default.

[SHsheff]

 

They are a fantastic company who I will be with for a long long time.

 

 

I had a look at your website because I'm in the market for a good web designer and the first thing that struck me is that there's a typo - or a spelling mistake, which is what I suspect it is, as it appears several times:

 

"Occassions". Now, that troubles me on two counts:

 

1) Would you as the cake decorator take the trouble to ensure that any message or name on my cake is spelt correctly? and

 

2) Would I trust your web designers to do my website, if they a) don't recognise a spelling mistake when they make it and b) can't bothered to use spellcheck? Answer: no.

 

Other typos also, but you can either check for them yourself or ask a friend.

 

I earn a nice few bob as a sideline proof-reading websites for a friend who's a designer. If you don't have the confidence or knowledge (it's not everyone's strong point) to do it yourself there are plenty of 'pedants' (ie people who understand grammar and spelling eg PlainTalker, strix but others too) on the Forum who would doubtless be pleased to cast an eye over your website in return for the odd tenner. It'd be worth the investment imo!