If you’re like me, way too many times to count.

And if you’re like me, it irks the crap out of you to find no direct link on these “community” sites or elsewhere in search engine results to the official website for that business.

Reviews, sure.  Street address, hours of operation, phone number, map – it might all be there.  But still, there’s no direct link to the website for that business. 

Sheesh, you think.  What kind of rinky-dink operation is that business running without its own website?

Today, it’s literally mandatory for any business to establish a strong internet presence via its own business website.  Without it, potential customers are drawn to your competitors who do have business websites to answer their questions, educate them about their products and services and essentially inspire the public to patronize their businesses.

Without a website representing your business on the internet, face it.

You come across as:

• Woefully old fashioned
• Not interested in building your own business credibility and professional image
• Indifferent to those, like me, who want to learn about your business and ultimately drop some cold hard cash into your register.

If I can’t find your business website online when I’m in need of some outstanding fajitas paired with killer margaritas, a kennel for Sparky before I dash out of town for work or a great local spot to get my car detailed ASAP…guess what?

I’m going elsewhere to spend my money.  And everybody like me is doing the same.

Think:  How many potential customers can you realistically afford to lose simply because you don’t have a sleek, professionally-designed website to capture that profitable traffic?

Realistically, you can’t afford to lose any of these customers.

Remember:  For every customer that can’t find your business website online there are statistically a hundred – if not a thousand – more not finding you as well.

Convinced yet?  If so, get busy and provide those us out here who want to find your business website when we need you.  Especially now that more people are searching for local businesses on their cell phones.  Business websites are only going to become that much more critical in terms of success in the future.

Talk to the experts here at Indianapolis Web Design where you’ll get a no-hassle consultation on your business website needs. They know what it takes to create a strong internet presence.  You won’t be sorry if you do.

James and Antoinette are hoping that by the early part of 2012, they will be able to comfortably roll their efforts into a successful operation.

So far, they’re doing well enough with their home baking business, selling exquisitely-made cakes, cookies, exotic pies and breads to their friends, neighbors and a handful of personnel working at their respective Navy commands.

They’ve financed alterations to the large kitchen in their home to legally accommodate such a home business.  They’ve also obtained a small business license.

What they don’t have is a business website – something neither of the Morgans feel is important at this stage in their fledgling business.

“We put up posters and give out business cards,” James says.  “A website now would seem like a waste of money.”

“Why have a website now, when word-of-mouth advertising is bringing in most of the business?” Antoinette asks.

According to Small Business.com – a collection of resources for those seeking information and assistance in starting and running a small business – a website is essential as a new business is just beginning:

“Today, most small businesses need an online presence as much as they need a phone or mailbox. Customers and clients – current and potential – expect you to have one.  For some small businesses, a website has become the primary selling tool, a means to access inventory or colloborate on client projects.

And perhaps most importantly:

“Most people begin their search for a product online using a search engine like Google, Yahoo or Firefox.  Having a website, especially a web site that is designed to be an effective Internet marketing tool, can be very valuable for small businesses. Without the right web site, people will not be able to find your business. ”

The Morgans don’t realize that building a website at this point in their new bakery business will only make that business stronger, more established and viable in terms of competition once they do take that leap out of their Navy uniforms next year.

I can certainly attest that having a website is a “Must Do” early on, rather than later.

My own consulting business was extremely home-spun and small in stature back in 1993.  I, too, profited mostly from word-of-mouth advertising in those days.

Still I knew as the internet commercially left its infancy and began to flourish in those days, I needed to be out there.  I needed to establish and validate my business where people were going to start bringing me up in searches.

I needed to be online

I jumped at the chance to get that website up as soon as possible.  It didn’t mean I was seeking a global market or planning to take the business world by storm. (Okay, yeah, it kinda did.)

In practical terms, it simply meant that I had an established virtual storefront with the domain name I needed to represent my business as the internet continued to evolve (and my business grew as a result).

My guess is that the Morgans are thinking the website can come much later once they’re working their business full time, once they roll out their business “for real.”

They’re missing the point that getting a website up and running now will enable existing local customers to find them in a pinch online when they need those bakery items and have possibly lost their phone number.

It also enables new potential customers locally to find them online without having to page through a phone book which doesn’t contain an ad for the Morgans’ home bakery business.

What happens to those customers who can’t find James and Antoinette without that website waving it’s arms in the air shouting, “Hey guys, here we are…Morgan Baked Goods in Norfolk, Virginia!”

Yup, they buy those cakes and cookies somewhere else.

So to all the entrepreneurs out there, the following words of advice:  As you are getting the bugs worked out of that new home business, make it the #1 “Must Do” on your list….get that website up and running!

Not sure how to go about it?

Talk to the experts here at Indianapolis Web Design.  They’ve got tons of ideas and won’t over-sell your needs as others in the industry might, just to drive up the price of that sale.

Debi Ketner is a professional internet marketer and search engine optimization specialist.  Read her here each week and share your thoughts!

We’ve only sporadically bought from this website in the past but never experienced a single problem.

The ordering process itself was a breeze.  The evolution from purchase point to transaction completion couldn’t have been smoother.  Email confirmations and shipping/tracking info?

Flawlessly executed.

The problem?

The $100 rebate promised with in 7-10 days has yet to be received.

Yes, all these weeks after the fact.

Contact the website customer service?  Time and time again.  Reply email assured that the $100 rebate was on the way.

Still, no rebate.  Six weeks later.  Seven weeks later.

Still this website’s customer service reps insist, “It’s coming, it’s coming!”

Okay, like…when?

Effective business websites must be focused on achieving a web design that sells.

Sure, having an impressive website and a line of great products is all it takes to reel in customers who buy what you’re selling.

Competitive sale prices? You’ve got them.  An easy to navigate website?  You’ve got that, too.

The question is, once you’ve successfully sold that customer, collected payment through your site and provided expedient email confirmation of the sale, does your rebate supplier drop the ball and cost you future business from that customer in the process?

That is the question.  One you must be sure is always - always – answered as a big resounding “NO.”

It’s important.   Actually, it’s downright crucial to the repeat conversion rate of your website’s business.   In other words, those who return to your website, feel a certain amount of faith and loyalty to your business enabling them to buy from you again and again as a result of that initial speedy rebate received.

The website I bought this TV from, a technology-based mega-player which has ranked among the New York Times “Top 25 Online Retailers” does a serious disservice to its customers when it insists on its website, “Our success has been built on a simple principle: take care of every  customer like they were a member of our family.”

Such a promise sets a customer up to expect nothing less than top-notch service from start to finish.   In cases like mine, the rebate company negates that promise by ignoring my rebate request weeks and weeks after the fact of that sale.

End result?  Customers like us stop buying from businesses like this online.

Even after complaining to the company repeatedly about not receiving that rebate promised within  7-10 days, my own experience only confirms to other customers who’ve had the same experience that things haven’t changed.  The real message the company is sending by not ensuring better customer service is, “We have so much business, we just don’t need yours.”

When things go wrong and your customer is angry, take advantage of the situation and make things right.  Don’t make excuses.  Take responsibility!

After all, the reputation of your online business is defined by how you deal with adversity experienced by your customers and unfortunate circumstances rather than how you handle routine day-to- day operations that run like a ribbon of silk.

How do you fix these glitches? That’s easy.

You ensure that you have customer service representatives who understand that a business only gets one chance to get it right in the eyes of their customers.  When they fumble the ball (for instance, when it comes to enabling customers to receive timely rebates), then you must get involved with your customers to make things right.

Not tomorrow, not next week.  You do it immediately.

You contact unhappy customers personally and offer decent compensation for the  negligence involved.

You make it right and make it count:  Fifty percent off a future order.  A gift certificate worth more than a couple of bucks.  Something substantial that tells your unhappy customers, “Yes, we really do take care of every  customer like they were a member of our own family.” (Are you getting that, Tiger Direct?)

Whatever you do, make it a point to contact the rebate company you use and let them know you won’t tolerate such carelessness and threaten to take your business elsewhere if it continues.  Then remain steadfast to follow through on that threat if you have to.

Expert website design is certainly Priority One in terms of your business.

Site navigation, an easy online ordering process and a quality product equally share critical importance.  However, it’s just as vital that those who bring your merchandise to your customers represent your business with the right level of respect and professionalism from the delivery truck to the door.

Including the promised rebate involved.

Think about it:  When someone within your revenue chain blunders, your business suffers.  You inevitably lose precious business for the future.  Can you honestly afford to risk such losses?

You owe it to your business and your customers to ensure that they receive nothing but top-notch customer service, every step of the way.

Debi Ketner is a professional internet marketer  and search engine optimization specialist.  Read her  here each week and share your thoughts!

You don’t need the new Google Panda algorithm for your website to be successful. You don’t have to think about Panda, worry about it or give it a second of your time.

Yes, even though a plethora of others out there are scrambling like crazy to get their websites back on track after being “Pandified” – i.e. having their websites thrust downward in search engine results by this periodic blood-thirsty ranking factor.

Your business site shouldn’t be one of them.

The bottom line is that Panda is a Google update intent on targeting websites that don’t appear authentic, ones that are spammy in nature or have been flagged for poor quality in general.  It focuses on defining what is a “quality” website.  You and I both know there are far too many crappy websites out there that haven’t deserved the search engine ranking they’ve been given for far too long.

Think of the Panda update as Google doing some necessary housecleaning search engine-wise.  Those shallow content dust bunnies in terms of “low quality websites”  have met the broom and have to go!

Your website is safe if it was created properly from top to bottom.

The Google Panda update is a search engine ranking ‘filter’ literally shaking your hand – if, that is, you have a website with the kind of architecture enabling it to be a trusted authority.

Owners of high quality websites like those created here at Indianapolis Web Design are rejoicing in unison that finally – finally! – Google is adjusting its ranking algorithms enough to be able to differentiate between content farms and spam sites that appear in top results in the Google ranking system and those sites genuinely deserving top rankings.

Why?  Because the owners of these websites know they have nothing to fear.

They have websites designed from the ground on up built on:

• Quality content – none of it duplicated on other sites
• Easy navigation without a flurry of advertisements
• Valuable, authoritative information to share with prospective customers

I tested this theory with my own consulting website that was designed by Indianapolis Web Design long before any of the periodic Panda update sweeps.  So far there have been four Panda releases occurring within a four to seven week sweep since last February.

Yup, my website is still there on the first page of Google using my keywords for the site.  Thank you, Nextfly!

That’s why I say, “Panda Shmanda.”

If you have a well-constructed website, one built on original, high quality content with strong navigation that responds to the needs of users, offering few adverts and no outbound links to low-ranking webpages, odds are that you’ll find your website either holding steady or jumping higher in search engine page results.

That realistically puts you ahead of the game in terms of promotion and profits.  What could be better than that?

If you don’t have a website performing as it should for your business in terms of search engine page results and subsequent revenue, what the heck are you waiting for?

Contact the experts here at Nextfly who can get you in the profit-generating game by designing a unique, high quality website for your business that won’t put you at the mercy of a search engine algorithm shift as Google continues to evolve for the future.

Ordinary, unfangled theory that makes a lot of sense when it comes to establishing an online business presence:

The more you go with simple concepts for your website, the better your results will be.

Customers love simplicity. They yearn for simplicity when they’re visiting your website.

They look for it and even thrive on it.

Your online search engine marketing strategy begins with simple selling techniques and a website that is keyword focused from start to finish.   Therefore, when it comes to business web design:

Nobody wants to deal with it.

Your site visitors will instantly click that “X” to close these pop ups without reading them or they already have their browsers set to block them as a matter of course.

Why? Because they can’t stand pop up ads!

If you want your visitors to join your newsletter list, give them a decent place on your site to join it. If you have a special offer, put it also in a decent place where it can be found.

Don’t turn your site visitors off from the get-go with a pop up ad that gives them reason to bounce from your site before you’ve even had a chance to share your wares and services with them.

You wouldn’t want an electrician to come into your place of business and haphazardly slap wires together simply because you thought it would be cool to have 18 different office machines dangerously overloading one receptacle.

You’d want him or her to advise you on safe electrical usage in the office from a professional point of view.  And you’d listen to that advice.

The same professional ethic holds true in web design.

Yes, you can theoretically clutter your business website with every kind of technological innovation in terms of bells and whistles and somehow muddle through in terms of your business.

You can insist on having your way, even when your website designer advises that you are making poor choices for that website and the overall image of your business.

But why would you, when a good, quality web designer will carefully guide and advise you as a result of expertise achieved from years of experience?

Not only because it’s his or her business to know how to effectively build your website and promote strong e-commerce for you through that site, but the reputation of that web design company is also associated with your site.

That web design company wants to be proud of its work.

A professional web designer wants to be proud of the work he or she does for you. If your website looks cheap and cheesy, it makes that web design businesslose business.

You’ll find this kind of statement often featured in advertising by internet technology companies who have assembled a variety of good-looking models to resemble their own satisfied customers.

And they definitely look good.

The models representing business owners we see in these ads all have nice smiling faces. They are all dressed smartly and really great posers.  These beautiful professionals were chosen to urge you “to jump on the bandwagon…get your business online…Hey, bud…the Web is calling!”

Looking at these slick ads, you can almost hear those voices, can’t you?

And natch, these companies go to great expense and a lot of trouble to get this kind of advertising circulating, to get that persuasive message across.  To get you listening and paying attention.

And hopefully spending some money on their services.

After all, they want your business. In our current economy, they want your business, badly.

And, let’s face it, they’re hoping like crazy that the fat advertising expenditure they’ve made on those ads will boomerang right back into a sweet solid black line in terms of company revenue.

And yet, all you have to do is talk to anyone who has had that kind of online “presence” for their business for any reasonable length of time and they will tell you.

Better yet, I will tell you:   There isn’t a business out there, large or small, that can’t profit from a well-designed website, a good contact page with email capability and an active blog to help drive traffic to that business.

Period.

The web is growing expotentially

Oh, but you say, there are already billions of websites on the web and you’re absolutely right, there are.   While concrete statistics can be hard to come by, Caslon Analytics, offering consultancy on global internet usage and regulation, has a pretty good handle on the size of the Web.

Billions and possibly more than a trillion web pages exist.  And the numbers in terms of e-commerce grow expotentially.

But if you think of all those pages out there as, say, gas stations, does it really matter how many there are to pull into?  Customers are going to take their business – where?   That’s right.  To the best gas stations that happen to meet their needs.

And if these gas stations give their customers consistently quality products, good prices and  nothing short of top-notch customer service, what are these customers probably going to do?

Yupper, they’ll be repeat customers, coming back to buy gas, chips, soda, cigarettes – you get the picture.

My business has had an “internet presence”  since 1996.  Over the years, one website for my business has blossomed into several.  What “gas station” has taken care of my needs during those years?

This one has.  Indianapolis Web Design.   Before it even was Indianapolis Web Design or Nextfly.com.

Back in the days when it was just some young guy who had a rep for being such a hotshot website builder that his profits came strictly from word-of-mouth advertising.

I don’t doubt he built those amazing sites from a PC in his bedroom.  Didn’t matter what his “storefront” was then, because he had something better.  He had satisfied customers who weren’t going to go anywhere else to get their “gas.”

Today the internet is a thriving marketplace and no business, large or small, can afford not to have that online presence.  Not when you consider how advantageous even a simple, well-constructed webpage can be in terms of increasing profits and brand recognition.

According to E-STATS (the US Census Bureau’s internet site devoted to measuring e-commerce and electronic economy), since 2007,  retailers’ e-commerce sales have increased by 18.4 percent.  Business to business accounted for most e-commerce (93 percent).

Plus, over 90 percent of all retail e-sales were concentrated in two industry groups:  non-store retailers and motor vehicles/parts dealers, which accounted for $93 billion and $24 billion, respectively.

Non-store meaning electronic shopping and mail-order houses.

Somebody out there is looking for your business right now on the internet.  If they can’t get their gas from you, they’re going to get it someplace else.

Wouldn’t you rather they bought it from you?

Check out Indianapolis Web Design’s prices and services.  Establishing a strong internet presence for your business could add substantially to its bottom line.

You don’t stick a website on the side of the Information Superhighway (the good ol’ Web to you and me) like it’s a billboard and expect it to promote your business in an actively profitable way.

And yet, a lot of business owners out there insist on doing just that.

Experts agree it’s an extremely bad business website decision  to neglect giving your website consistent maintenance checks and regular design updates.

Outdated, stagnant websites and content

An outdated website or one that doesn’t operate efficiently due to its lack of search engine optimization, including those websites that merely sit frozen in time without any new content added only ensures three things:

1. Less website visitors
2. Less sales
3. Less profit for your business – period

Dan McClean, editor-in-chief of a major IT publisher, states in an excellent article, “Websites Need Regular Tune-Ups“:

Websites are often the first impression your company makes — they’re where many people actually discover your business in today’s networked world. And websites are a primary way to reach out and touch customers within local communities and around the world.

Whether your on-line storefront provides the means to process sales orders or simply serves up electronic brochures, the goal is ultimately to turn visitors into customers.  But a lousy website can just turn them off.  Poorly maintained and obviously ignored sites rarely get more than one passing glance.  Sites with rich content and that are interactive, multifunctional, current and continually changing create a lasting impact and repeat visits.

Brett Beck,  Indianapolis Web Design and SEO Services owner, offers web design check-up tips

“One common misconception that many businesses share is that their website is just a ‘billboard’  that people may or may not see while driving by,”  Brett  says.  “Really that couldn’t be further from the truth.”

According to  Brett and those like him who have spent more than a dozen years in the profession of web design, that website  is actually a doorway into your business.  It’s very important that it looks great, is easy to use, and that it compliments your businesses image.

“Think of it as a showroom – your business’s showroom,” Brett says.  “It needs to be clean, sharp, and should display what your business is about.  You wouldn’t want trash on the floor, messy displays, and junk laying all over the place.”

He offers the following checklist questions to help you decide what web design changes need to be made.  If you answer “No”  honestly to any of these questions, it’s definitely time to get a website checkup!

Web Design/Re-Design Checklist

• Does your site match the image your business is trying to give current and potential customers?

• Does your site compliment the services or products your business offers?

• Are you happy with the overall design and the way it works/looks?  If so, what do you like?  If not, what would you like?

• Are you satisfied with the amount of leads/prospects you’re getting from your site?

• Do you believe your website overall represents a strong internet presence for your business?

• Does your website rank higher in search engine result pages than your competitors?

• Do you feel that new or existing customers that come to your site are impressed with your business’s  web design?

“Your website will dictate the credibility and image of your operation,” Brett says. “That’s the stuff that a technologically-current web design is capable of taking straight to the bank for you, guaranteed.”

Interested in upgrading your current website, but don’t know how to go about it?

Contact Indianapolis Web Design Services for a free, no-obligation consultation.  All sorts of options and improvements are available to choose from to bring your business website to a highly competitive state-of-the-art level, operating at maximum efficiency!

Debi Ketner is a professional internet marketer.  Read her here each week on Nextfly.com and share your thoughts!

When these relatives design a website for a business or an organization, the owners of these sites think it’s “good enough” as-is.  Especially in those instances that someone from a professional web design firm contacts them about updating their existing sites.

They tend to be defensive – almost argumentative – about being approached by such a firm because they have a homespun website that they insist is “good enough” just the way it is.

What these business owners don’t realize is that “good enough” isn’t going to make it in terms of the highly sophisticated and competitive internet marketplace we’re dealing with today.

Web design in the past

Years ago all you had to do was put  a shingle on the Web and it was indeed “good enough.”  The Internet was a horse of an entirely different color back then. A website – any website – thrust online in those days achieved some sort of presence for that business, organization, etc.

Today?  Today, you need a serious, state-of-the-art website that encompasses the latest trends in e-commerce.  You need a professional web designer to make your business efficient, viable and highly relevant in search engine results.  Without that productive input, you are literally crippling your business presence online.

Relatives can indeed build websites.  That doesn’t mean they can build effective, successful websites.  That’s where turning to a professional web designer can transform your own home-spun business website into a serious entity in terms of e-commerce.

Business website design: Why you need an expert

First of all, keywords.

Has your son, brother, cousin constructed your website scientifically based on major keywords to bring your business or organization to the forefront on the Web?

Keywords are critical.

Not having your website keyword-focused from the start means that your site will be inevitably lost in the “back 40″ of the Internet.

To find your business online, customers would have to insert your business’s name directly into their searches.  What are the odds of that?

Sure, some customers will search for you that way.  But what about all the new customers you want to attract online?  They just plain won’t be able to find you unless they are willing to search page after page after a dozen more pages and still maybe get…nothing.

Unfortunately, most prospective customers won’t put that much effort into their searches.  Within the first three pages of search engine results, studies have shown that website customers will buy from those websites.

What a shame…they aren’t buying from you.

A professional web designer will focus your website on those keywords to enable your site to achieve better search engine results for your business.

Contemporary graphics and content design, strong navigation, efficient e-commerce solutions. Can your relative professionally accomplish all of that with your website?

A professional web designer can.

After all, it’s his or her job to take your website “as is” and revamp, redesign and ultimately elevate it to the level where it is competitive in every sense of the word with other websites currently out there.

That web designer will give you an end result with your website that competes with the “best of the best” based on experience and expertise.

Can your relative promise you that?

What about  incoming links and directory submissions? Fixing your site’s broken links and optimizing your site overall for the Internet from the back end of your website? Has your relative who built your site enabled it with any special e-commerce features to ensure a smooth, glitchless experience for online customers?

This is where you need a serious web design company that also provides full search engine optimization along with your website’s design.

Without these essential ingredients, your website won’t achieve important Google Page Ranking enabling better search engine placement and an in-flow of customers following links on other sites.

The more you are able to gain incoming links through your website’s content offering outgoing links to “expert” websites, the more your own site gains better traffic in the long run.

Search engine optimization

Fixing broken links, deleting orphan content, enabling your flash programs to be crawled by search engine spider programs while also bringing into play an e-commerce system for purchasing as well as an optimized blog…it’s all very important.

That son, brother, cousin, nephew may have built you a wonderful website initially but it’s time to bring that website up to current contemporary and competitive standards.

A review of your homemade website is long overdue.

Get in touch with our web design specialists here at Indianapolis Web Design for a free no-hassle consultation about your website.

You won’t be sorry if you do.

Debi Ketner is a professional internet marketer and search engine optimization specialist.  Read her here  in the Blog at Indianapolis Web Design and share your thoughts! 

I visit the websites of my competitors and I crawl over them at a painstaking pace.  I study and privately critique every little nook and cranny on those websites.

Then I make purchases from them.

Sometimes those purchases are extremely small in terms of dollars and cents.  Other times I’ll drop $50 to $100 and more.   Frequently I will find a reason to complain just to see how strong their customer service skills are.  I make sure they have no idea who I am by using a personal credit card or a private PayPal account.

I might even have a family member pay for me, if I’m worried I’ll get found out.

Why in the world would I become a customer of my own competition?

Simple.  It helps me to make my own business even better by presenting myself simply as just another internet customer placing an order.

The Denver Business Journal’s Small Business Center advises secretly shopping your competition the very same way.

“Companies in all business sectors engage in the practice because they need to know what their competition is doing,” Deborah Beckman, author of “Mystery shopping your competition is valuable” wrote.  She’s right.

Heidi Cohen, president of Riverside Marketing Strategies, who wrote “What You Can Learn From Your Competitors advocates the same:

“When it comes to strategic marketing,” she wrote, “Competitors can provide the best insights. Brick-and-mortar marketers have shopped the competition forever.  You should, too.”

It’s extremely good intel, especially if you happen to be a business owner who visualizes the marketplace as a battlefield.   You need to know what that “army” is like on the other side of that battlefield.  You need to know just how powerful that army is.

As such, it never hurts to make the business of your competitors your business.  You can learn a lot about the strength of your competition in the process.

For instance, here’s the kind of insight I’m able to draw when I conduct these “intel missions” on my own competition:

• * How well they’re doing as a well-oiled “machine” by how professionally I’m treated as just another average customer.

If they jump at the task of handling my order with a swift email acknowledgment and there are no glitches in getting a quality product or service I’ve paid for out to me, I can surmise from my own experience that they are “all they can be” in terms of what they do.

On the other hand, if I receive no email response, hear nothing about my order for 24 hours and my first customer service directed request for an update still elicits nothing – I can pretty much tell that this is a slipshod operation more in the business of losing customers than aiming at gaining new ones.

It doesn’t happen very often, you say?

Oh contraire!  You’d be amazed how many of your bigger retailers and service providers just plain do a crappy job in business.  I could name some easily-recognizable names here and some that might outright shock you to be in this category.

As a small business owner, you need to do your own legwork in terms of gathering this kind of intel to help make what you do even better.

But don’t just focus on the Big Dogs out there…the little guy you compete with can chip away at your business if he excels precisely where you don’t!

• * I’m able to use the poor business practices of my competitors to my own best advantage.

Are they over-priced?  Cheap but providing shoddy products and services?  Does their customer service department downright stink?  Is that website they’re using to sell gadgets and services outdated and full of broken links or typos?

Analyzing these aspects and the information I’m able to draw from the marketplace makes my routine market studies of the competition priceless in terms of the bucks I shell out to buy from them!

• * Consider that if the competition has a clunky, less-than-professional website in place (which far too many of them do), you can rest assured that your own is superior to theirs.

Read some good marketing articles on the Web, you’ll find they all echo the advice of successful small business owner and marketing strategist, Kanaga Siva, who wrote “Small Business Competition Strategies“:

“Have a professional looking website.  A well designed professional looking website is absolutely essential.  By providing all the information about your business, products and services, it will add credibility to your small business.”

Bingo!  That’s the linchpin right there – particularly if you do the majority of your business on the internet.

Find out if your website fits the bill by asking for a free, no-obligation consultation with one of Indianapolis Web Design’s experts.

The potential for a nice upward surge in future profits for your business could make you awfully glad you did.

Debi Ketner is a professional internet marketer.  Read her here each week on Nextfly.com and share your thoughts!

“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.“  ~ Alexander Pope

Last year, I undertook what I thought would be a fun and easy project.  I took on the task of putting together a subject-specific website for a family member trying to win a little contest at his workplace.

Entrants only had to write a convincing, creative story about their workplace and the winner would be granted three days of extra vacation.  However, this family member wanted something better.  More elaborate.  Something that was creatively so “out there” in such a way that he would win the contest hands down, he said.

He wanted his story told online.  Through its own little website.

As soon as he presented the idea to me, I was entranced.  I absolutely loved it!

Could I help him design a small site online for his story?  Sure, I could.  (Or so I thought.)

I took what meager knowledge I had and attempted to create for him a site that was sure to win the contest.  What I realized two weeks into the project is that anybody who makes a living in website design clearly falls into one of the following categories:

1. A serious artist who adores the challenge of extremely tedious and patient creation
2. A masochist who lives for nothing but unending pain
3. A crazy person who only wants to get crazier

Um, yeah.  That’s how EASY and SIMPLE churning out this simple website turned out to be for me.

I admit that I honestly thought I could accomplish what he wanted:  A good story told in about four to five – at most six – web pages.  It seemed simple enough.  Put a little of this “here”…a little of “that” there.  Click “Finish” and roll it out.  TA DA:  All Done-ski!

You know what?  Web design ain’t anywhere near that simple.

There’s a whole lot of configuring, tweaking and troubleshooting involved.  All three of these evolutions hold the potential to literally drive you to the point of wanting to find the nearest bridge and…jump.

The average person thinks that a website designer just slaps things together and – voila! – you have a beautifully designed website.  So.  Not.  True.

Sure, you can throw together a nice pile of junk.  Or you can start with something incredibly simple and very quickly turn it into something so complicated that even a member of Mensa couldn’t make head nor tail of it.

Such was the case with my efforts in creating that seemingly ‘simple’ website.

In the building of a website, there’s an incredible amount of “foundation building” as in navigation,  graphics and umpteen variables that are involved.  You upload and you download.  You configure ‘this’ and you reconfigure ‘that.’  You work with something called html which basically becomes as confusing as a huge snarl of Christmas lights so quickly that you find yourself hating life.

And then you try to ascertain why little old program “A” won’t fit nicely and work effortlessly with program “B” to give you the seamless and flawless output of “C” the way it’s supposed to.

You work with the instructions you’re given and when they don’t work out right, you try everything under the sun to get the result you want.  And if it should all go completely haywire, you scrap your original plan and you just plain start over.

When that doesn’t work, OMG…you start over again.

Anybody who thinks that website designers are paid too much when you hire them for x number of dollars to build an “a-b-c” operational website for you, I say:  You are so wrong!

When it comes down to the amount of work these amazing people do for you by putting your website together piece by piece and the  countless headaches they encounter and deal with in order to accomplish that feat without feeling driven to slit their wrists, believe me.  Web designers are not overpaid.  Not by a long shot.  They earn every last penny you pay them.

When you look at the amount of time they invest just to get your website the way you want it, believe me, there is no slapping together anything to make that website right.  It takes talent, know-how and a lot of artistry.  (Not to mention the patience of a saint.)

These people work their backsides off, and the really crazy part is, they love every minute of it!

The bad news is this member of my family did not win the contest at his workplace.  The good news is that he has since forgiven me for promising him something I simply couldn’t deliver.

Talk to the consultants here at Indianapolis Web Design about your website needs.  They’re not only extra sharp business-wise, but they have the smarts and artistry to give you the flawless internet presence you deserve.

Debi Ketner is a professional internet marketer.  Read her here each week and share your thoughts!