A marketer recently asked, "My firm wants a new website; should I design it myself"?
In the A/E industry, we're all about experts. When you need something done, you get an expert, and you get the right one. You don't call a GIS specialist to design a bridge just because you think he is a quick study with new software packages. You don't call a biologist because you know she understands the interactions of complex natural systems.
The same goes for websites. You may know what looks good on-screen, but that doesn't mean you know how to write code. And while you did design your personal website seven years ago, that doesn't mean you can learn today's website design software packages quickly and completely enough to develop a site that stands out from the thousands of other A/E firm websites. Even if you have the time.
If you're thinking of designing it yourself to save some money, please think again! The money you save will be quickly surpassed by missed revenues when potential clients go elsewhere because your site is not as strong a "positioner" as the other A/E websites out there.
Finally, if you design the website yourself, you will probably have to maintain it yourself. Regardless of your other time commitments, many of which will have been made for you by people who didn't speak to you first, or even look at your calendar. Do you really have time for that?
Bottom line? Get the right expert for the job. Just as you call a structural engineer to design a bridge, call a website designer to design your new website.
Bernie, I enjoyed the article on websites. I am currently traveling this road right now. We launched our website in Jan 08. We have a web design company who did it for us, and they did a good job but what I have learned over the process is that you can have the best, most beautiful, informative, interactive website in the world but if people aren't going there, you may as well toss it in the recycling bin (GREEN).
Our focus now(and it should have been in the beginning), is to drive people to our site. How are we doing it? Through constant keyword research, proper ad placement and many, many other tools.
I believe that the 2nd most important thing, for me anyway, is to be able to update our site all by myself. I find that I want and need to change/upgrade things on a daily basis and it's costing me a small fortune. Things like doing a landing page, changing projects and pictures, resumes, front page information, etc. The Goal of your site is to get listed as #1 on the first page and it's very competative. Of course, you can buy your way to the top through sponsored links but people don't tend to do that for our business anyway. I've done sponsored links with both Google and Yahoo. With Google, the bid price just kept going up and up. With Yahoo, I set a bid price and had the front page positioning but little or no ROI. So focus on the Natural Side of the page. Gotta go, email me if you want to chat more,
Keeping in touch,
Dan Caldwell
Stout & Caldwell
www.stoutcaldwell.com
A New Jersey Consutling Civil Engineer & Surveying Firm.
P.S. did you hear that GOOGLE may now start looking at Word Capitilzation for ranking criteria as well? Food for thought!
Marketing 101 - if you aren't visible, what are you?
Posted by: Dan Caldwell - Stout & Caldwell Consulting Civil Engineers & Surveyors | 13 May 2008 at 07:55 AM