Website design tips

You pay a few thousand bucks for site design, copy writing, art, site optimization and search engine placement. Then you wait for business to come clicking to your door.

But guess what? Your new, expensive, good looking web site just lays there like a dead haddock waiting for the smell to set in. You've heard "if you build it, they will come." Not true. For many local products and services, people don't even look on search engines. Also, nobody waits if your page takes longer to load than the US mail takes to be delivered.

When you surf the internet for yourself, note how big companies get right to the point and help you get what you need quickly. Small companies, however, fall in love with cute technology. Don't. Think of the customer and:

1. Know what you want your website to do for you before you pay someone to do it.
2. Insist that the site does not have movies, sound effects or other time wasting introductions.
3. Make sure the site opens fast, even on old PCs used by your non-techie customers. Most internet is still accessed using slow dial up modems.

To make your site a success, have it do the heavy lifting for you. Here are some representative tasks you can have your site do:

1. Identify new leads.
2. Make complete sales from start to finish.
3. Let people know what you do. Be a brochure.
4. Create an image and a corporate presence or identity.
5. Assist customers with 24 hour service. Connect to your database to provide interactive information without adding additional labor.
6. Publish a library for prospects and clients, so you can be thought of as the go to source for good information.

To sell on-line as in tasks 1 and 2, it pays to perform what is called search optimization, or creating the architecture that is most encouraging for search engines to find you and list you. Get free info at www.virtualpromote.com, searchengineforums.com, linkpopularitycheck.com and searchenginewatch.com.

More likely, however, your target audience is small and selective, so your site's task will be item 3, 4, 5, or 6. So, promote traffic to your site by traditional means. We do. Our own letterhead, emails, invoices and faxes say "For free business consulting tips, go to www.phoneguru.com." It works and those we want to serve and impress visit us often… And we don't pay extra to get hits from meat packers from Montana, who are never going to be our market.