Why do I need a custom website?

Many business owners, both small and large, are facing the question of whether or not to invest their time and money into a custom website. We’ve worked with many custom and tons of template-based sites, we can say from experience that for a business to survive in the online search results page, custom is the way to go. It’s a big investment at first, but is more beneficial and potentially more cost-effective in the long run. Understand the word choice, “investment”. This will pay dividends and there will be an return on that investment down the road. Sometimes, sooner than you think.

Obviously, working from a template is often cheaper and faster in the short run. You can buy a template for a very low price, fill it with content and have a brand new site up in a couple of hours. But there’s a chance that your competitor has exactly the same template. With by and large the exact same content. And, let’s be honest, without a background in web development, it can be hard to make the template look and function the way you want. It will become abundantly clear how limited the template features are as soon as you decide to customize it to your needs. And in the long run, it will probably require more money to add custom features to a templated site than to just have built the site from the ground up.

What does a custom website do for my business?

A good custom website will bring you credibility. In a world that relies on first impressions and snap judgments, a good custom website is essential to putting your best foot forward.

Another way to look at it; business owners put a lot of effort into the design of their offices, especially the lobby because this is the first room their clients see when they walk in. But the lobby probably isn’t the first thing people see nowadays. Most go to your company’s website before they come to visit you in the office. Your website makes the first impression, and we all know how important that is. You have to treat your website as you treat your office and make it the best reflection of your business and values.

A custom site provides a unique identity for your business. It should be in line with all other offline and online branding materials you have. The design of your site should tell the story behind your business. It is critical to carry all brand elements through your online and offline materials; the site should look like it belongs to your company and users should recognize your brand even if they don’t see the name and the company logo.

I have a website, but I’m not getting any traffic or leads. Why?

You have a website. GREAT! You think you’ve done everything on point. But you aren’t seeing any traffic and your website hasn’t gathered any leads, like, at all. It’s possible there’s something wrong and it’s possible that you only need to tweak a few things to get it right.

In our experience, there two things are more important than anything else.

Traffic is terrible.
1. Solution? You need proper SEO. Search engine optimization has not been done on your site. (read more about SEO here.) You need to fix that. Find a professional that can talk the talk, and walk the walk. Sadly, proper SEO takes time and is a continual process. Finding a good agency to handle your SEO affordably can be a challenge, but you’ve come to the right place. Professional SEO can have tremendous return on investment.
Conversion is nonexistent.
1. Solution? If your website hasn’t been updated since the release of Windows 95, and the graphics, photos, branding and web technology is painfully old. It’s not only a security risk, it says a lot about your company and you as an owner that the rest of your operation may be similar. That can not be your first impression to web users.

Can I build my own website?

There’s a hundred and one new “DIY” website builders out there. And if you have a simple business, that doesn’t need to customize anything, that may be your solution. But, on the other hand, if you want to deviate from those predetermined builders and customize the functionality or look of your site, you may need a college degree in web development to make that happen. Secondly, your site, as stated above needs some decent SEO. Websites built and hosted on a DIY website builder often have a very difficult time ranking well in online searches, if at all.

Let’s Get Started with a website questionnaire!

Want some light reading?

Here’s a bit of overview you can use to impress your peers.

Web design encompasses many different skills and disciplines in the production and maintenance of websites. The different areas of web design include web graphic design; interface design; authoring, including standardized code and proprietary software; user experience design; and search engine optimization. Often many individuals will work in teams covering different aspects of the design process, although some designers will cover them all. The term web design is normally used to describe the design process relating to the front-end (client side) design of a website including writing mark up. Web design partially overlaps web engineering in the broader scope of web development. Web designers are expected to have an awareness of usability and if their role involves creating mark up then they are also expected to be up to date with web accessibility guidelines. (from wikipedia)