When speaking with many business owners who are contemplating a web presence for their company, I find that in many of them usually have unrealistic expectations as to what a website can do for them and a shaky understanding of how much web development actually costs. In a lot of cases they would site over-hyped articles in trade magazines and whiz-bang sales pitches from slick marketing firms as the foundation to their beliefs. Unfortunately, many of these articles and tactics from marketing firms reinforce the idea that a website is easy, maintenance-free, inexpensive and is the magic pill the will cure what ails your business.
As with anything in life, a truly exceptional website takes a lot of investment in both time and money. Taking advantage of the latest technology and designing your site with the future in mind will add great value to your site. Yet unrealistic expectations still persist among business people who are new to web services. In order to avoid web services sticker shock and the paralysis that goes along with technology unawareness, it best to educate yourselves on the common fallacies that exist with web services.
Common fallacies of web services
SEO strategies are equivalent to sales prospecting — As simple as this sounds, for many business people it is not an obvious statement. Many hold the view that seach engine optimization is the most critical component to sales prospecting and the only reason to have a web presence — this is simply not true. In order for any SEO strategy to work successfully, you need a website that has a wealth of content that is valuable to your customers as well as a business strategy that is sensitive to your customers needs. SEO strategies should not be looked at as a sales prospecting vehicle; they simply don’t work that way.
SEO strategies as a replacement to good content — It is a mistake to look at any SEO strategy as a shortcut to having a robust web presence with compelling content. Any SEO strategy alone, will not keep users coming back to your site. There is simply no replacement to having a website that is designed in a usable way and is a valuable service to your users. Read the rest of this entry »
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