Phone:Phone spacer763-537-3231
sales@midwestwebs.com
Web Design Offer!
Click Here to Learn More!

A Website for Your Customers

The main purpose of having a website is to provide information to those who aren’t familiar with your business or to provide more information to those who do business with you. We have come across many business owners who design the website with themselves in mind, not the customer. This poses as a problem with the goal to give information to the user in the format that they would like it in. So, the question comes down to, how would we build a website for our customers? Well, here is the information we would go through to make sure your clientele is getting the most from your website:

CONTACT INFORMATION

Make sure to have your contact information in each page. You have a much higher probability to close a sale for your business if customers give you a call. It is a sign that the customer is taking the necessary steps to accomplishing a goal of theirs.

LACK OF GRAMMAR/SPELLING MISTAKES

Nothing drives down credibility of a website faster than grammar and spelling errors. Make sure to go through your website content and correct any errors.

TESTIMONIALS/EXPERIENCE

Be sure to include testimonials on your website! A website built for your customers will have past customers’ stories about how your company did a fantastic job. Also be sure to include what types of experience you have in your particular field. Many customers search for this type of information to see how credible you are for their project.

YOUR COMPANY LOGO

A company logo can be a vital part of a customer’s recognition of your company. A company logo also portrays the level of professionalism that your company has. Making sure that your logo is set prominently on your website can be an important factor in elevating your customers trust.

ABOUT YOUR COMPANY

Having an “About Us” page on your website is another great way to tell customers who you are and what you have done in the past. We have talked to many businesses that love the fact that we are a small family based business. It is little subtleties like this that can have an impact in whether you get the sale or not.

Keep these factors in mind when thinking about what to put into your website. Customers have many reasons why they choose a particular company. It is your job to capitalize on what sets you apart from your competitors and how you can get their job done above their expectations. Also keep in mind that the website is for your customers. Keeping that in mind will help you determine what you should be including on your website.



Can your company afford not to have a website?

Affordable Web Design

Thinking about a website design?

No. Of course we are in the business and this is how we choose to make money, but when you really sit down and think about if your business can afford not to have a website, a few ideas come to mind:

More and more people are using the internet

Everyday, more and more people are turning to the internet to find out more information about services or products that they are looking for. It is easy to see the reason why. Where else can you find just about everything you would want to know? You may have to wait for the commercial break to see what is fed to you, or you could just log on to the internet and find the best local deal. This is one of the reasons why search engines have seen such a high growth rate over the past 10+ years. It is easy to type in a few words of text and have the results brought to you rather than lug out the ol’ phone book and guess where you should start first.

Your competitors are getting all the traffic

Another reason your company should be able to afford a website is that your competitors already have! Odds are that your competition is already enjoying a nice spot in the search engines and getting phone calls and email requests for their services. Now why would you let your competition have it so easy? Even if you don’t rank #1, online searchers will still go though a couple of listings until they come across something that makes sense to them and trust. But without a website to speak of, your business isn’t even in the running!

Relatively speaking, it’s very inexpensive when compared to print, TV, and radio advertising

If you thought your business count afford a website, is it really necessary to talk about affording print ads, television commercials or radio spots? I’ll give you a little piece of advice. More and more large businesses are shifting dollars away from those types of advertising and funneling them into more effective kinds of advertising, a.k.a websites and internet marketing.

Simply speaking, a website can have a dramatic effect on your business.

How much are you losing by not having a website?

Affordable website design
https://www.flickr.com/photos/amagill/ / CC BY 2.0

Tough to say, how much is it worth to close a sale? If your competitor is on the top of the search engines for an even remotely popular term, he is getting at least phone calls. Wouldn’t you like customers to be doing the same to you? Even simple websites are found locally very well in Google. It is possible to build a quick website and have it give enough information to spark a visitor’s interest and have them contact you.

Also, a website helps to advertise other services or products that your current clients aren’t aware that you offer. We have had many people come to us and have a website built and then say, “Oh, I didn’t know you did ______. Sign me up for that.” There are people searching right now for the services you offer. Give them what they want! Many people today are reaping the benefits and giving customers exactly what they need.

So what are you losing from not having a website? $3,000? $15,000? $128,000? Figures such as these are not uncommon for companies to be losing from not having a website presence.

So I ask the question again. Can your company afford not to have a website?



Why You Should Have Your Web Site Built by a Professional Web Site Design Company

Professional Web Site Design Company

We hear it all the time…”My brother (son, grandma, uncle, etc.) knows how to build web sites and they do it for cheap! Why would I have a professional build my web site?” The sad truth is that eventually the majority of these companies wish they would have started with a professional web design company.

It’s too much work for a non-professional web design company

As time goes on, these companies who have a “cheap” web designer come to us because their designer has one of the following symptoms:

  • No time
  • Went out of business
  • Not available
  • Sick and tired of making updates

And all while the company is not getting the results they had hoped for.

It is easy for us to understand why a company would shudder when thinking about hiring a professional web design company: affordability.

“When you work with professionals, you get professional results and the peace of mind that your web site is doing what it is supposed to do.”

In this article we point out some of the things to take into consideration when you have a web site professionally built.

Benefits of a professionally designed web site
Some benefits of having a web site built by a professional organization are:

  • They have the technical expertise
  • You can focus more on your business
  • Being found on the search engines
  • Clean crisp professional design
  • Easy to use and easy to navigate
  • Increasing traffic to the site
  • Future growth and expandability

The time and money are better spent on dealing with a professional in the field that knows these areas. Those in business know that time is money. Do the math! You are here to find out how to build your business. Your neighbor down the block does this in his spare time…who would you want to do business with?

Web design professionals know all the in’s and out’s

There are many areas to be considered when thinking of getting an online presence:

  • Goals of the site
  • Usability
  • Professional, clean, crisp design
  • Future expandability
  • Who is going to keep it updated
  • The information you should we have on your web site
  • How your web site will be found on the internet

These are just a few areas that are analyzed when you decide to work with a professional web design company. Some areas are obviously more important than others. The company’s goals for the web site have much to do with the priority of each of the areas.

This is what we as professionals are trained to do: enable business owners to focus more on their business, and let us focus on doing what we do (building your online presence)

For example, I wouldn’t even think about designing and building my own cabinets. Considering the time it would take me to build a cabinet myself, it would be a better business decision to hire a professional carpenter or cabinet supplier to build my cabinets, so I can focus on my core business. Likewise, you have a core business model which you should be focusing on so that your business grows.

Let the pros do their work, so you can focus yours.

You are reading this article to get an education about possibly making a business decision in the future. Your neighbor down the street does this in his spare time (and their work on your business web site will show it)…Who do you want to do business with? Who would you work with to showcase your professional image?

When you work with professionals, you get professional results and the peace of mind that it is doing what it is supposed to do.

Having an online presence is not enough. Your web site should be optimized for the search engines. Google, Yahoo and MSN, are just a few of the search engines the professionals work with. Professional web designers have industry knowledge that help your web site rank higher and be more useful to customers. Your web site should be easy to read and to navigate. The layout should be attractive and the text should be readable.

“We enable business owners to focus more on their business, and let us focus on building your online presence.”

Future growth and expandability

One characteristic that professional web design companies focus on is the future expandability of the web site. This is very important when looking at the overall design. There are many packages available that will help you build a web site, but when the support for that package goes away or they go out of business, all the money that you invested into your web site is gone with the package. The professionals use industry standard coding practices so their code can be easily understood. This translates into a higher value web site that is faster to expand and grow, saving you and your business time and money.

When you invest in a professional web design company to build your online presence, what you are paying for is their experience in the field. However, the professionals aren’t for everyone, at least in the beginning. Eventually those businesses who wish to get a web site professionally made, but don’t want to spend the money, will fall into one of the following categories:

  1. They will go out of business, or
  2. They will end up paying a professional to build their web site

What we as professionals have seen

In our experience, the businesses that don’t invest in a professional web site eventually wish they had invested in a web design company. Considering all the important factors listed above, it is highly recommended to look closely at the benefit of working with a web design professional.

The task of building a web site and having it work for your business is too time intensive for non-professionals and the business simply won’t get the results they had hoped for without spending much time and effort learning the techniques that work well for businesses on the internet.

Conclusion

In conclusion, your job is to build your business which takes both time and energy. Save both and let professional web design companies use their time and energy to help build your business the right way.



Introduce Your Business to the Internet

Introduce Your Business to the Internet

By now you should have heard that your business should be online. The internet has proven to be a vital part of many marketing campaigns. The internet allows businesses to capture information about customers that traditional marketing could never do. As with any introduction, it is best to show up looking good and being friendly (to the search engines).

The internet has seen dramatic growth in the past decade. More and more people are spending cash to see if they can use the internet to their advantage for their business. A recent statistic states that the number of people online in the US is close to 347 million, according to Internet World Stats, that’s over 89% of the population. Not a bad place to introduce your business to the world.

The information that can be gathered about your customers is another way that you can make yourself useful to them. When a user contacts you from the website via email, you are able to gather names, addresses and information that is relevant to the customer, such as a question about a product or service you offer. Then you can tailor your sales pitch according to their needs and give them what they are looking for.

Lastly, making your website search engine friendly and easy to navigate is a good practice. Being easy to work with is essential to growing your business. When you introduce yourself to new people, you try to look your best. A professional web design speaks volumes about how you value your company image.

When you decide to get your business online or redesign what you have, think about the people to whom you will be introducing your business. It’s always best to show up with a professional image.