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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.



Getting a Poor Return on Your Website? Try SEO or Internet marketing!

Website ROI

We hear it all the time. Companies contact us and say, “My website is not working, can you do something about it?” We then go out to their website and it is a horrid mix of broken links, missing images, misspellings and multi-colored font sizes and colors all over the website.

“Yes, we can help.”

We usually end up starting from scratch and discussing with the client what the goal of the website is. Then we explain the process of SEO and internet marketing and what kind of effects it can have on a customer’s business. Almost immediately, the client’s eyes open wide and they say, “Yes, we should go that route.”

SEO and Internet Marketing Effects

The effect that SEO and internet marketing can have on your website also is dependent upon your budget. These campaigns are time intensive, but can have a significant impact on your bottom line. We have seen clients rank #1 after just an initial clean up on their websites. We have also worked to get high rankings a little farther down the road. Either way, it is invaluable to start building your website base as soon as possible.

Climbing the Search Result Ladder

As an SEO and internet marketing campaign is being executed, you should be able to see your listings climb up for the targeted keywords. This will allow more people to come across your website and learn about what you have to offer. In our experience, we have seen many sites climb the rankings and then fall, but usually they end up closer to the top in the long run. This is in part to Google sifting through what you are offering them in accordance with relevant information for the particular search query. I believe it also has been termed the “Google Dance”.

That’s all great, but can I really see results?

Yes. Will it make you a millionaire immediately? Probably not, but it can definitely help with increasing sales from the internet. The more places your website comes up in front of searchers, the more likely they are to learn more about your business and do business with you. More often than not, it is important to rank highly to get in front of the searcher so they can quickly solve a problem that they have.



The Economy: What we have noticed

Recessions and business

I believe everyone by now has heard of the recession that we are all in. Some businesses have fared just fine. Some have gone out of business but one thing is certain, it is not pretty out there. We have also felt the recession mainly because we work with businesses of all shapes and sizes and some have been hit pretty hard. Lately though, we have seen some light on the horizon and it seems as though things are picking up out there.

What we have noticed

The time frame I’m speaking within is about January 1, 2009 through August 24, 2009. We talk to many businesses and early this year we heard many stories that businesses were cutting back. Any B2B (business-to-business) can most likely agree that it has been a little slower lately. Lately though, the business owners we have been chatting with are opening up to the idea of spending more money and increasing their business. This is a great sign for anyone in the advertising industry, partly because in a recession scenario, advertising is one of the first things to be cut.

What you can expect

While businesses deal with the current economic conditions, you can bet they are looking for ways to stay in business. This usually means that businesses that can help them spend less and be more efficient will be in demand. You can also expect that most of the businesses that are choosing to do nothing during a recession will be going out of business. This will also mean that the customers that those businesses served will be looking for other companies to complete the work. If your businesses is able to pull through these tough times, I imagine the internet and a great sales staff will be key to the survival. You can also expect the internet to grow, even through the recession. People will tend to stay at home and use tools that they are already paying for. They will also be looking for additional ways to save money, ways to educate themselves, cheaper products and services and coupon shop. All of this brought to their doorstep by the internet, courtesy of web designers everywhere.

Bootstrap marketing ideas

If your business is in rough shape, you may find help on the internet for some ways to get the word out about what you offer. I would recommend sitting with key decision makers in your organization and brain storming for ideas that could help you get the word out. Here are a few:

  • PPC (pay per click) search engine campaign
  • SEO (search engine optimization) optimize your business for the search engines
  • Write articles for your website
  • Restructure your website
  • Keyword research
  • Call your current clients and ask how they are doing and if they need additional services
  • Add some additional services to your business
  • Go to a few tradeshows and strike up conversations with business owners that could use your services
  • Send out a mailer to businesses you’d like to work with. Add on a great offer.
  • Think of where your potential customers might go to find more information about the industry you serve. Send an article to a magazine that they read.

Chin up! Charge the mountain!

Staying motivated is necessary in a recession climate. Keeping all sales staff on top of their game and looking at the bright side of what is happening can have a positive effect on your business. Recessions are part of today’s economy. If you structure your business the right way, you will roll right though a down economy and be in a position and pick up business that your used-to-be competitors dropped.



Website Design Process with Midwest Web Design Inc

Website Design Process

  1. Get in touch with us via phone or email The first step of the process is to get in touch with us when you have some time.
  2. Set up an appointment We will set up an appointment with you to discuss your goals for your website in more detail.
  3. Goals for the website
    Our staff will go over goals that are important for you and your website and discuss many options available including:

    • Budget constraints
    • A professional, custom, look and feel for your website
    • Custom website programming
    • Mobile website
    • Domain name registration
    • Hosting
    • Navigation on the website
    • Website structure
    • Email setup
    • Search engine optimization
  4. Decide to move forward
    When all the necessary topics are covered, if it makes sense, both parties move forward and your professional website design will start to be built.
  5. Start the project Midwest Web Design Inc will talk with you to figure out the look and feel of your professional web design and give you some samples of what your website
    will look like.
  6. Get information from client
    After the look and feel is complete, the client will give us the necessary information (text, pictures, etc) for the website to be completed.
  7. Wrap up the website project After all the pages are built and loose ends tied up, the project will be complete. It’s that simple.


Affordable Website Designs: How You Can Help Make Your Website Design Affordable! Yes, You!

Affordable Website Designs

There are many factors that you should think about when preparing to make your website design affordable. Making affordable website designs is something that every website designer strives toward if they wish to keep their clients happy. In this article we are going to discuss how both you as a customer and your website designer can work together to make your affordable website design.

  1. Let your website designer know what your specified budget is.

    This is rule number 1 for a reason! Affordability is different for each business. For example, I was talking to one of my acquaintances about boats while we were going for a boat ride on his new yacht. He said that the boat was “affordable” so he bought it and he loves it. Another acquaintance told me he was looking for a boat. “Affordable” to him was a price around $1200. Affordability is the amount of a resource (money, time, etc) to spend on something and it is not the same for any two people. It is important to let your web designer know what “affordability” means to you as a customer.

  2. Know what you can live without!

    “For example, I was talking to one of my acquaintances about boats while we were going for a boat ride on his new yacht. He said that the boat was “affordable” so he bought it and he loves it. Another acquaintance told me he was looking for a boat. “Affordable” to him was a price around $1200.”

    Let’s face it, everyone wants their website to have ecommerce, interactive features, rank high in the search engines, get unlimited updates and make them financially independent. I’ll let you in on a little secret.you won’t get any of those with a $10/month website. Having a website that does all of those things is possible. They have been done before, but affordability was never mentioned while they were working on the project. So maybe having a presence online where your customers can reach you via email and find out more about your company and your store hours is what you really need. More likely than not, your website designer can do all of the things mentioned above, but you can help make your affordable web design easier on yourself, your wallet and your designer.

  3. Have all materials ready for your website designer.

    This help is extremely appreciated by all web designers that are on a project budget. A list of some of the things that you can have ready is as follows:

    • Text for the web pages that you would like
    • The pictures/images you would like on each page
    • The location of the pictures/images (either on the web, on your computer or in your house)
    • A company brochure
    • A thought about what you would like the design of your website to look like
    • Links to other websites you would like to have on your website

    This can be a tremendous help for making affordable website design. All of these items mentioned save your website designer time and makes things more efficient. Do them and it will lower the cost of your business website design project.

  4. If you think of any changes you’d like or features you’d like to add, bring them up and talk to your designer about them.

    They might have an effect on the affordability or have some other extra steps that you don’t see that would need to be set up in order to have the new feature. Keep the lines of communication open! Having an affordable website design takes effort from both parties.

In conclusion, making an affordable website design is realistic and can be done. Having an affordable website design is done all the time, but it needs help from both the client and the website designer to make sure it is done properly. Help the web designer by gathering around items that are needed in the project. Also, it’s always a good idea to keep the lines of communication open, and affordable web design is no exception. Keep these ideas in mind when you are involved in a website project and you will have no problem keeping your goal of having an affordable website design.