Websites are at the nexus of competing requirements and goals whose weightings affect each other
and internet technical factors. A site owner must consider business and technical factors to clarify priorities and goals, and to reduce revisions.
A website reflects the strategies of the business. A good strategy balances the resources of the business versus goals and target market or niche. But the way the internet and search engines
work are also factors to consider, especially if business growth is priority.
Minor changes to a website (like to advertisements) can make a large difference in sales. Even a color or background change can have major effects. Major testing at an early stage is best, to match the company image and appeals versus web marketplace balanced with the business strategy.
The web is a rapidly changing marketplace environment. Competition pops up quickly, causing rapidly rising advertising costs. A company without a proprietary niche and unique competitive advantage and skills will rapidly be knocked down in position in search engines, and be lost in directories. Unlike the costs, advantages and barriers to competition of being the only local bakery or children's clothing store, the costs of appearing competitive on the web have been lower than such "brick and mortar" businesses. But web competitiveness is becoming more expensive as clutter increases; the skills and costs to attract qualified leads are increasing. Some businesses must compete against competitors
across their entire country, or beyond. Ten or more strong competitors usually ruin business profitability, as it has with autos.
Web strategy varies greatly by the resources and budget available. Whether a business can rely mostly on expensive paid advertising like pay-per-click, or must resort to mainly "organic" search engine placement, or related high traffic gateway is critical to the web site design. Paid placements don't require as much authoritative text content, traffic, in-linking and design for search engine spidering and placement.
A home page or web site with mostly "Flash" or movie video presentations can seldom be at top dead center prime placement on a top search engine like Google, and will score low organically, dooming itself to expensive paid promotion. A glitzy "professional" sophisticated website seldom sells as much as a properly designed more conventional site, based on advertising principles. Advertising experts have long warned that usually cutesy and sophisticated don't sell. Facts, benefits and credibility sell. A unique selling proposition sells. Top expertise sells. Superior products and features sell. Show the product, talk about the product, show it in use, answer objections... that sells.
A service business's strategy might be to better screen and qualify prospects, such as preferring more knowledgeable, or more financially capable clients. Qualified high traffic to the web site is usually a priority, even if the goal is merely maintaining an "image" or professional presence in part to impress peers. Most people confuse "traffic" versus qualified prospects versus "conversions". Conversion is a sale to a qualified prospect. A core issue on the internet is "credibility", trustworthiness and ability to respond. A one-person business loses credibility if overwhelmed by unqualified prospects. Or a strategy preferring large projects may make continuous high traffic unwanted (i.e.: preferring "just-in-time" traffic-sales). And some sites with interesting blogs or changing content require high labor unsuitable to a sole owner (unless help or subcontract assistance is hired), but they can aid feedback for improvements.
Each choice has possible drawbacks. A "just in time" promotion for seldom projects may result in lower placement each time the ads are placed, and low organic placement.
These are serious business decisions. You must know business and what you most want to accomplish. The result is always only a good compromise of all the factors and goals. Best results usually require two or more iterations of site re-design and strategy tweaks.
If you intend to rely mostly on organic placement, understand that significant changes can reduce your rankings and disrupt "propagation" for a month or two each time.
Do you want repeat visits of slow buying prospects? Some buyers decide only after 3 or 4 visits, or months. Do you have anything visibly changing that generates interest or curiosity? That also can be expensive, and must relate to the core business. A "weekly" update may not be often enough.
You should resolve to have one main point of contact and control of your website with a knowledgeable web developer designer maintenance company specializing in "compliance" and "maintainability". Any "SEO" search engine optimization should be approved by, guided by, and be under the guidance and final control of your web site maintenance webmaster to maintain web WC3 standards compliance for browser appearance consistency and spider readability, and to maintain consistent backups and versions.
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