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“My business needs a website
because every business needs a website”
This is not always the case. Some businesses simply
cannot benefit from the web at this time. Now, this is not to say
that their needs will not grow in time to match what a website can
provide.
In truth, it is quite rare to find a business that could not benefit
in some way from having a website. Some universal applications include
email addresses, company contact information, listings of products
and services, as well as brand recognition and proliferation. But
getting a website just your neighbour has one is definitely the wrong
attitude to take. Your needs and goals will be unique and your website
should therefore be unique.
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“If I build a website, visitors
will come”
 Sadly,
this is not true; at least not very true. It is true that, in time,
the major search engines will eventually find your website and index
it, but this may not happen for many months and they may not index
your site favorably (i.e. visitors searching on your products or services
may not be able to find your website).
Active and passive techniques should be employed to bolster the amount
of ‘targeted’ traffic your website receives (‘targeted’ traffic consists
of visitors who are actually interested in your business and its products
and services, as opposed to visitors who wind up on your site by accident
or misleading techniques). Our Comprehensive Program approach focuses heavily on garnishing high quality
visitors to your website. There is an assortment of different ways
to promote your site, and Talahi can help you get started, or take your
existing strategy to the next level.
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“All I need on my website is
my corporate brochure”
While displaying some standard, ‘corporate’ information
on your website can be valuable, the ways in which content is delivered
and read online vary greatly from the ways it is presented in print.
The content you display needs to be written for the web; in other
words, it must be short, to the point, highly organized, and very
hierarchical in importance.
Also, a website without goals is a website that won’t achieve any.
Simply placing your brochure online is not the answer. You must consider
certain factors such as ‘what do I want my visitors to do on my website’,
and ‘what do I want to tell them’?
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“My website’s image should be
totally unique from the rest of my marketing efforts”
This is a big mistake.
You have invariably spent lots of time and money creating a brand
for your business. You have certain fonts, colors, and styles that
are already associated with your brand. When someone who knows your
company offline visits your website and sees something completely
different, they may feel as though they have landed on a different
company’s website (who happens to have the same name as your business).
This dilutes your brand and can work against your marketing efforts.
Your website should be closely linked and tied in to your other marketing
and branding efforts. You need to present a unified front to your
customers to be memorable in the marketplace.
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“My
neighbor’s husband’s brother-in-law, John, knows computers. We're going
to have him build our site”
This is probably the
single largest and most common mistake people make when having
a website built.  If
you think you are going to save thousands of dollars and receive professional
results, you are going to be sorely mistaken. Although John may know
a little about building basic web pages and manipulating pictures,
he will almost certainly miss many important aspects of site design,
not to mention site management, promotion, analysis, usability, accessibility,
etc. After all, John's a junior in high school.
Businesses who undertake this low cost approach will be disappointed
in the results. Their website will lack focus, cohesion and direction.
Eventually, these business members seek out a professional company
to put them on the right track.
You wouldn’t entrust someone with an interest in watching ‘Boston
Legal ’ to serve as your attorney in a major legal battle,
no matter how close of a friend they were or how well they could pronounce
'I object'. You would trust the professionals – that’s us but not
for legal matters - we tend to focus on multimedia projects - but
we do like 'Boston Legal').
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“I don’t need a custom website.
I’ll just use a template”
It is true that using a template or having a junior
website firm develop your site for you using a template will save
you money. But just keep in mind the age old business adage, ‘you
get what you pay for’.
A template site may in fact be a good starting point to ease your
business onto the web, but it is definitely not a tool for taking
your online strategy to the next level. Your website should have specific
and measurable goals, and these goals will be unique to your business.
More often than not, a template will be unable to facilitate meeting
those goals. It would be like trying to fit a square peg into a round
hole – it’s just not a perfect match.
At Talahi each site we design and manage is built to exacting specifications
based uniquely on your business and its needs. No templates allowed.
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