White Knight

The Australian government has acknowledged the importance of students to be equipped with outstanding computing skills to secure their future. Some time ago Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was quoted saying, “I want to turn every secondary school in Australia into a digital school’. Since numerous schemes and stimulus packages have been introduced to support the statement.

As our society accepts technology as an integral part of our everyday lives, it is quite common to hear Gen Y’s and X’s discussing how they or their mates have built their website. But should we be tapping into these evolving skills and asking our mates to build our new business website? The simple answer is … Why Not? - providing your mate can satisfy the following three points once your new site is built:

1. Will your site be easily found on the internet?

2. What proven online sales process will the site use to convert visitors to
sales?

3. How will you update the sites content?

Although most self taught ‘mates’ may have worked out how to build a website, in reality the majority have never considered what makes a website an effective business tool.

Let’s explore these three vital points in detail:

Finding your new website on the internet

There is completely no point in building a website if your customers cannot find it on the internet. Consider the following example:

Brisbane customers interested in purchasing a ‘Gift Basket’ may search for this item by typing ‘Gift Baskets Brisbane’ into Google. They may not even notice when searching for this term, they are presented with 238 thousand responses. This represents the total number of web pages you are competing with for that particular keyword.

Would you expect website to appear on the first few pages if the site wasn’t built with an understanding of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and include incompatible techniques like Frames or only use flash to build a site?

Professional web design firms understand the importance and benefits of SEO. They design websites using proven SEO techniques and can recommend first-class SEO Specialists for ongoing maintenance.

Building a website with a sales process in mind

Most mates don’t take into consideration the importance of an effective sales process and focus on the look and feel of a site rather than its functionality and navigation.

Websites developed to generate online sales must use a proven sales process. They must quickly capture attention (thus preventing the potential customer from clicking away) and lead them through a process that eventuates with a conversion.

A report released by Marketing Sherpa in 2005 estimates, “up to 50 percent of visitors to landing pages will bail in the first eight seconds.”

Updating and maintaining the websites content

Engaging a mate to update and manage your website can be risky business. For example, friendships don’t always last. Sometimes your mates are too busy, too stressed or are simply unavailable to update your website when required.

A professional web design firm should offer its clients the option of a self managed Content Management System; alternatively offer the service of updating and managing the websites content on behalf of the client.

This is a major point for consideration if you are planning on building a site that runs promotions and incentives. If you opt to go with a self managed Content Management System, after only a few minutes of training you can make as many changes as you want, immediately and free of charge.

A professionally designed website does not have to be expensive

Before asking your mate to design your new website, consider the points we mentioned earlier: Will your customers be able to find your website on the internet? Will they be captured by the site and proceed with the transaction?

And finally, will you be able to manage and maintain your website post the design stage?

With the growth of the Internet over the last decade, affordable web design is now a reality. There’s no need to invest tens of thousands of dollars to gain an effective web presence. Answer this? If you were building a new home, would you call your mate around to design and build it for you because he once helped you build a new desk you bought from IKEA? Unless your mate is a qualified architect, plumber, electrician and builder, you may be surprised at the end result.