It seems that most new businesses want a website to fill in the gap of web presence. If you fall in this this category you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars to achieve this. I am a web designer and people ask me at least once a day about why they can’t seem to get a foot hold on this illusive destination. My answer is simply put, You get what you put in to it and that does not always mean financially. I will show you successful sites that have invested many hours in the preplanning and ultimate creation of the companies site that have reaped rewards from different price range starting points.
The first site we will look at is www.leighannwilliams.com. This site has been created using a format.com templet site. The low overhead cost has benefits. It adds to the simplicity that this artist needed for her paintings and sculptures. She did not however, just place the images into the site and call it a day. To lower the loading time she saved the images in PhotoShop under File>Export>Save for Web. This handy saving tool minimizes the images so that the user (that is you or anyone viewing the site) can navigate the as fast as you can absorb each piece. LeighAnn @leighannwilliams also utilized the “alt” tags. Those little tags are not see by the users but more importantly by the search engines. Most companies don’t consider that their site will be read by some one who has a disability which is a shame actually because it is being sensitive to every type of user that boosts the search engine optimization (SEO). You see, those SEO’s have these clever little bots that crawl all over your site reading the code and content to decide where you will be placed in the hierarchy of the web.
The second site we will check out is www.archerlondon.com. This site is an elite shopping site that used a WordPress template. Though there is a larger cost in having a separate host, this site offers again an easy load time and a wide variety of images. Archer London @archerlondon does not just depend on the website to preform all the work in creating a web presence. Archer London uses Facebook, Pinterest, Linkedin and blogging to reach out and grab the users attention. It is through the use of social media that this company maintains a steady foothold for their web presence. When you create your website, keep in mind that their are many platforms that you can use at no additional cost to get your company name known. This type of advertising is better than word of mouth, the word of web reaches far beyond your expectations.
The third site I would like for you to visit is www.angelsleep.org. This company spent many hours in preplanning before one line of code was placed in the computer. It is because of the attention to detail that the experience a user has on this site is above reproach. angelsleep @angelsleep took the time to consider who will be using the site and for what purpose. This might seem like an easy conclusion, we want everyone of course, but try not to take it so lightly. The more you narrow down your target audience, the better your site will be in the end. We all want the most visitors that we can get but if you take a moment you might realize that quality is far better than quantity. You really want the user to come to your site with the feeling that they belong there (that ‘s why they keep coming around).
What all these companies have in common is the time and consideration used before, during and after their websites have been built. The web is ever changing and I am sure that you have heard that there is no sure fire way to ensure your site will be at the top of Google’s holy grail listing but there are a few things you can put in place that will move it up the list without having to pay an arm and leg for. Your time is worth something if you use it wisely.
