We’ve all been in personal relationships that are going along just fine when one party decides they need to ‘define’ the relationship. You know how that can go especially if you are the one seeking the definition. Either you arrive with a well rehearsed set of questions and reasoned responses (rare result) and your relationships advances and flourishes…or you drive home kicking yourself for sounding vague, never making your point or being just plain incoherent (likely result).

Well the same is true when you think about engaging a design firm to help present your product, service or company to a potential global audience. You may think deciding about a website will be less emotional than that of a personal relationship but don’t be too sure. Remember, in today’s competitive marketplace your website serves as your business card, billboard, chief marketing tool and branding image to the public. In other words, it says everything about you so you want to get it right.

After reading that chances are your temperature is now rising, your heart may be pounding and a headache is coming on as you search for just the right words to communicate to the world what you are all about. Instead, be cam, smile and realize that’s why a creative team is here to help you. But keep in mind it’s important to be clear about what you desire because that will make the web development process a whole lot easier for you and the firm you select.

Here’s a good tip: Try to summarize what you want to communicate in sets of 3’s. Marketers will tell you that’s the best way to communicate the value of a product or of an idea. Even three words alone can sometimes be the best. Can anyone argue with: COKE IS IT. I LIKE IKE or I LOVE YOU?

Once you begin thinking in these summarized terms about your website it helps the design and programming team immensely. Remember, everyone wants the greatest website in the history of mankind…even though this tenure of mankind has only been around since the 1990’s. And, it is our desire to build you the most creative website possible but this can best be done when you are clear about what you want to say.
Try this: What is my product? What makes me (or my company) unique? What do I want to communicate to every visitor to my website?

Once this is clear you are ready to contact a web design company and we sure hope it’s ours. Because not only do we create with tremendous ingenuity…we also work with clients with a healthy dose of good humor and wit. We find this helps keeps the creative juices flowing for all involved with development of your website…of which you are the most important part. We hope you will let us help you!

To sum up:

• What is my product?
• What Makes my product unique?
• Be clear, concise, and think in 3’s

(see what we did there?)

Completing a job correctly requires selecting the right tool.  Sometimes you need a simple hammer, while other times a nail gun is a must.  Similarly, you have options in the tools you select to maximize your effectiveness on the web.  We’d like to briefly discuss two different website tools available to help you achieve the best results:  (1) dynamic website, and (2) static website.   The better you understand your goals, the better you’ll be able to select the right website tool. Here are three very important questions that will help you select the right website tool:

What are the basic differences between dynamic and static websites?

The differences are pretty simple.  When building a static site, the web developer will construct the pages as they will be retrieved by the browser, usually in basic HTML and CSS.  With dynamic sites, the pages are constructed “on the fly” by scripts ran by the web server.  As a result it’s much easier to add additional pages and functionality to the site.  A correctly programmed dynamic site will enable the website administrator to easily edit or change content through a Content Management System (CMS).  On the other hand, changing or updating a static website requires building a file transfer protocol (FTP) process, downloading pages, making changes to the pages, then uploading to the static site.

Which is the best tool for me, dynamic or static?

Static website: A static website is simple.  It is best when you never (or seldom) desire to change content or functionality.  Search engine optimization (SEO) should not be your goal with a static site.  It’s primary purpose is to provide information on your business or service (often referred to as an online business card).

Dynamic website:  Your desire is to add or update information; the site can be managed and edited by one or several people.  You can add new and different functions, while improving search engine recognition.  A dynamic site is essential when seeking to sell products and acquire new customers.

What should I do to receive a high rank from Google, and increase visits to my website?

Frequently updating your website is extremely important to achieve sustained recognition from Google, but more is required. Having well placed words is crucial, whether you have a dynamic or static website; well placed keywords in your content will definitely help to improve your Google ranking. Generating additional traffic to your site is also very important for improving your Google rank, and one of the best ways to increase visitors is to keep updating and changing content.  A dynamic website provides a great advantage because you can keep visitors coming back for updated information, and you’ll have others wanting to link to your site.

Most importantly, be persistent.  Your success will increase as you learn to interact with your website visitors.  Understand your goals, then select the appropriate tool.

There are many things that your site designer can do to help your site be as optimized as possible. But AT LEAST 50% of your search engine optimization is up to you, I think it’s more like 75%. Here are some of the basic things we do to make sure your site is optimized:
- build sites in DIVs with CSS
- include a keyword relevant, reasonable title for each page
- include text links to all main pages of the site
- include a site map
- place ALT tags on all images
You don’t have to understand what the heck we just said.  There are many more that we do but won’t go into here. Those are just some of the basics.

Honestly, that paragraph is far less important than this one. Here are some of the things that YOU can do to improve your SEO that will outweigh the things mentioned above:
- UPDATE YOUR SITE FREQUENTLY
- Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, whatever Social Network you use – post updates there about your site and provide links
- UPDATE YOUR SITE FREQUENTLY
- Ask friends with sites, or companies that provide complimentary but not competing services to link to you
- UPDATE YOUR SITE FREQUENTLY

All of this stuff is explained further in the Blog Post – Committing to Your Website, take a look at it.