Jason Schuman

I recently posted a small article answering just a couple common questions & answers I encounter quite frequently “Why does my business need a website?“. This is in response to the feedback I have received from that article.

The advice given here is my own opinion; your mileage may vary.

Ask other business owners who built their website.

You should always ask other companies around in your neighborhood who built their website. Chances are good that you’ll receive several different names or companies. Listen to the experience as it’s relayed to you – both the good and the bad. For heaven’s sake, please take notes! Make a check next to anyone that comes with high experience or high customer satisfaction so you can remember to call them yourself.

Contact local web designers first before calling out of state.

While you may want to go with someone out of state first, it will be difficult to review materials and meet face-to-face with your designer. It’s not completely out of the question to use someone out of state, I would just make the suggestion if you found a great designer close to you, locally, then I might use them first.

My personal experience does include web design for people out of state and also out of the country. That doesn’t mean it was easy, let me tell you first hand it wasn’t. It did make me better in verbal communication. Overall, I learned a great deal and yes, I would do it again without hesitation.

Don’t be afraid to ask potential candidates for examples of their recent work!

It doesn’t matter if you’re a large or small business, you’re about to spend real money for a website and you need to know it’s not going to be designed by a bunch of colorblind monkeys using a 10-year-old computer. Ask your potential web designers for samples of their most recent work then go check them out yourself. Here’s a quick list of things that I would suggest you look at:

1) Is the website easy to navigate? Can you find the menu easily or are the colors mashed together?

2) Does the website look the same in Internet Explorer as it does for Firefox or Safari? A good designer will adhere to the web standards.

3) Do you find the websites attractive? Are they unique?

Remember what you are looking at is a representation of their most recent work – if it looks bad now, you can bet your own site if done by them will look equally as bad.

Check for page load times.

Use a tool like Pingdom.com to measure the download speed of the websites and compare them against your competition. Take multiple samples of each site for a well rounded number. If the page load times exceed 20 seconds, ask the potential web designer why their pages load times are so long when the industry standard should be half the time (10 seconds)? Listen closely to the answer – you’ll know if they’re giving you an honest answer or if they’re handing you a shovel.

One more thought on page load times – beware of checking the times on websites that have rotating sliders or banners since they are continuously “refreshing” the browser, it will appear as though the page exceeds 30 seconds when It likely was finish loading all the elements in 10 seconds or less. Know the difference and again ask questions of the new potential designer. It’s also worth asking where each website is being hosted if the new designer also does the hosting. You’ll want to have a web host provider that can help ensure you site loads in less than 10 seconds. Greenhost Networks website hosting does have page load times in under 5 seconds (I’m not kidding) and here’s the secret how they do it: They don’t oversell their resources. This ensures speed, reliability, uptime and performance.

Take the time and ask for multiple quotes.

Have you ever remodeled part of your house or had to buy new tires for your car? Did you call just one person or did you make multiple phone calls finding the best contractor or price? Take time to call at least three (3) potential web designers that you have chosen and ask each for a job quote for your website. Once you have them, you’ll quickly see if they are treating you fairly & honestly by the price they quote and amount of detail they show in writing “what” you will receive for that price.

Please take the time to call each one back and ask questions about the quote they sent. If someone is $5,000 higher, ask them why. Get into the details and ensure you understand them. There have been times where a potential client who doesn’t even own a computer doesn’t fully understand the process of building a website and I’ll have to simply tell them to “sleep on it” and discuss it tomorrow again, or tell them they may not be ready to have a website yet until I can spend more time to educate them. Education is the foundation to having a successful website being design for you because it means you have established trust with your designer. Without the trust, you’ll likely not be as satisfied with the end result. You owe it to yourself, your business, and your potential web designer to establish trust in the beginning.

I hope you found this helpful to you. Choosing the right web developer for you is a very important step – don’t take it lightly and remember to ask lots of questions! If you don’t call Greenhost Networks for help, then please – call someone and get online today.

If you would like to see more personal experiences like this, please drop a comment below.

The economy has been in the toilet and everyone, including business, and everyone is watching every dollar spent and trying to stay alive. But as other businesses fall, the market share shrinks, making it even more important for your company to be online and attract new business. Being online with your own website is one of the most cost-effective ways to promote your company or organization.

Question: Does your company really need a web site?

Answer: Yes. Despite what others may say, this is the year 2010 in case you forgot and everyone who intends on staying in business will need to have an online presence. That does not mean you should go out and spend $15,000 on a website. It means you should have, at the very least, basic information and a means contacting your company or organization – even if it’s just 1 page from a free hosting provider. The public now expects that businesses and organizations will have a web site for more information.

The big yellow-pages phonebook is nearly dead. People increasingly use the web and their mobile phone to search for a service or phone number. If they don’t find you, they will find your competitor’s.

Question: What if my company only has 3 employees?

Answer: Yes. It doesn’t matter if you’re the only employee or you have 10,000 – the answer is the same. If you are not online then you’re competitor is and they’re taking your business too.

Question: Will having a website make my business money immediately?

Answer: You need to view having a website just like other common business tools such as a Phone, a Brochure, or Business Cards. Do those make you money immediately? They do help make your company more successful with communication and promoting yourself. Let’s look at this a different way- can your business survive without a phone? Of course not! Your website is similar to having a phone – it’s a must-have.

Here’s a good exercise: Go search for your competitors online and see just how many are already there. That’s what you’re competing with (and who is getting your potential business because you’re not online yet!) and if you don’t find many sites out there today, then consider yourself lucky.

In today’s world, you need every edge possible. That doesn’t mean you have to lose focus and drop the ball – you still need to be the front man selling your goods & services.

Look at it this way: What did people do before the internet? They turned to their local yellow-pages and those businesses that had a nice big ad were usually the ones you called first, am I right? That’s what a website will do for you – you’ll now be “visible” in the internet space but with more detail.

Let’s say, for instance, there’s a small hardware store of your local home town. They don’t use computers for inventory, but they do sometimes have specials or coupons which are advertised locally. For this business, it makes sense to have a couple of web pages that explain who they are, about the family business, where they are located/how to contact them, and a natural fit would also be a page where patrons can print out those advertised coupons and perhaps signup for weekly emails with more coupons.

Question: Is a website going to be affordable for me?

Answer: Yes. Well, mostly yes – here’s my explanation: For the vast majority of small businesses, non-profit organizations, or home-businesses, you may not need anything more than a couple of pages that you can maintain on your own. Many times people will have these grand visions of wanting more than they actually need. A good web design consultant will be able to see this and help manage the scope to something more manageable & realistic. There will be the occasional person who demands extra things that won’t really make their business money—but they do take time and resources to develop. This is why I say “mostly affordable” (for that last 10% of people who must have it all).

Don’t think of a website as something you have to pay for every year hundreds or even thousands of dollars – It’s like owning a car: You buy it once and make routine maintenance on it over the life of that car. Sometimes you will even find a web designer who will provide hands-on training so you can do the maintenance yourself, saving some money. Once you’ve bought your car, it will continue to serve you for many years to come – the same holds true for your website!

I would recommend you take the time to write down what you “need” and what you would “like to have”, then get a hold of at least three (3) companies and request a quote. Greenhost Networks would be my first personal recommendation for anyone wanting a website quote big or small – they are very reasonable and can often have your business online for under $400 (that includes the first year of hosting too!). They’ve also been very successful in ecommerce websites for even the smaller businesses who have a limited budget.

I hope you found this information helpful to you. Having a website is an important part of business – of YOUR business. If you don’t call Greenhost Networks for help, then please – call someone and get online today.

If you would like to see more personal experiences like this, please drop a comment below.