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This article came from http://www.totallycommunications.com/ – There are very few Websites that don’t undergo at least a minor facelift at some point in their lifecycle.  But a Website re-design can be a major undertaking and a substantial investment, thus the importance of ensuring it is undertaken for the right reasons.

Here are 7 good reasons why you might want to take the plunge and give your business Website a makeover:

1. Your Website looks and feels outdated

This is a fairly obvious one.  If you don’t find your Website nice to look at, then neither does anyone else.  An organisation's Website is quite often a customer's initial point of contact – so you want to make a good first impression.  It needs to be engaging, pleasing to the eye and puts your brand’s best foot forward.  If it doesn’t, users will leave as quickly as they arrived.

2. Your Website is difficult to navigate

Similar to the look and feel of your Website, if users find it difficult to navigate your Website and can't find what they are looking for, they will promptly leave.  They are usually searching for something specific and if not easily found, then you're road-kill on the information super highway.

3. Your Website is not optimised for SEO

Does your site rank well for the keywords people are using to find the products and/or services your business provides?  If not, chances are your site may not play nice with search engines and has not been properly optimised, resulting in your business missing out on lots of potential traffic.

4. Your Website has slow performance

The load-time of your Website should be within seconds.  If your site takes longer than five seconds to load, people can become disinterested and will leave (particularly if they have to navigate through a number of pages to find what they are looking for). Large images can cause slow loading of pages, as well as videos, JavaScript, HTML errors or even a sluggish server.

5. Your Website is not mobile-friendly

Can your Website be easily viewed on all devices, from desktops to smartphones and tablets, without hindering the experience?  If you cannot confidently say “yes”, then you could be missing out on a huge opportunity for business.  With mobile devices set to overtake fixed internet access by 2014, it's vital your Website is mobile-friendly.

6. Your Website is hard to keep updated

It's important that the back-end content management system (CMS) used to maintain your Website is easy to use.  The whole point of a CMS is to enable non-technical people to make updates and changes to your web content easily.  Badly designed systems however, can frustrate users with poor accessibility and usability, with the time taken to maintain your Website cumulatively adding up quickly.  This can ultimately lead to a Website becoming outdated, which is exactly what you want to avoid, as an updated and fresh Website is a key factor that influences users to return.

7. Your Website does not represent your business anymore

If your business has grown in the past few years, your Website may very well no longer represent your organisation, brand, products and/or services accurately.  Your Website should truly reflect your brand’s personality.  Moreover, it should reflect what you are communicating to your clients/customers.  How can you expect a customer to trust your Website as a secure place to purchase products and services if its design is circa 1995?

If you have read this far, my best bet is that several of the above scenarios are happening to you.  If that's the case, then it is probably time to find a web design agency for your business and take it from there.

Contact us to find out how we can inject a whole new lease of life into your Website and help it to start to make a big difference in your business.

The old phrase, “you don’t know what you are missing out on” is definitely one to consider applying to old business Websites.  The Web has been around for long enough now that many businesses are starting to outgrow their Websites, without realizing it.  Many Websites that were built in the early 2000s are still around.

Certainly, if you ask a business owner whether they want to outlay a large amount of money to completely rethink, redesign and rebuild their online presence, they might wonder why they should fix something that does not seem to be broken.  The uninformed economic decision might always be to keep maintaining the old site, with the occasional update, rather than start again.  They might have moved premises a couple of times in that time, replaced their car two or three times, replaced pretty much all of their computers and printers, phones, fax and coffee machine, but the most critical face of their business – their Website – sits there chugging away year after year without being given a thought as to how it might perform better, as all their other shiny new acquisitions have been.

So here are a few reasons to consider whether it might actually make good economic sense to invest in a new Website.

1) New standards
Website standards have changed significantly in the last few years.  For starters, old websites were designed for 800 pixel wide screens.  Now the base line is 1024 pixel screens.  This a) makes old Websites look too small and b) gives new Websites a whole lot more screen real estate to deliver content to the viewer.  The code behind Websites has evolved a great deal as well.  With the release of HTML5 and CSS3, an entire new level of Website creativity and content delivery can be achieved.

2) Changing expectations
As we all well know, when we visit Websites on the Internet, we are getting more opinionated and judgmental about what we see.  It is most likely as a result of information overload, but our tendency to hit the back button within seconds of seeing a Website is getting stronger.  We also expect more of any Website that we have decided to spend more than a few seconds on.  We want the navigation to be intuitive, the information to be comprehensive and the overall look, feel and style of the site to be professional, friendly and appropriate.  Older Websites, which were often built on limited budgets, by people who might have been programmers rather than communications or business experts, may not be good enough any more.  You may very well be losing business without even knowing it, as more people hit the back button a little bit too soon.

3) Keeping up with the Joneses
Each day you leave your old Website as it is, is another day that you give your competitors an opportunity to forge ahead of you and win new business from discerning clients.  Sitting pretty might be a good strategy while your site is bubbling away in search engines and getting reasonable response rates, but over time – and without you knowing – you may start slipping down against other Websites.  Web usage is surging, so if your site traffic is remaining flat, chances are your competitors are picking up the extra business with their more sophisticated, social-media savvy and dynamic Websites.  When customers are comparison shopping (which we all do online as it is so easy), your site and your competitors' sites stand side by side in the visitor’s mind and they will most likely return to the sites they consider to be more user-friendly, more informative and more professional.

4) Mobile is booming
The statistics on people accessing Websites on their mobile devices are staggering, and growing every day.  Old sites almost certainly are not very mobile-friendly, especially when many new sites now are designed with dedicated mobile versions.  It is now possible to have a completely separate ‘style sheet’ to deliver your Website to mobile devices.  Clearly you are going to be better off if the growing mobile audience is going to be able to view your site easily.  Anyone using mobile Apple devices is not going to be able to view any Adobe Flash content by default, so if your old site has any Flash (and some old sites are all Flash), all your Apple-using visitors are going to be disappointed.

5) Websites are now part of the social media landscape
Old Websites were built as stand-alone entities.  They might have had databases and other functionality, but they tended to be built without regard to the wider Web.  Nowadays, Websites form a dynamic connection to the social Web, not just with like buttons and links to Twitter, but as conduits of content from all over the Web.  You can be feeding the most relevant, live, dynamic content from a multitude of sources, both your own and from others in your industry and beyond, to enhance your Website’s information and appeal.  You can also provide the tools so that others can easily spread the word about your Website.  This amplifies your presence greatly and is another thing you are missing out on by hanging on to your old Website

6) You have evolved, why hasn’t your Website?
Many Websites are now only vague reflections of the actual business they represent.  Someone many years ago, sat down and wrote a few pages of text about their company, grabbed a few images and asked a Web designer/developer to put it online.  Meanwhile, their business has grown, evolved, expanded into new areas, re-defined, consolidated and changed their customer base and service offering.  None of this is reflected in the Website, because it was all too hard to sit down once again and come up with a whole new Website full of content.  This is verging on negligent.  People make up their mind about your business when they see your Website, yet you are telling them that you are the same business you were 8 years ago!  No wonder you are not getting the right kind of leads from the Web.  Websites define you and they also qualify leads.  Your Website must be brought up to date to re-define your current operation and attract the customers you want now.

7) It’s not that expensive
How much has your Website cost you?  Not much, if you haven’t touched it for years.  The original cost would have amortized many times over and no doubt with just a few new leads it would have paid for itself years ago.  However, the thought of spending a big chunk of money right now may not seem that appealing.  It seems strange, but many businesses, even when they know their Website has been a big asset to them, still baulk at forking out the investment for a new one.

Perhaps it is because Websites are so virtual and their benefits seem intangible.  In fact, the benefits are both intangible and highly measurable.  Branding, positioning, reputation, communication… all of these more intangible functions are performed by a Website.  To achieve the same things without an online presence is very expensive.  Printing, print advertising, point of sale, expos and conferences all cost a great deal more in total than a Website.  Their impact is even less measurable, too, yet many business continue to sit on their old Website and spend far more money on traditional media and marketing.

When it comes to tangible benefits, Websites are unbeatable.  With tools like Google Analytics, every single visit is tracked, every search term used to find you is logged and over time a massive amount of rich, interpretable and informative data is collated to help you continually improve your Website and measure the effectiveness of all your marketing activity.  The value a modern Website can bring you far outweighs the setup and maintenance costs

It is hardly surprising that larger companies invest millions of dollars into their online marketing, including setting up entire teams of in-house staff to manage the assets.  They are not doing it for fun, they are doing it because it makes economic sense.  Smaller businesses need to realise the cost benefit of online marketing and invest proportionately to get the desired returns.  It won’t happen if you don’t do anything, but it will definitely happen with the right help and support from a speciality service provider and consultant, combined with a little bit of time, effort and investment on your behalf.

8) It’s not as hard as you think
Just like any project, a new website is just a process that needs to be embarked upon with a clear vision for the desired outcomes and a methodical step-by-step approach.  It may seem daunting, or you may be remembering last time you did it and shuddering, but with the help of professionals who know how to manage the process, it really is quite easy, once you break down the steps and address them one by one.  There are many elements to a successful modern Website and you will have to spend some time thinking about your business and defining what you do and what you want.  This can be a lot of fun and is actually an awesome opportunity to take stock and think about where you are going and where you want to be.

Your Website can become your tour guide for your business into the future as it defines where you are going, what you want and how you are going to get there.  With great design, content, navigation and interactivity, your multi-dimensional, multi-media presence can become a beacon, lighting the path and guiding people to your door.  All you need to do is bite the bullet and do it.  Just like it is easier to sit on the lounge eating chocolate than it is to go to the gym, it might be easier to keep your old Website than create a new one, but as we all know, in the long run, we are all a lot better off if we get off that lounge chair and hit the exercise mat.  The long-term gain of doing something far outweighs the short-term gain of avoiding what you know is the right thing to do.

If you want to find out more about taking the big step and rebuilding your online presence strategically, professionally and wisely, contact us.  We can show you, as we hope this article explains, how valuable a decision it could be.

By Stefan Sojka

There are certainly some similarities between Webmasters and Master Builders, though I am always envious knowing that my home pages are un-insurable against fire and flood, yet can be destroyed with one push of a “delete” button, while your buildings last for decades! Still, the feeling of satisfaction of clicking through a newly launched website with its proud owner might almost, I imagine, be as rewarding as taking a prospective homeowner on the first walk-through of your latest residential or commercial masterpiece.

One thing we can be sure about the web now is that it is a great communication tool and a great marketing tool. Regardless of how big or small your business is, a website is the best way to show the world what you do at the least, and can be used to maximize your marketing and transform your business at the very most.

A web site can now be much more cost effective than printing glossy brochures or other expensive marketing mediums (mail outs, catalogues, trade shows, promotional videos, CD ROMS) and when it comes to more complex web sites that process and manage information, there is nothing that can compete.

Whether you already have a website that’s in dire need of renovation and extension, or have not even begun to think about it, I hope this article can shed some light on some of the things you need to consider and hopefully get you motivated to make it happen. We’re talking “Clicks and Mortar” – ie how to make a website compliment and enhance a real world enterprise.

As a web design firm, we have a 4-step process to get a website established. It doesn’t matter how big or small your company or your website is, you still need to go through the same basic process in order to succeed. Since we began this article with a comparison of homes vs. home pages, why stop now?

Four Steps to Building a Master Home Page

1)The Foundations – Getting started – decide on a domain name, choose a web designer, have them help register the name and set up a basic “under construction” page.
2)The Floor Plan – The pages, the links, the content. Decide what the site will be used for and work out a plan that accommodates the visitors, and your business the way you want.
3)Construction – Everything from the wiring to the plumbing, to the interior decorating, functionality, trimmings, doors (links), appliances (database connections, content management systems), cladding and insulation (keywords, code to help the site get found by search engines, disclaimers and privacy statements)
4)Marketing and Maintenance – Launch, and promotion. Ongoing adjustments and reworking, the occasional coat of paint and looking for ways to increase traffic to your virtual cul-de-sac.

The Foundations

An email address and basic web address are two fundamental ways to establish an online presence. As phone bills get bigger and bigger, people are realizing how easy it is to whip off an inquiry or response via email.

Also, even though it is great PR to respond to emails instantly, it is not absolutely expected, so you can get on with your life, and set some time aside to manage all your emails at once, rather than fielding phone calls at inconvenient times.

By registering a domain name that suits your business and sticking to it, it becomes your permanent address, no matter who you connect to the internet with, or even who manages you website hosting. It is merely a matter of redirecting it if you change providers. It is best to arrange your domain name through your web developer, since they know all about the processes and requirements, and can advise on suitable names, as well as managing them as they come up for renewal.

Very early on, you may as well arrange for your web developer to set up a basic “under construction” page – at least it can be a point of contact while the site is developed, as it can take some time to finally launch your dream home page.

The Floor Plan

A successful website needs a lot of planning. Too many times we come across sites that have been hastily thrown together to some kind of imaginary deadline set by the eager owner, completely ignoring some of the obvious prerequisites – ease-of-use, intelligent architecture and lots of keywords for search engines.

Like designing a good home, you need to look at the functions you want the home to perform and accommodate them appropriately. Rumpus rooms and studies, or many bedrooms and a granny flat? There are so many things a website can do – a perfect showcase of a master builder’s capabilities and achievements. What better way to show off your awesome constructions than a photo gallery? Video footage even – of your team in action? Virtual walk-throughs? Detailed photos showing close-ups of workmanship and finish? The colour and splendour of properties and building works can be captured perfectly in a well designed website.

Above and beyond the visuals, a website allows your company to communicate your standards of excellence, your design philosophy and your commitment to customer service, by having the text and layout of the site reflecting the way you do business.

Don’t forget testimonials on your site either – always a great boost to your credibility. Then there are your awards, industry affiliations and preferred suppliers and products – all reassuring your potential customers that you are knowledgeable, experienced and trustworthy. Why not add a mortgage calculator while you are at it? They are everywhere.

This kind of expanded brochure-style website is ideal for potential clients to discover what you are all about and to help them make a decision to hire your services or buy your creations, even before they have spoken to you. This is a common scenario these days. If the website has worked its magic, a couple of emails later and a buyer or investor is hooked. Even if a client has short-listed you from a selection of competitors’ websites, it is a lot easier to make the sale when you talk to them if you have an impressive website to back you up.

All this information, and more, needs to be mapped out on paper and then worked into a design that takes into account the scale and variety of information. Ideally all the primary pages or sections should be available from every other page, and subsections should be available from all other pages in a subsection, with a simple link back to the main section.

You also need to work out how the site will actually function, like if you have customers logging in, how is the log in processed, and where do they get directed to, what information do you want to bring to their attention? Do you have a lot of data to manage? Are you wanting to have e-commerce facilities? What about harnessing information from other sites and plugging it into yours? By taking your time at this crucial stage, you can work out the perfect operation, layout and design of your site.

You should show your designer sites you like and sites that do the same kinds of things you want to do, so you can work together to get the optimal look and feel for your site. We usually give our clients a “Website Workbook”. They find it very helpful in thinking through the project.

Construction

This is where it is time to let the experts do their thing. The usual method is to use a “staging server” where the site can be uploaded and reviewed along the way, making any adjustments, whilst physically (well, with not much more than lifting an index finger) building the pages, files and images of the site. This is where the Webmaster takes over for a while to make sure all the technical and artistic aspects of the plan are carried out as expected.

There will be much to-ing and fro-ing, but amazingly the plans start to fall into place according to the timeline set out, and a fabulous new website begins to take shape. During the testing phase, there will be unexpected issues. You should always allow for the fact that this will happen. Hopefully all the planning will be enough, but as it falls into place, refinements are inevitable. A well quoted website will allow for these changes, and it is one of the great things about websites, that they are so changeable.

To run a website it must be hosted by a company that allows it to stay online 24 hours a day. Larger companies can host their own sites, but it is usually best left to specialists, especially with security issues and many other technical concerns. Economy of scale dictates that larger, well-established web hosting companies should be able to offer good services and technical support for a very reasonable price. Once again your website developer/designer would usually have a choice of hosts, depending on your needs. Once the site is approved for launched, it can be set up properly on its server and the champagne corks pop!

Marketing and Maintenance
Unless people know about your site and what it can do, it can just sit there idle. You must make sure your site is optimized to be found in search engines (there are a few tricks to this) and is listed in any industry directories (eg www.mbansw.asn.au ) and other places where you think your potential customers might go looking for you. This may involve a bit of research and legwork on your part, emailing other sites and chasing up links, but it will be worth it. You might set aside a certain amount of time each week or month to ensure your site is as available as possible. Or if your budget is more extensive, you can get a marketing company involved.

Off line, you have to get your site “out there” – put the web address on your vehicles, in your adverts, on business cards, invoices, letterheads, work shirts, caps – anywhere!

Meanwhile you should have a plan to maintain and improve your site to keep it fresh – add photos of your latest work, news, updated services and contact lists, as well as the possibility of adding whole new sections and functionality. Some changes can be set up to be done by a staff member using software or a content management system, but larger updates would most likely require your developer’s services. By tracking the success of the site, in terms of sales, inquiries, hits, downloads etc. you can make appropriate changes based on budget and anticipated returns.

Even though the building of a website is quite a complex challenge, by breaking it down into four basic steps, as we have done here, and attending to the steps methodically, the whole process can be demystified. With the help of a professional developer, what at first can seem like a mammoth job, can be built brick by virtual brick into a virtual residence any webmaster, and master builder, would be proud to call home.

Other Essentials

•Check your email regularly! Some of your biggest contracts could come through a simple email and although an emailer may wait a couple of days, the certainly won’t wait weeks.
•Visit your own site and test it regularly. Technical problems do happen and the sooner you are aware of them the sooner you can have them fixed. Maybe your inquiry form stops working, maybe there are broken links or images.
•While you are there you should also review the content and see if it might need a little updating now and then. There is software now that allows easy updating yourself, or for more complex sites some kind of content management system could be required. You might be happy maintaining an ongoing relationship with your web developer who can update your site and keep you informed of any new trends in technology and web marketing.
•Check your search engine listings. If you slip down the lists, you will not be found, so you will need to rethink your site’s use of keywords and other search engine tricks.
•Make sure you have antivirus software running on your email program. There is nothing worse for customer relations than giving all your clients a major viral infection!
•Have a plan in place for expanding and improving your site as your business grows. There are many extras you can add to your site when budget and time allows it - but remember it is only worthwhile if you can see a measurable ROI. Databases, file downloads, video, mailing lists, resources, links, affiliate programs, sponsors, humour, news, charity involvement, staff profiles (employee of the month), loyalty schemes – the list is endless and growing every day. Just as mobile phones have evolved into PDA’s, cameras and entertainment devices, so your business presence on the web will constantly change.

Website basic content must-haves:

Home Page
About Us
Services/Products
Gallery
Testimonials
Contact Info/Inquiry FormSome Optional Extras:

Colour Charts
Floor Plans
Materials Samples
Downloadable files
Links to Appliance Manufacturers
Contracts
Video
Voice Narration
Panoramas/Walkthroughs
Flash Animation
Staff Profiles
Mailing List Join Form
Subcontractors sub-sites or links

By Stefan Sojka

(This full-page article appeared in the Trading Post and published nationally.)

If you’re running a small business and you don’t have a website, then now is the time to take the plunge.

An email address and a website are two useful and cost effective additions to any company’s marketing toolkit. In fact every small business can benefit from displaying their wares online and taking inquiries by email, says Stefan Sojka, Creative Director of the Cyrius Media Group, a company firm specialising in web design.

Surprisingly, there are still a large number of businesses without a website, even though more and more people are now using the Internet as a first port of call to find the goods and services they need. The Trading Post’s own website is a prime example of an on-line presence supporting the “real world” version. Your own website can compliment your business perfectly.

“Above and beyond the visuals, a website allows your company to communicate your standards of excellence, your philosophy and your commitment to customer service by having the text and layout of the site reflect the way you do business,” says Stefan.

“If you sell products or ongoing services to your clients, a simple online store and list of services can entice them to do more business with you. Don’t forget testimonials on your site either – always a great boost to your credibility. Then there are your awards, industry affiliations and preferred suppliers or products – all reassuring your potential customers that you are knowledgeable, experienced and trustworthy.

“This kind of expanded brochure-style website is ideal for potential clients to discover what you are all about and to help them make a decision to hire your services, even before they have spoken to you.”

While not recommending that anyone jump on the technology bandwagon just for the sake of it, Stefan advises all small business to seriously consider the benefits of having a website – or upgrading the one they have.

“Sadly, many a website has been created without much thought to how it will function as a marketing tool,” he says. “Not only that, since there are no official standards of website design a site costing many thousands of dollars can actually harm your business because of badly planned content or annoying technical issues. The best sites are simple, concise, easy to use, visually appealing -- and built to an appropriate budget.”

To help you make sound decisions, Stefan has prepared the following planning checklist:

Domain name: You should have a domain name (website address) that is either your business name or a shortened form of it. It can be .com.au, .biz, .com or whatever, so long as it is easy to spell and give out to people. It can also contain a keyword or two (good for search engines), but shouldn’t be too long or hard to type. You can register domain names directly, but it is wise to consult your web professional.

Hosting: To run a website it must be ‘hosted’ by a company that allows it to stay online 24 hours a day. Larger companies can host their own sites, but it is usually best left to specialists, especially with security issues and many other technical concerns. Economy of scale dictates that larger, well-established web hosting companies should be able to offer good services and technical support for a very reasonable price. Once again your website developer/designer would usually have a choice of hosts, depending on your needs.

Web developer: You should look for a firm that understands your business requirements and has a proven portfolio of successful and satisfied clients. You should try to obtain ball park quotes, but if you have no idea what your site will be like, a quote will be impossible. You should find out what kind of process the developer will use to help you plan your site and arrive at their quote.

Planning: Look at your competitors’ websites as well as any other sites that you find appealing to get an idea of what you like and dislike. It’s getting cheaper every day to do the tricky stuff, but some things are still out of reach for most of us – remember some sites may have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Having collated all the information you require you will then need to employ a writer to tie it all together into a uniform style and the have the site professionally designed and mapped out.

Consistency: This is a great opportunity to marry the look of your website with your off-line material (business cards, logo, letterheads, etc). It is also a good time to get some great photos done of your work or products and to request testimonials from past clients.

Marketing: Your site will sit there doing nothing unless people know about it. You need to make sure your site is optimised so it can be found in search engines (there are a few tricks to this, including coming up with the right keywords) and is listed in any industry directories and other places where you think your potential customers might go looking for you. Off line, you have to get your site “out there” – put the web address on your vehicles, in your newspaper advertisements, on business cards, invoices, letterheads, work shirts, caps – anywhere and everywhere.

Ultimately, the key to success is to ask yourself what you want to achieve with your site. “Maybe you have more work than you can handle at present so your website will be mainly a branding exercise, keeping you in the public eye. Maybe you plan to market yourself aggressively and target specific groups – if so your site must reflect and support these goals,” says Stefan. “above all it is a reflection of what you are doing off-line and as such need to present you in the best possible way – professional, informative and visually appealing.”

For more information, including free initial consultation and planning advice, phone the Cyrius Media Group on (02) 9877 5544 or visit their website at: www.cyrius.com.au

By Stefan Sojka

It’s time to get our hands dirty in the virtual gardens of cyberspace. This issue, we look at how far the Internet has come in 10 years and how you can benefit from some of the basic features of the web that are now at your disposal - and well within reach of just about any small business’ marketing budget. We will discuss some fundamentals of owning and running a website and show how some simple measures can ensure that money spent online can convert into increased revenue in the real world.

It’s funny how our society has always been so dependent on technology, yet we are always so slow to latch on to any new breakthroughs. Remember when mobile phones first came out? “They’re for Yuppies” we would all joke, not for a minute realizing how much more useful they would be to plumbers than to merchant bankers. And there we all were 10 years ago, mobile phones strapped to our belts, thinking; “the Internet – that’s just for nerds”. It sure was a little less user-friendly than it is now, but even back then a few good domain name registrations and simple ideas (like Hotmail, or Yahoo) would have turned us all into billionaires.

The nerds’ playground soon became the investors dream, and eventual nightmare when the “dot com” bubble burst (more a result of ridiculous investment strategies than any fault of the Internet). Meanwhile, the juggernaut of technological improvement kept steaming ahead. Now look at the web. You can’t step outside of your front door without seeing a web address emblazoned across every delivery van, billboard and t-shirt. You book your holidays online, do your banking, plan your wedding, order pizzas – the Internet is finally a household word – and it’s still evolving. It’s going wireless, it’s merging with TV and telephones; it’s even on the fridge door!

Maybe it is a good idea to stay a few steps behind technology. After all we are never quite sure where it’s headed next, and the last thing we want to do is waste all our money on gizmos that are going to be useless in 6 months time. One thing we can be sure about the web now is that it is a great communication tool and a great marketing tool – especially for small business.

An email address and a website are two useful and cost effective additions to any business’s marketing toolkit. Every small business can benefit from displaying their wares online and taking inquiries by email – from restaurants to gymnasiums, accounting firms to rock and roll bands, and yes, you guessed it – landscapers! In fact landscaping is an ideal profession to benefit from a web presence (as many of you may already know).

Cyberscapes in Cyberspace

What better way to show off your stunning works of art than a photo gallery on your website? Video footage even – of your team in action. Your own “Backyard Blitz” movie could be screened, showing the perfect coming together of your plans. A horrendous patch of flat, dead lawn transformed into a magical suburban oasis. You can even have virtual tours of gardens, before/after slideshows and animations. The word-of-mouth benefit of featuring your clients’ properties in your gallery is a definite winner, as they tell all their friends and associates about your site.

Above and beyond the visuals, a website allows your company to communicate your standards of excellence, your design philosophy and your commitment to customer service by having the text and layout of the site reflecting the way you do business.

If you sell products or ongoing services to your clients, a simple online store and list of services can entice them to do more business with you. Don’t forget testimonials on your site either – always a great boost to your credibility. Then there are your awards, industry affiliations and preferred products – all reassuring your potential customers that you are knowledgeable, experienced and trustworthy.

This kind of expanded brochure-style website is ideal for potential clients to discover what you are all about and to help them make a decision to hire your services, even before they have spoken to you. This is a common scenario these days. If the website has worked its magic, a couple of emails later and the job is on. Even if a client has short-listed you from a selection of competitors’ websites, it is a lot easier to make the sale when you talk to them if you have great content on your site to back up your spiel.

Got a Website?

If you company doesn’t have a website – get one. If you have one, and you are reading this article thinking (rather skeptically) “our site has done nothing for us” – maybe it’s time to look at your site and reevaluate it, along with your overall approach to how the Internet fits into your business.

Sadly, many a website out there has been created without much thought to how it will function as a marketing tool. Not only that, but since there are no official standards of website design, a site costing many thousands of dollars can actually harm your business because of badly planned content or annoying technical issues. I’m sure everyone reading this has heard at least one horror story of someone being ripped off with a bad website. The best sites are simple, easy to use, concise and visually appealing - and built to an appropriate budget.

In future issues we will go into much more detail about many aspects of running a website, but for now, here are some fundamentals to get you thinking about improving your current site, or planning your brand new home page.

Domain Name (your website address)
You should have a name that is either your business name or a shortened form of it. It can be .com.au, .biz, .com or whatever, so long as it is easy to spell and give out to people. It can also contain a keyword or two (good for search engines), but shouldn’t be too long or hard to type. You can register domain names directly, but it is wise to consult your web professional.

Website Hosting
To run a Website it must be ‘hosted’ by a company that allows it to stay online 24 hours a day. Larger companies can host their own sites, but it is usually best left to specialists, especially with security issues and many other technical concerns. Economy of scale dictates that larger, well-established web hosting companies should be able to offer good services and technical support for a very reasonable price. Once again your website developer/designer would usually have a choice of hosts, depending on your needs.

Website Development
There are so many people out there who build web sites, it is advisable to shop around, especially since standards and pricing vary so widely in this unregulated industry. Paying top dollar does not guarantee the best result. You should look for a firm who understands your business requirements and has a proven portfolio of successful and satisfied clients. You should try to obtain ball-park quotes, but if you have no idea what your site will be like, a quote will be impossible. You should find out what kind of process the developer will use to help you plan your site and arrive at their quote.

Planning Your Site
Spend some time looking at your competition, as well as any sites that you find appealing. You will get some ideas on what you like and dislike, and the kind of content you will need to organize. Remember that some sites may have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Your web developer can guide you with what is possible for the amount of money you have to spend. It’s getting cheaper every day to do the tricky stuff, but some things are still out of reach to the little guys.

Your main task will be collating all the information. You might need to assign various tasks to people within your organization to gather what you need. You can then employ a writer to tie it al together into a uniform style and you should definitely have the site professionally designed and mapped out. It should be a design based on your existing company image.

If you have an inconsistent image, this is a great opportunity to marry the look of your website with your off line material (business cards, logo, letterheads etc). It is also a good time to get some great photos done of your work, request testimonials from past clients and think about what your business is really about, so that you can focus on promoting its unique aspects.

It is very important to ask yourself what you want to achieve with your site. Maybe you have more work than you can handle already, so your website will be a mere token presence. Maybe you plan to market yourself aggressively and target specific groups – your site must reflect and support these goals.

Marketing Your Site
Unless people know about your site, it will just sit there doing nothing. You must make sure your site is optimized to be found in search engines (there are a few tricks to this) and is listed in any industry directories (eg www.lcansw.com.au ) and other places where you think your potential customers might go looking for you. This may involve a bit of research and legwork on your part, emailing other sites and chasing up links, but it will be worth it. You might set aside a certain amount of time each week or month to ensure your site is as available as possible.

Off line, you have to get your site “out there” – put the web address on your vehicles, in your adverts, on business cards, invoices, letterheads, work shirts, caps – anywhere. Whenever you get telephone inquiries, you can always direct the person to your site and even guide them through it while you have them on the phone.

Other Essentials

•Check your email regularly! Some of your biggest contracts could come through a simple email inquiry. If you don’t respond ASAP, you will lose the customer.
•Visit your own site and test it regularly. Technical problems do happen and the sooner you are aware of them the sooner you can have them fixed. Maybe your inquiry form stops working, maybe there are broken links or images.
•While you are there you should also review the content and see if it might need a little updating now and then. There is software now that allows easy updating yourself, or for more complex sites some kind of content management system could be required. You might be happy maintaining an ongoing relationship with your web developer who can update your site and keep you informed of any new trends in technology and web marketing.
•Check your search engine listings. If you slip down the lists, you will not be found, so you will need to rethink your site’s use of keywords and other search engine tricks.
•Make sure you have antivirus software running on your email program. There is nothing worse for customer relations than giving all your clients a major viral infection!
•Have a plan in place for expanding and improving your site as your business grows. There are many extras you can add to your site when budget and time allows it - but remember it is only worthwhile if you can see a measurable ROI. Databases, file downloads, video, mailing lists, resources, links, affiliate programs, sponsors, humour, news, charity involvement, staff profiles (employee of the month), loyalty schemes – the list is endless and growing every day. Just as mobile phones have evolved into PDA’s, cameras and entertainment devices, so your business presence on the web will constantly change.

One thing is for sure we are never going to go backwards in this age of technology. It’s only been ten years or so and just look how far we’ve come. Sometimes it all seems too much - then you realize just how much benefit we get from it all - and how boring life was without it!

If you stay informed of your options, and make the most of what is available to you, you can enhance your business in cyberspace, and then get back to what you do best right here in the real world.

Website content must-haves:

Home Page
About Us
Services/Products
Gallery
Testimonials
Contact Info/Inquiry FormSome Optional Extras:

Specification Sheets
Colour Charts
Materials Charts/Samples
Freebies (downloadable files)
Music
Video
Voice Narration
Panoramas
Flash Animation
Staff Profiles
Mailing List
Online Shop