Your World Wide Web site can be whatever you want it to be
- An elaborate business card or brochure
- A comprehensive listing of your services
- A interactive, relationship building informative site.
- A catalogue or a virtual storefront
The one thing that it cannot do is stand alone!
Your web site, in whatever form it takes, must be an integral part of your marketing campaign. We can help you to create that strong, integrated plan.
Your World Wide Web site can be located anywhere in the world so
a number of factors come into play when deciding who should host
the site.
- Do you serve a local market?
- Do you have a strong local service provider which draws people to its site?
- Is the cost of web site hosting at local sites competitive?
- Do local people logging on to the service provider have easy access to your site?
- Can your local service provider give you all of the services that you need in a site?
- Is support for local business a strong force in your community?
- If you have a regional or global market?
- Do you have or need name recognition outside of your area?
- Do you want your clients to be able to find you at YourCompanyName.com? This is becoming an increasingly important factor. The domain name confers a degree of credibility far in excess of it's true significance and more importantly many search engines are begining to limit searches to the primary domain (eg. www.kent.net) so that many sites on "personal" space will never be indexed unless the service provider puts a link on its site.
The variety of services and range of prices available is vast. We do not have an arrangement with any one service provider, we'll try to find the service which best meets your needs. That having been said we freely admit to the human frailty of sticking to that which is easy and secure. netrover.com has proven to be both and supportive to boot so most of our sites are hosted there unless client requirements dictate otherwise.
The internet is quite unlike any other form of communication and
must be treated accordingly.
The viewer has not just chanced upon your ad as in a newspaper
but has made a deliberate effort to view your site either out of
curiosity or an interest in your product or service.
Think of
your web site not as an advertisement but as a display booth at an
exposition. A display booth that you can't be in!
To carry the display booth metaphor one step further, it is a
closed booth that has the equivalent of 3" x 5" card sized
sign which has a scant 30 seconds to entice the viewer to open the door and enter.
We know how to make sure that the sign carries a message of interest
to viewer.
While you will be freed of many of the constraints imposed by other media, you will be subject to other, new ones.
Similarities- Like other media, the use of colour and graphics can enhance your message. Poorly executed, they can distract from your message or worse, ensure that no one will stay long enough to read it.
- In print, the layout of the ad draws the viewer through it.
On the Internet, the structure of the site as a whole must entice the viewer to read your message.
- The viewer, not the site designer, has final control over how your message appears.The design of your site has to take into account that control as well as the limitations under which many viewers may be operating.
We have the experience and skills to create a web site which will get your message across. Every time!
Unlike the storied Field of Dreams, building a web site is no
guarantee that they will come. As one among millions, your web site has to
work very hard just to attract a little attention.
If you are servicing a local market then we must ensure that your web pages tell your story well and then use local media to get people to your site.
If, however, you need to attract a larger audience from the net then we must take an entirely different approach in constructing the site. We now have two audiences to play to, the potential viewer and the search engines. At the very least this will require the reorganization of the page text and in some instances this will mean creating extra pages that target search engines exclusively. In either case an enhanced schedule of site submissions will be part of the process and if search engine pages are used then the schedule will be very aggresive.
We will NOT guarantee that your site will place
highly in searches.
We expect to build and maintain a relationship with
you and empty promises are not part of the package.
There are ways to make your site more attractive to search engines. We employ some of them as a matter of course while other, more labour intensive, options are reserved for those clients who place a greater dependance on search engines.
If you've come looking for a web design package, we're sorry. We
had one but we sold it to the "One Size Fits All
Company". It was a perfect fit.
We'll be pleased to offer you a quote based on our standard rate per hour but we simply cannot suggest what you need to have before we've even talked to you.
Your web site must be just that. Yours! Your needs may be met by three pages and two pictures that remain constant or a hundred pages that change from week to week.
We will work with you to establish your requirements and negotiate a working agreement. Your needs will determine the nature of the site, not our concept of a typical business site.
The quality of a web site is largely subjective. What pleases
you may not please your competitor. There are however, some
quantifiable dimensions to the quality of a web site.
There are clear rules
for page markup. We know the rules,
when to bend them and exactly what the penalty will be. This is
crucial if you want your message available to everyone on the
Internet. We rely on the W3C HTML and CSS Validation Services to ensure that our pages will
work properly
When appropriate we also check our sites at the Center for Applied Special Technology
to ensure that all people, including those with disabilities, are able to use the site- Our graphics strike a careful balance, maximum impact at minimum size for fast loading pages
Our goal in constructing your website is that every visitor has
the opportunity to receive your message
That doesn't mean that we won't use features that advanced
browsers can use. We'll just be sure to build an area for the
"lesser" browsers without making them out to be
second class citizens of the net.
Service after the site is put in place is also driven by your
requirements. As part of the agreed upon price we'll check from
time to time to ensure that links are still valid, search engines
can still find it, etc.
We can provide you with an activity report for your site or a complete report on the way that viewers are finding you (the search criteria which they use). ~ Please note that this service is contingent upon the Internet Service Provider giving access to the logs.