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I actually get pissed off when I see some of the crap being passed off as a small business website, yes even in this day and age, there are still people getting shafted when they get a website designed. What I cant understand is how the hell they can accept the site in the first place. All I can think, is that they are not aware of all the options and possibilities available to them. The bitch is that it affects us ‘good guys’ trying to make an honest living from developing websites.

What exactly would you class as a good website? OK, So there are a lot of mixed ideas about what makes a website ‘good’ or ‘bad’. To many, the design, or ‘look and feel’ of the website is key. While this is important, you can have a crappy website that offers little or no information, but at the same time is a fantastic multimedia wet dream for others. On the other hand, you can have a website jam packed with information about every aspect of your business, but at the end of the day has the visual appeal of a lump of dog turd. There seems to be a wide spectrum of categories a website could fall into, and certainly the better ones fall into more of the categories than others.

It therefore goes to reason, that in an ideal world, the perfect website would probably be fast, simple to navigate, interactive, fun, artistic, chic and visually appealing, informative and extremely useful, ’sticky’ enough to keep the visitor interested for hours, while still ’slippery’ enough to quickly and easily guide them to make contact or spend money with you. The site would have an instant ‘cult’ like following with visitors eagerly bookmarking the site and suggesting it to others without provocation. The visitor would also feel the urge to visit the site on a daily basis to check the constant stream of new exciting and informative updates and improvements taking place constantly. All this, while being open source, the latest greatest and ‘up to datest’ web 2.0 programming, as well as paying for itself many times over with the revenue brought in by on site advertising. The site would also be search engine friendly and in position 1 on google for every remotely applicable search term, while every visitor would gladly supply their email address to be added to the newsletter database.

And thats just a list of ideas off the top of my head! If I had more time, I could probably fill the page! How many websites do you know, that would fit into even 5 of those categories? I can definately think of many, but for the average business that doesnt have a massive budget, this is not really an option. As a web developer we need to make sites that work, look appealing, and to top it off, they must be able to be deployed in record time.

Time is money in this game, and unfortunately, the ‘better’ the site needs to be, the more expensive it must be. Its with this in mind that I am reminded of a saying I have hear doing the rounds, ” If you pay crap, you get crap”. Sure there are even exceptions in this area, where some people manage to get a gem for next to nothing, or get crap after paying a small fortune, but generally if anything, the latter is unfortunately more appropriate.

For most small to medium enterprises, the purpose of the website is clear, it needs to earn its keep, by helping to generate sales and leads. If your business is losing money by having the website, and its not doing its job, then why have the damn thing!? Why not then just have a ‘business card site’ that displays your contact details and not much more? At the very least, the site must increase brand awareness in some way.

Too many times people are duped into getting a site by the usual, ‘let your site work for your 24hours a day’ line, and ‘it works for you while you are asleep’, and ‘millions of people every day are getting onto the internet’ lines are also really getting really old and boring now. The fact is that everyone knows someone who can ‘ give you a good deal ‘ on a website, or ‘has just done a course’ and will be able to set your business up. Now if you want to skrimp and save, and let some young upstart kid or ‘new company’ design your business website for you, then you are retarded! You may get lucky, but more often that not, you will be throwing your money away, and thats a shame, because once you have burned your fingers, you will be very unwilling to try again with a decent company, let alone throw a lot more even more money the second time for a decent job to be done right.

If you are going to be getting a professional website designed for your business, then expect to pay professional prices for a decent result, which could include:

A good functional design that promotes the brand, is modern yet professional looking, and is easy to navigate, clean and uncluttered in design and layout
An apropriate number of pages showing decent and interesting copywritten content that is enhanced by appropriate pictures and other media, for all the products, services and company information. The pages should also all be fast loading and optimised for searches in search engines
An easy to use method of contacting the company through the website, as well as all the company contact details

One thing to ask yourself is, “Does what I see accurately depict the professionalism, reliability, quality, products and services of my company”. Your website is a member of your company, and so an unprofessional or shabby looking website will affect visitors perceptions of you and your company.

So the moral of the story is to ‘Do it right, first time’. Yes, it might be more expensive, but it will be an investment that will ultimately pay off considerably. If the face of your business online looks unprofessional, then to the visitor, you are unprofessional. Say goodbye to those big clients!

Just my 2c on the shite websites I keep seeing, any comments? Am I crazy?