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Even Simple Web Design Takes Complex Commitment: Owners Find Sites More Than 'E-Business Card'

Posted on: Tuesday, 7 March 2006, 12:00 CST

By Christopher Boyce, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, Ga.

Mar. 7--The Web site for Rob Doll Nissan has come a long way since starting in 1999. Having a Web site is a requirement for Nissan franchises, but Doll didn't know how it fit as a sales tool.

"What we started with certainly isn't what we have now. It didn't do anything," Doll said of the original site. "You went on there and it gave you the address and the location of where you could go."

After a trial-and-error period, Doll realized an Internet principle that is essential to any business -- a Web site can and should be much more than an e-business card.

For Doll, it needed to be an interface.

"It progressed into being able to tell us how many people were coming onto our Web site and what we found was mostly kids looking at cars. It wasn't people shopping for cars."

Today, a customer can purchase a car through the company site, www. RobDollNissan.com, and have it delivered to his or her home.

The changes came, Doll said, as he began to pay more attention to his company's site -- or, actually, when he hired someone to pay attention to it full time. Today, the job belongs to Todd Christopher, internet manager for the dealership. His duties include managing the relationship between the dealership and BZ Productions, the company it contracted to host and design its site. That deal includes a site redesign set for April.

While there are many reputable companies hosting and designing sites, Christopher said it is best to choose a designer who has experience designing sites in your business's industry. It should be a company you can commit to for a two- to three-year period, and one you know will commit to you. That makes the decision to outsource design an important one.

"We may tweak things with our Web page, of course, as trends change," Christopher said, "but as far as systems, we're committed to them."

Choosing a designer

Though BZ Productions is headquartered in Rhode Island, Doll feels comfortable putting his Web site in the company's hands because he has Christopher in house to keep regular tabs on the site and communicate the dealership's immediate needs.

"We change the front page on a monthly basis," Doll said. "We want to jump out there and inform customers what's going on today."

But if you don't have a staff large enough to employ a tech specialist, the next best thing may be choosing a local designer or host, said Greg Wilson, owner of Wilson's Web Design in Columbus.

As a local designer himself, Wilson acknowledged his bias. However, he said working with someone nearby can be important even when the results exist only in the virtual world.

"That local support is needed for small business," Wilson said. "One thing I want to do is develop a relationship that evolves as the needs of the business do. I don't want to design a site, have you hand me a check and I'll never see you again. You need quarterly contact."

Working locally also can save money, Wilson said. Depending on the design company's standards, Wilson said it's not unusual for five Web pages with multimedia Flash presentations to start as low as $500 and reach as high as $1,500. That doesn't include costs for hosting or paying for high-profile sponsorship positions at sites like Google.

Wilson said a full commitment to a good site must be a priority for every entrepreneur. He said that while there are do-it-yourself software suites available, they are merely templates that cannot consider each business's individual needs.

On the template programs, Wilson said, "Yes, it's less time consuming, but that's not design. You want someone who will meet you and find out your hopes and dreams for the business and create its site from ground zero."

How can search engines promote my business?

BY DAVID CARLICK -- AllBusiness.com

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Search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) are two important ways to promote your business to online customers. SEO requires making your site search-engine-friendly, and SEM involves targeting potential customers by purchasing relevant keyword ads on search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Alta Vista.

SEO

There are many ways to optimize your site so that search engines will list your site higher in their rankings. Start with the following:

Links from other sites: Search engine spiders move from site to site across the Internet by following hyperlinks. The more high-quality and high-trafficked sites you have pointing to your site, the more important the search engine will think you are. Make sure to register your site with directories such as Yahoo (www.yahoo.com [http://www.yahoo.com]) and the Open Directory Project (www.dmoz.org [http://www.dmoz.org]).

Internal links: Make sure your site is well-organized and easy to navigate. A site map will help visitors -- and spiders -- navigate your site.

Metatags: Metatags are hidden HTML directions for Web browsers or search engines. They include important information such as the title of each page, relevant keywords describing site content and the description of the site that shows up when a search engine returns a search. Make sure your metatags accurately describe your content.

Keywords: Consider likely words or phrases that users might type into search engines to find your site. Make sure your content contains those words or phrases, and include them in the title portions of your site and in relevant content.

Search engine optimizers: Businesses often enlist the help of optimizers who specialize in improving the visibility of their clients' sites. Among other things, they'll register your site with major search engines, list it in the appropriate directory, write optimized content for your site and recommend changes to your site architecture.

SEM

The more targeted your advertising, the higher your "conversion rate." Conversion rate refers to the percentage of ads that actually convert to sales or some other desired action (such as registration). One way to ensure that your prospective customers are qualified is to buy ads according to specific search engine keywords that a user might submit. For example, if you're selling a Minolta 60X digital camera, buying the keyword ad "Minolta 60X digital camera" will most likely give you better results than buying the keyword "camera."

Some terms get bid up quickly -- for instance, you'll pay a lot more for a technology keyword than a knitting keyword. SEM, however, has a higher conversion rate than other online marketing methods, so it can still be a cost-effective route to take.

Contact Christopher Boyce at (706) 571-8623 or cboyce@ledger-enquirer.com [mailto:cboyce@ledger-enquirer.com]

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Copyright (c) 2006, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, Ga.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

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