There are millions of people and companies wanting to advertise their websites and services online. However, common sense says before we spend thousands on advertising let’s make sure our websites are able to convert the traffic.
The question here is, how do you find the right Web design company to design or fix your current website.
One of the first things we should do is analyze our goals and needs. The second step is to create specifications on what we intended to do and what trends and technologies we would like to use to accomplish those goals.
I spend a lot of time looking around the Internet at different website designs. It’s not necessarily that the web designs are in the same industry as I am in but I just want to see ideas and what other people are doing. I also spend a lot of time looking at the top 10 websites for conversion online. These are the websites that are able to convert more traffic than any other website, therefore they are extremely important to me because I want to know what they are doing and how they are doing it. These sites have been tested and proven to work.
Since I own a Web design company I do not need to go in search for a website design company but if I was looking for one I would check out their portfolio as well as their own website design. I have heard Web design companies say in the past, “I am so busy working on my clients websites, I do not have time to work on my own” however, being in the Web design business for the last eight years I can tell you that is not true. People will spend more time on their own stuff then they will on the project of a client.
Another thing to look at is how long they have been in business. You do not want to hire somebody just started a business last week and very well might decide to go out of business next week. Something else to look at is how good their website ranks in the search engines. I know they are not doing search engine optimization but someone that cares about their business and is making a living online has figured out how to rank their website.
I know a lot of Web design companies using the yellow pages to find clients. I have a problem with someone selling me a service that they are not able to make work for themselves.
I would not hire somebody to build me website from the yellow pages or from the telephone. You need to see the type of work they do and how they do it and you find this out on the Internet not in the Yellow Pages.
Janeth
Excellent article,
I’m sure your readers the important point you’ve made about being able to ‘touch and feel’ the work of a prospective website designer by checking it out on the internet. There is nothing I like better than the touch and feel of a great 2.0 website.
The yellow pages are merely another vehicle to drive traffic to your site on the Internet. Too many marketers are caught up in a “either this or that” mentality. Building a great marketing campaign uses many different advertising vehicles….yellow pages is just one of the most effective. Especially, if your competitors aren’t using it. All the better reason for you to be where your prospects may find you STANDING OUT for lack of a crowd.
Secondly…Print YP is proven to drive traffic to websites.
“More than four in ten (44%) leads generated by an average print Yellow Pages ad come from consumers visiting an advertiser’s website after seeing the ad, while 56% of leads generated from a Yellow Pages ad come from call traffic, according to (pdf) a study of web activity spurred by Yellow Pages advertising by Telmetrics.” (citation: http://www.marketingcharts.com/print/print-yellow-pages-ads-drive-traffic-to-web-phone-9265/ ) Telmetrics is the ‘Industry Standard’ when it comes to call measurement.
I’m a yellow page CMR and handle National Accounts. (ie we’re a specialized advertising agency that handles only the ‘big boys’, no local). We have usage statistics across all yp print products and internet yellow pages at our finger tips. According to a Comscore report from 08, almost 50% of products and services in the US market were found and purchased using yellow pages and IYP. Internet search was 31%….and local search even less. If you want to know how you can get exposure across the country in almost every yellow page directory in every market AT NO UPFRONT COST, give me a call. 866-365-9550. I’ll rock your world…
all the best,
Dave Hucker
VP Interactive
ROI Media LLC CMR#281