Member Resources

Small Business News
Programs and services to help small businesses grow and succeed.

You get what you pay for
Why you should choose a professional interactive company

Part II

If you need a Web site built or redesigned, or you’re looking to increase awareness or drive more traffic to your business’s Web site, chances are you may need the help of a professional interactive marketing company. In the second part of this three part series, I will be exploring just why it is important to use a reputable interactive marketing company to produce your work and implement your strategies, even if that means paying a little more up front.

They’re here one day and gone the next: One of the clearest differences between an independent Web designer and a full-service interactive marketing company is what happens after your Web site is delivered and it goes live. A freelance Web designer responsibility ends when you’ve approved the final proof and they hand over your Web site. But the success of your Web site depends almost solely on what happens after design and coding is finished. So if you find an error occurs – like a dysfunctional contact form or certain pages aren’t compatible to certain Internet browsers – you’re on your own. Most professional interactive marketing companies will offer some kind of guarantee on their work, usually in the form of a warranty period, which ensures that when something needs to be changed or fixed, the work will be done at no additional charge. This is a perfect example of why it is worth paying more – because you get more, and that just makes good business sense.

Just the facts, ma’am: Be wary of a company that can turn your Web site around in just a handful of days. Again, the design of your Web site is just one small component. Don’t forget the big picture. Here are some facts.

There are five major Internet browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera and Avant) that 98 percent of U.S. residents use to navigate the Web, and each of them has a handful of different “versions.” Each one of them requires your Web site to be coded and programmed in such a way to format correctly when a user pulls it up in their browser. Was your $1,000 Web site tested against all of these browsers and all their versions, or did it only “look good” on yours and the designer’s browser?

There are only four major search engines that U.S. residents use to research the World Wide Web (arguably two – Google and Yahoo). Did you know that each of these search engines has a unique set of rules or stipulations that they expect from a Web site for it to be indexed properly? Meta content, header files and tags, and CSS are just a few of the most recent techniques used within the code of your Web site for it to be positively recognized by a search engine bot or crawler. Do you know how your Web site looks to the search engines? Don’t you think spending a few more dollars in development is worth it if the result gives your business’s Web site the chance of being seen by the hundreds of millions of users that navigate the World Wide Web every day? You can bet it is.

Be on the look out for the third and final installment in this series on choosing a professional interactive marketing company. In this last article, I will be discussing the importance of Web analytics access and a Web hosting.

Editor’s Note: Article courtesy of DSL Marketing. If you have questions regarding development of your Web site, or marketing in general, visit DSLMarketing.com.