Many times people come to me AFTER their company has opened for business. This unfortunately is not the best time to begin thinking about having a website.
You want to have a website up and running BEFORE you open the doors. The reason is simple, you want to give search engines the opportunity to find you.
So by having your website up and running in advance of commencing business, when you do open your doors, your site has already been indexed by google.
Now that doesn’t mean you have to say you’re open. In fact, it’s a great idea to let people know the official date at which time you hope to start conducting business.
An additional benefit is that you will be able to take your time and get your site completed in the right way. When we tend to rush in business, that’s when we made mistakes or put out an inferior product. This of course is the same with web development.
One of the main reasons is that no matter how hard you try and work on your website content, once you see it online, you always have changes.
To me the right time to start is a soon as you know that you are going forward with your business plans and have an approximate date at which time you will be operational. At that point you want to start at the beginning, which to me is always a logo. This is because you want your site design to follow the same color scheme as your logo and branding efforts. Once that’s done, it is time to pick you web design and web development team. This way your website will be built and ready to go once you open for business.
TIP: Make sure your developer is not only schooled in the art of design but also familiar with search engine optimization. Designers tend to be good at the artistic piece, but not the functional. In the long run the functional piece is even more important.
We at RooSites learned long ago that you need to understand every part of developing the site. This is why we developed service plans which cover all our clients needs.
The sooner your site is out there and visible to and contained within Google index, the sooner you will be found and the sooner your website can begin paying dividends. So Launch Your Website Before Your Business. If you need help, please contact us.
I get questions from small businesses all the time because I’ve been in web design and development since the mid 90s. They always want to know what I feel is the key to success for a small business. I always sum it up in one single word… Responsive.Companies get into business with the best intentions and they have a goal to provide top-notch service. But then they miss out on the most simple opportunities to please customers/clients and prospective new business partners.
I have always tried to respond to requests and inquiries the same day. You would be shocked how slow some companies respond. In fact, I get a lot of new business from companies who are tired of being ignored and for slow service. I have heard from companies that many companies actually can take up to two weeks to make a simple text edit. We at RooSites many times respond within minutes. I don’t put things off, and it makes clients happy. This seems so elementary, right? Yes it does, and that is why I say responsive is the keyword you need to remember.
I recently had an inquiry from company looking for a specific service. I wrote to a guy I did business with many years ago to see if he be interested as he was perfect for the job. Unfortunately I didn’t hear back for days. I also left a voicemail and I texted him. It is beyond me why somebody looking to give you business would be ignored. These are the same people that complain to you how tough it is in business these days. I always find it intriguing that people aren’t responsive yet whine about a a lack of business.
Now this works both ways. Sometimes I’ll get a question from a prospective customer and reply right away. Sometimes I won’t hear back at all, even when I follow up. This too is not OK as this leaves a bad taste in someone’s mouth and they’ll probably never hire you or refer you, which is so important in today’s business world.
I had a former colleague tell me that they thought I replied too quickly and I set a bar too high, and people would always expect such great service.
It is funny, when companies leave me which doesn’t happen too often thankfully they’re always expecting a new provider to give the same service.
I recently had a nonprofit decide move to a provider offering cheaper hosting and support services. They were just trying to save money and went with the cheapest possible hosting solution. I won’t name the company, but you know the one; They put 50,000 sites on the server and then people wonder why the performance is terrible and it crashes all the time. Well within three days of transferring, I went to the site to make sure it was up and running and what do you know, it had crashed. White screen of death. Now as it was a WordPress site, I know exactly what happened. Updates came in and they made them without backing up the site and it crashed. Now with my hosting solution, I back up every single day so even if this happens I can get the site back up and running within 30 seconds. As it has now been over five days, I know they’re having trouble. Sad, but cheap does not always equate to good! They do a good job of covering how price isn’t always the best deal in the Forbes Magazine article When The Lowest Price Is Not The Best Deal.
I would just like to reiterate that it can be very simple to please customers/clients. Respond quickly, NEVER ignore inquiries. When asked for your support, put yourself in the shoes of your customer, get the work down. This will help your company grow and succeed. Everyone likes to recommend companies that provide good service. Be That Company!!
