Why should my business have a website at all?
There
are many reasons why any business should have a web site. Here is a good short
list:
-
To provide basic information that establishes credibility -
just as a listing in the Yellow Pages shows you are serious about your
business, having your own company domain reinforces your legitimacy as a
serious business. (According to IntelliQuest 68% of US web users shop online.)
-
To provide a map to your business location. Sometimes
finding you is the hard part.
-
To sell your products and/or services. Customers explore
alternatives over the web before buying.
-
To make business information available to customers and
clients 24/7.
-
To allow you to update your
information as frequently or infrequently as you choose.
-
To reach your local market. The web reaches the world, but
customers shop it for local information as well.
-
To reduce costs, use your site to answer your most
frequently asked questions.
-
To reduce costs, show your products over the web instead of
printing brochures.
-
To obtain feedback from customers. It is easy to see what
your customers respond to on the website.
-
To stay in contact with salespeople, customers and
suppliers.
-
To test market new services and products. You may also
learn that you have a market you hadn't thought of.
-
To easily publicize specials you are offering. Couple this
with e-mail promotion to your existing clients.
-
To reach the media. Newsletter editors may like something
on your site and refer to it in their articles. This is FREE advertising.
-
To reach the specialized or international markets.
-
To enhance your
business relationships. Tell your clients about related businesses they might
be interested in, and maybe get a referral fee for it!
Web Usability Evaluations. What is Web Usability?
1. Web
Usability Evaluations
- What is web
usability?
- Why are
usability evaluations important?
- Is an
evaluation expensive?
- When should I
look into usability optimization?
- What can
Creative Web Solutions do for me?
- What services
do you offer?
- How long will
a project take?
- I would like
someone to bounce some Internet related ideas off. Some plans we have, some
concerns maybe...
What is web usability?
Web usability is
about increasing visitor conversion by optimizing the user experience. Ease of
use. "simplicity". It's all about effective website strategies. Creative
Web Solutions usually performs website evaluations to eliminate
obstacles that may be chasing away your visitors, and inadvertently damaging
your search engine rankings. This web page evaluation can be complemented with
a competitive analysis: how does your site compare to those of your
competitors? We gauge your site against a checklist of generally accepted
usability guidelines for website development. We look at things like effective
website navigation, consistency, content and error minimization.
Why are usability evaluations important?
Your visitors
want to find what they are looking for fast and easily. If not, they click
away. Off to your competitor's site. If you offer visitors a good user
experience with a usable site, then they will likely also feel good about
your organization. It conveys trust and professionalism, and will strengthen
your brand. It allows smaller companies to play with the big guys in a
worldwide marketplace.
Is an evaluation expensive?
It is
expensive not to mind usability. You will lose sales and a lot of
goodwill when your site is a confusing or frustrating environment. As a
rule of thumb every dollar spent in usability
earns a return of $ 10 to $ 100.
Usability issues need to be resolved sooner or later. So: if you start
analyzing your site and its users now, you can reap the benefits tomorrow.
When should I look into usability optimization?
It is never
too late, or too early. You can test ideas while they are still on
paper, you can pilot a draft design, or you can optimize an existing
page or site through redesign. It is recommended that you continuously
look at your website for improvement. Do you have effective website
navigation? Are you sure you don't have any broken links? Take a look at
your visitor analysis software. You might have solicited some feedback
from users that require a small redesign project... Be generous to your
users, and they will be generous to you!
What can Creative Web Solutions do for
me?
We are
strong advocates for less frustration and more satisfaction
on websites. We mind the details. We look through the user's eyes, and
provide you with a report of web usability improvement
recommendations. You can also hire us and have one of our
designers make the changes for you; we will then oversee the
implementation to make sure that these adjustments don't create new
problems.
What services do you offer?
We can
perform web usability site analysis, user interface usability
testing. We perform website usability by running a checklist
guidelines and best practices. Your competition may be taken into
account, as well as your search engine ranking. You can acquire our
services before, during or after a design project.
How long will a project take?
Depending on the kind of project it can take anywhere from a few
days to a few weeks.
I would like someone to share some
Internet related ideas with me. Some plans we have, some concerns
maybe...
We
would love to listen to your thoughts and ideas, and look
forward to present you with our reflections.
Contact us today!
How much does a website cost?
Typically, a
five (5) page informational website is $575. There are quite a few factors that are going to affect the ultimate cost
of your web site. These factors include how many pages you are going to have, if
you will
sell
products on your website, the graphic
work involved, whether or not you provide the information or we have to research
it out, and how interactive your future web site will be. You will also
need
web hosting and domain name registration.
Do I need to hire
a "local" website designer?
We
create
websites for clients
who are local as well as out of state. By using the Internet, email and the
telephone, it is possible to communicate effectively with clients in any
location.
How long does it
take to have a web site designed?
The time frame is
determined by the size of your web site, the complexity of your site design, and
our current client design schedule.
What is a
URL?
It stands for "universal
resource locator". This is the address typed in to view your web page on the
Internet. For example, you would type
in
http://www.creativewebsolutions.net to access our home page.
What is a
domain name?
A domain name is a
specific web site address that you choose and register with Network Solutions(
the official registrar of domain names ending in .com, .edu, and .gov) or we can
do that for you. Our domain name is "creativewebsolutions.net".
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I am
currently hosted with a different company and would like to switch over to
Creative Web Solutions. How do I do this?
Just fill out an
inquiry
and we will take care of everything. We will transfer your domain name along
with all of your existing web sites content.
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Do I need to
edit my website myself?
On small business brochure websites, not necessarily but yes, you can. As
technology changes fast these days, its not common to have validated websites
with clean code using FrontPage extensions to update content on a website. There
are a few new tools to help you edit some content on your website however you
must be sure that the WYSIWYG editor you will use to edit content directly
supports the new standards to update content on your website. Editing time for
websites is also included in some of our packages.
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What About
payment gateway and shipping integration on ecommerce websites?
We can integrate the most common methods on our e-commerce websites, however
you might have a specific request and it might take some time to study that
specific case. We're open to talk with you and help you during the integration
process but we work must together during the process. It may impact the amount
of time we initially defined at the start of the project. So keep that in mind
and try to keep shipping instructions simple and use common payment getaways
providers. Common things make life easier.
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