Inbound Marketing Blog

If you build a website and never put it on the internet, is it really a website?

This is not a deep philosophical question. It has a simple answer.

NO.

A development site is like an unsent email in your draft folder or all those baby pictures of your teenager on your phone that you keep meaning to back up to your computer or maybe even print and hang on the wall.

So then why are there so many websites living in the purgatory of a development environment instead of on the world wide web?

This is not a rhetorical question. It also has a simple, though not as brief, answer.

Keywords: they have been prizes to be won by Google, Bing, and other search engines since the mid-nineties. So after twenty-plus years of focusing our search engine optimization efforts around a short list of keywords to work on and rank for, we say goodbye to this practice and usher in the new world of topics.

Imagine this scenario: You have spent three to four months planning your new website or redesign, hired the best website development and marketing team around. You and your team have spent countless hours designing the layout with all of the best-practices in mind. Workflows have been carefully thought out and implemented. In short, you have designed your website to effortlessly guide your users through the buyer's journey and convert them into customers and delight them into becoming raving fans.

This may not sound encouraging, but research shows us that the average online user will stay on a website for less than one minute. So you obviously have to make a strong impression with visitors to keep them coming back for more. Since you only have less than a minute to do this, it’s best to learn web usability principles to improve your chances for success.

)

Tribute Media didn't invent the phrase "done is better than perfect," but we sure like it. This concept is at the heart of our website optimization approach to web design and web marketing. First, let's establish what that DOES NOT mean:

• Sloppy is better than perfect
• Broken is better than perfect
• Incomplete is better than perfect

You won't find any Jets or Sharks struggling for control of this domain. (Musical theater fans? Anyone?)

No, this website story is about inbound.tributemedia.com, a new Tribute Media project spearheaded by our founder, Corey Smith. It is a demonstration of what it takes to build a web presence following the principals of website optimization (otherwise known as Growth-Driven Design) and the philosophies and techniques of inbound marketing.

As an aside: is anyone who knows Corey surprised to learn he has a side project?

Did you know the human attention span is shorter than a goldfish’s?

Goldfish = 9 seconds

Humans= 6-8 seconds

Your website has a lot of work to do in a short amount of time.

Sometimes, business people think of their website as an ornament or an accessory. Everyone else seems to have one, so they decide to get one too.

They build the website—or they hire someone like us to build it—and once they have gone through it with a fine-tooth comb and analyzed all the minute details to make sure it is absolutely perfect, they take it "live." The average length of one of these website build projects is about 12-16 weeks, though sometimes it can last much, much longer.

After the site languishes on the internet for a year or two or five, these business owners might decide to update it. So they start from scratch (trends and user behaviors change a lot in half a decade). They throw away the old and start the whole 12-16 week process over. The new site goes live again and and sits for another stretch of time. And then the process starts all over again.

As you may have sensed already, there are some major problems with this approach to web design. Here are some things you should know about your website and what it means for your business.

I know, I know. That title makes it seem like I'm telling you that the only marketing agency you should hire are those where your budget will explode. But, that's not the case at all.

When shopping for web services (web design, web development, digital marketing, search engine optimization -- you get the idea), you might find it nearly impossible to compare providers. You'll have one provider that will build a website at $700, another at $7,000, and yet another at $17,000. You'll have an SEO provider suggest that they can get you all the business in the world for $100 per month but someone else might say that $1,000 is the minimum.

Over the years, I have thought a lot about the right way to offer web services to our clients. How should we make sure that we charge the right amount for the services that we offer?

As a consultant, I like to pride myself in keeping an open mind and just listening to clients problems in hopes that we can provide a solution. There is one question I have been asked more than once, and it still gives me pause because I truly want to give an unbiased answer; "Does my business really need a website?"

This is truly a very good question, one many business owners have asked themselves since the inception of the Internet. Everybody has an opinion and I am sure if you are a business owner there are plenty who will offer you that opinion.