Difference of Web Design by Firms and The Way It Could Be and Benefits for Small Businesses

I’m sure you would agree for the most part everyone in this day and age has seen a website, right? You may have found a website of a business you were looking for online, or purchased a product online right from the convenience of your kitchen table at home. The internet is here to stay and usage is steadily increasing every day.

As many websites as you think are out there, you might be surprised to discover that out of the 25 million small and medium size businesses in the U.S today ^[1] only 4 million of them have their own websites! [2] Not only that- about 50,000 new businesses are started each week in the US! ^[3]

Imagine that enormous number of businesses who need a website to be found by prospective clients and customers on the internet.

We feel the hard copy yellow pages are on their way to becoming obsolete. Many consumers look for businesses online; they no longer go searching through the yellow page book. People want convenience. They want to find a local business on-line to go to; and shopping directly on-line has become a standard.

I think we can agree that businesses should be online in order to be found by prospective clients and customers… and to make money if they choose to sell their product or service on-line. However, they need a website that will attract these potential clients and customers…then convert them into paying clients and customers.

It’s one thing to throw a site up on-line. It’s another to have it work like it should…which is to make the business owner money!

Many business owners who have a website – find their website unprofitable. Their sites are not easy to find by prospective clients and customers. And, for the few people who do find their site…they don’t convert those visitors into clients and customers. So for them, what good is having a website?

This is the problem. Many business owners that have invested in a website find it to be a combination of frustration, confusion and a money drainer.

Why? Simply because they have hired the wrong person or company to create and put up their site. A lot of business owners we have come across have “hired” their 15-year old niece to put up a site for them. Or they have hired an overpriced design firm that has no clue on how to put up a site that actually makes money.

The truth is that most web designers and web firms can throw up a site, and in many cases, make it look “good”. Or have fancy flash videos.

However, they don’t understand how to design a site that makes the business owner money!

They don’t understand how to build a site that converts visitors into clients and customers. They either don’t know, or don’t care to help get the business owner’s site to rank high in the search engines.

These companies just want to design a site, make it look “cool”, and throw it up in cyberspace. But…a “cool” and pretty looking site that doesn’t show up at the top of the search engines, nor convert traffic into paying customers is pretty much a waste of time and money.

There are only three things that matter if a website is going to be a cash magnet for a business owner:

# 1. People (prospects and/or customers) need to easily find the site in the search engines.

# 2. The site has to convert those people into paying customers/clients/sales at some point.

# 3. The site should save the business owner piles of dough that they are now spending on things like on-line purchases, customer service, product delivery tracking, automating updates and offers, etc…where all kinds of information can be dished out without any humans involved.
 

Combining these three components can create an effective and lucrative website. As an eSpider Squad™ franchisee and a Certified e-Marketing Consultant™ (CeMC™), this is what you can offer a starving crowd of 25 million business owners in the U.S!

[1] According to the Small Business Association (SBA) Office of Advocacy, Census data shows that in 2006, there were 26.8 million businesses in the United States. (http://www.sba.gov/advo/stats/sbfaq.pdf, (p. 1) August 2007).

[2] "Capitalizing on the Small Business Market", Experian Marketing Solutions, Dated August 2007. http://www.experianmarketingsolutions.com, "SmallBusinessTitles_wp.pdf, (p.2) August 2007 Methodology - Experian called 10 million business owners to conduct survey.

[3] “Database of New Businesses Updated Weekly”, InfoUSA.com.http://www.infousa.com, online source, August 2007. Methodology – Data compiled based on business records and telephone interviews with
business owners.