We’ve been in the industry of web development for nearly 20 years. Perhaps the one thing that we’ve seen the largest growth in over the last several years is the number of “web designers” that there are in America. I should probably say “worldwide” because of all of the India-based designers that we hear from nearly everyday.
Would You Believe That There Are 100s of Thousands of “Web Designers” in the U.S. Alone?
According to several yellow page websites, there are more than 30,000 companies categorized under “web design” and more than 50,000 companies categorized as “websites”. Then add in all of the “one-man-shops” and marketing & ad agencies that have gotten into website design and the number soars.
On top of that – every kid coming out of high-school these days is a “computer guru” according to their parents. If you’re in business and you’re reading this, chances are that YOU know someone who you feel “knows everything that there is to know about computers, web design and ‘all things internet'”.
I’m in conversations nearly every day with business owners and perhaps the most common thing that I hear when it comes to discussing web development is that they know someone who is a genius at building websites.
Here’s Something to Consider: What is More Important? Knowing How to Push Some Graphics Around a Page, or Knowing How to Get Prospective Customers to Visit Your Website?
Website design is child’s play these days. Any web design company who tries to tell you different is lying. You can freely get access to tens of thousands of templates with programs like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and in about a day (for even the least computer savvy person) you can have a website. Website design has gotten SO EASY that Wix, Web.com, GoDaddy and others say that they will actually build your website FOR NOTHING. NO COST. NADA. There are tens of thousands of India-based designers who will build your website for pennies on the dollar.
So if all of these people are willing to build your website for NOTHING, ask yourself, “WHAT IS A WEBSITE ACTUALLY WORTH?”
I would argue that a website, by itself, is worth very little really. How much is one of your business cards worth? Go ahead and pull one out of your wallet and have a look at it. It has your company logo on it; maybe your photograph and perhaps some bulleted services that you render and your contact information, right? In your own hand that business card is worth nothing. Admit it, you’ve probably used a business card to jot down some reminder or note that you needed to remember. Now – pass one of those same business cards to a prospect and it just became worth something.
That is how websites work as well. ANYONE can build a website these days. Certainly a professional can create a better LOOKING website. A pro will probably do a better job of organizing the flow and navigation of a website. However, how a website LOOKS makes only a small amount of difference in terms of how productive that website will be.
Think about it this way. Grab a hundred of your business cards and stick them in your pocket and walk around with them for a month or two – only handing out one or two cards in that span of time. No matter how amateurish or professional those business cards are – how much good are they doing you sitting in your pocket with only a sporadic few being seen by prospective customers? Now go to your local mall and place one under every windshield wiper in the mall parking lot. More people will see them but will everyone who sees them KEEP them or will they throw them away?
The MAJORITY of websites that we see are basically nothing more than an online business card. If you occasionally tell people to visit your site, then you’ll get the occasional visitor.
Just Because ‘Johnny’ Can Build a Website, Does NOT Make Him a Marketing Person…
Imagine that every time that someone needed a service or product that your company provides – that one of your business cards would magically appear in their hands. Picture it – a potential customer is sitting in their favorite recliner, thinking about the very service or product that your company can provide and instead of seeing any other company – he sees your business card appear in his hands. THAT is what a successful and well-ranked website can do for you.
ANYONE can build a website these days. YOU CAN. However, only the very best, most diligent web design companies these days know how to make your website show up at the top of the search engines. Oh sure – they ALL say that they’re good at it – but that too is a lie.
Making a website productive takes a lot of time and effort. There is NO perfect, step-by-step science for every website – that will insure that it will get all of the traffic possible. Every website is different because every industry is different. Some industries are more competitive than others. Where a business is located also determines how competitive that industry might be.
For example, if you’re trying to get a jewelry website ranked well in Big Horn, Wyoming (population 490) then ‘little Johnny’ could be your web guy. However if you want that jewelry website to rank well in Houston, Texas or nationwide on Google – forget it…it isn’t happening unless you hire the right professional (and be prepared to spend a lot of money).
Likewise, getting a real estate website ranked well for “Bombay Beach, California homes for sale” (population 295) is a piece of cake. If you’re a realtor in Charlotte, North Carolina you’ll need to shell out tens of thousands of dollars to rank at the top of Google for even a few important search terms that would drive home buyers to your website.
That is Where a True Internet Marketing Professional is Needed
Chance are “little Johnny, the computer savant” is not going to be able to help you think the way that your average customer or client would think. He can’t; he’s probably still got a lot of MUSH for brains. Didn’t YOU when you were 15-25 years old? Heck, my own brain didn’t clear from an adolescent fog until I was in my 30s. If your average customer or client is in the 25-50 year old demographic and making in excess of $100K a year – do you REALLY want “little Johnny” thinking on your behalf about HOW to get your business in front of those people?
Getting true, productive traffic to your website is more “savvy, marketing” and “reverse thought engineering” than it is technical. It is more about recognizing how your customers and clients think and about how and what they might search Google for – than about how to upload files to a server. It is about how to create valuable content on your website that will get your website seen at the top of Google.
If you ask “Johnny” about what he thinks is the best way to market your company, he’ll probably advise you to advertise at the latest Demi Lavoto or Selena Gomez concert – because THAT’S what and who he’s crushing on right now. Ask an internet marketing professional the same question and you’ll probably get some valuable options and suggestions that will pay off in gaining new customer and clients.
When it comes to that “person that you know, who knows someone, who has a son who has built HUNDREDS of really great websites” – get him to clean his damn room and leave the all-important marketing of your company to a professional.
If “Little Johnny” is still living at home, dressing like a bum, driving the vehicle that mom or dad bought him – chances are NONE of those hundreds of sites he built are worth anything more than your single business card.
If you’re interested in a website that will generate new customer and business for your company, then click here – Hire a Website Designer with Proven Results
She wrote:My name is Clarissa G. and I was browsing around and came over to your site www.skisoutheast.com. I see you have some great work done on your site but there are some problems which are spoiling your Google search rankings and resulting in lower traffic then it could get.I see you have 0 errors but according to W3C validator which needs to be solved right away if you want to index your site on the search engines properly. Currently your site is listed at 3rd position of 32nd page for keyword florists in florence which can easily be improved just by fixing those W3C validator reported errors.I can send you a complete list of changes and fixes we will do for you to improve your site traffic and revenue. Kindly let me know if you want me to prepare the list and best possible price to do the tasks.Regards,Clarissa G.NOW HERE’S THE FUNNY PART…First, if you ever REPLY to any of these kinds of emails you’re most often actually NOT replying to the email address that you THINK you are. In this case there IS NO ClarissaGriffin.com as a reply email address. It SPOOFS or goes elsewhere. Chances are her real name is “Peggy” and “she’s” from Va Duz, Liechtenstein where she’s also known as Leonhard or Bohdan.Translation, NEVER reply to these kinds of emails because if they’re not willing to actually send them from a legit address, then they’re probably NO TO BE TRUSTED with your CREDIT CARD, right?Okay…but for the comedy in this particular solicitation.I’ve received thousands of these kinds of emails before and I’d had some odd ones from time to time. I love it when these emailers tell me that we’re NOT ranked well, when we’re NUMBER ONE for many important search terms.However the emailer above “Clarissa” emailed us on one of our SKI RESORT websites. It ranks at the top of Google for thousands of search terms that are related to SNOW and SKIING and other winter sports related terms.Clarissa really did her homework on this one though as she alludes to “some problems which are spoiling your Google search rankings and resulting in lower traffic then it could get.”She then goes on to tell me that we don’t have any “errors” but then shares, “Currently your site is listed at 3rd position of 32nd page for keyword florists in florence which can easily be improved just by fixing those W3C validator reported errors.”OH BABY! We’re ranked 323rd for “FLORISTS IN FLORENCE” on a ski website!I won’t be able to sleep tonight!Until next time…avoid these emails like the plague that they are!
A poorly optimized campaign can be very expensive. If you don’t know what you’re doing, Google won’t hesitate to rob you blind. They make a TON of money off of “user error” as they call it. You can call them and make every case for a refund and more often than not they will debate you and send you every link to articles across the internet that will tell you how stupid you are for not knowing everything in advance.Worse still is the fact that you can actually make LOGICAL ARGUMENTS using Google Analytics that the Adwords aren’t doing what they are/were supposed to and all you’ll get from a Google rep is, “Who are you going to believe? Me (Google) or YOUR lying eyes.”Consider this recent test:In early March we tested a Google Adword Campaign wherein we spent $150 a day for a week for specific keywords that apply to the web design industry and a targeted area. With that budget split between TWO ad groups of $75 per day when the smoke cleared we had received around 78,558 impressions that week. We received 138 clicks and spent $831.56 for those visitors to our website.That was around $5.60 per click which is not bad. We tracked the results of those visitors and we picked up ONE new client who spent $2000 with us. A little pricey when you consider that Google made 41.5% “commission” off of me – when we typically pay sales reps 25%. However, I think any business person will spend $831 to make $2K every day, right?We spent some time researching the results of those 138 visitors and it appears that we received traffic from 31 paid keywords and all of those visitors spent time on our website and ALL of them looked at 2-5 pages of content. So all in all – not overly impressive, but a semi-successful test. Anytime you can MAKE money, that’s a good thing.NOW FAST FORWARD TO APRIL 1st…and before you ask the question – no this was not an April Fool’s Joke unless you consider “the joke was on me”.I had an idea on Sunday evening to run another test with what I thought was an AWESOME “call to action”.This time I figured I’d spend $500 on April 1st with Google (for that one day) and I’d direct the visitors to a front page that read that the visitors to could dicate WHATEVER web design work they desired for any size project AND they could then name their own price for that design job.Not bad, I thought. So we turned on the SAME keywords as in early March and we upped our daily budget to $500 and we sat back waiting for the phone calls and emails.They never came. In fact even though we spent FIVE TIMES MORE money that on any day in March, we only saw 2,245 impressions AND only (16) total visitors to our website. For that privilege we paid a WHOPPING AVERAGE of $30.80 per visitor. THIS TIME we only saw traffic to our website from (9) keywords and HERE is the interesting part – on 7 of 9 of those keywords (according to Google Analytics) we saw 100% BOUNCE RATES and 0:00 time spent on the website.What took me personally by surprise (and this is where Google Adwords can bite you in the ass) is that for ONE of our 16 visitors we paid $76.61! According to Google’s own Adwords Keyword Tool, that particular search term is valued at $25.72.So how did that happen, you ask?Because I’m personally an idiot and didn’t take my OWN advice and get one our professionals to handle this test…or didn’t get Google directly involved. I was bolstered by my own field test the month before and I wrongly estimated that if $900 worked for a week or so, then $500 would do wonders for one day.What you NEED to know is that Google’s AUTOMATED BIDDING handling CAN spend your $500 on ONE CLICK. If you read Google’s explanation of what AUTOMATED means, you would assume that if the number TWO adword guy paid $27.05 for a search term, then Google would grab perhaps $27.10 from your budget and spend that amount for the NUMBER ONE spot.Oh, noooooo. They can spend what they WANT to – unless you ALSO select a MAX high bid per term as well. Somehow last month when I only spent a max of $150 in a day Google was more frugal with my money than when I agreed to spend $500.So this little field test prompted me to call Google and get them on the phone. After all, SEVEN of the NINE keywords that they sent those (16) visitors to my site for – LEFT my website after looking at ONE page of my website and 0:00 time.Sound like some kind of error to you? Me too.According to “Melissa, the Google rep” she told me that my eyes were lying to me. She said that these 16 visitors all could have spent an hour on my front page and just chose not to click on any links and that my 0:00 time spent on the page doesn’t reflect any time spent on my website UNLESS and UNTIL they click on another page.Are you confused? I was too.I used LOGIC and asked sweet Melissa the following question, “Last month we spent $831.56 and received 138 visitors and they all looked at 2-5 pages and all spent 2-4 minutes on ANY and every page. On April 1st we spent nearly $500 dollars on the SAME keywords and only saw (16) visitors and on 7 of 9 keywords saw 0:00 time on page and only ONE page viewed…with 100% bounce rate. Does that make sense?”Logic got me nowhere, because as sweet as Melissa was, she just wanted to spend minutes saying things like, “Let me sum up what your questions and concerns are. You spent…” and then she’d simply RESTATE what I had already stated. Then she’d place me on hold multiple times and come back and want to sum up things again…with no explanation or resolution.Now bear in mind that I work with 1100+ clients – MANY of whom spend money with Google Adwords and for whom ALL of them have NO REAL idea as to HOW WELL Adwords work for them. They know that they get SOMETHING from them, but they don’t know WHAT they get. Hence – my field test.What I wasn’t bargaining for was that the MORE you allot for a daily budget on Google Adwords, the MORE you need to be careful. Google can and WILL burn a hole through that budget in NO time whether you get ANYTHING out of it or not.What I could not fathom was how we had NO call to action on our test last month and got something from it…and this time had a KILLER call to action and got nothing but a $500 credit card bill.I’m a pretty smart guy…so I “stayed the course with Sweet Melissa” figuring that I was AT LEAST going to make a new friend with Melissa Google. (I’m certain that was her name…)After realizing that my $500 was gone – never to be seen again – I moved on to more productive conversation with Miss Google. She informed me that I should set my daily maximum which is NOT REALLY A MAXIMUM.
I’m going to hit the [PAUSE] button for a second and broach this little bit of news for the uninformed.
Google can spend $536 if you set your MAX to $500. I still haven’t figured that one out except that I get the feeling that it’s like the Taco Hell drive-through lady who has given me back $1 less change than I was supposed to get on each of my last three visits there. I guess if she gets away with it 40 times a day, she’s given herself a nice raise. If Google does the same thing with a MILLION people a day, then they make an extra $36,000,000 a day. The Taco Hell chick needs to learn how that’s done.
The best tip I can provide you is to keep your Adwords SMALL and focused. Small, targeted groups will spend your funds more frugally and wisely (not a word according to Miss Google). If you use keywords and ads that Google deems to be a low quality score, they can charge you more. Not sure why that is, but it’s kind of like a tax on being stupid.That’s where LANDING PAGES come into play because your keyword that you’re targeting should appear in your ad and on your landing page. That’s ALSO not convenient when you want to sell widgets to people in every city of the United States.Adwords can be complicated and take some time to learn. However, it’s important to keep your campaign up to date and optimized. If you keep working, you will see positive results…even if THE MOST POSITIVE RESULTS will be MORE for “Miss Google” than for you.Such is life.
…or you should anyway. However a little too often we have new clients come to us wanting us to redesign their old website and when we go to transfer the domain name we find that the domain name is in the name of the web designer or design firm. We’ve contacted designers only to hear that they do so for the security of their clients, etc. However, there is really NO GOOD REASON why a domain name should be registered in any other name – than yours.