It’s been many years since I sat down and attempted to build a small HTML website for my dad’s woodworking business. Bungling through HTML code and slicing up photoshop graphics to try to make those slick rollover effects work. Things have changed since then. A lot!
As we honed our website building skills, we approached the website process from a design point of view. Our primary experience was in design for print. Brochures and catalogs, logos and photography were the staples of our professional work. In time, as the web became accessible, our customers began asking us to do websites. We thought, why not move these brochure designs to the web. And so we did and for many years that worked well. However, in the past 5-10 years, with the advent of more advanced search engines and artificial intelligence, nicely designed websites are not sufficient. While design for excellent user experience is important, what is paramount is that websites rank well in search terms relevant to their industry.
As we’ve worked with customers in a wide range of industries, it’s also become apparent the purpose of a website varies with each client. Some clients are only looking for a basic web presence that a simple one or two page website will satisfy. Others are looking for an information site that will support their sales team. These clients are not looking to drive sales leads through their site but support their sales teams with easily shareable information. On the other hand more and more businesses are expecting that their website will show up when local customers search for their service or product.
With this in mind, we’ve come to understand there are three basic types of websites. If you’re at a place in your business where you are considering the purpose of your website or you need to build a new one, consider these different types of websites so that you can have a website that performs according to your expectation.
The Template Website
A template website is just that, a template. It’s a predesigned website that has a fixed layout. Provide us with your logo, some photos, key text or bullet points and we’ll flesh it out into a template site. These sites will look similar because we follow a simple layout that enables us to build it quickly. We do not have the option to do much changing around of layout without incurring extra cost. Also do not expect a lot of SEO/search ranking results. This type of site is best for people who have a limited budget and only want to ensure they have a basic website. Most template sites run $1500-3000.
The Brochure Website
A brochure website has been the type of website that focuses primarily on sharing key information about a company. In a brochure website, we approach it much like we do a brochure design. First off, we compile on what you want to communicate and in what order. We design it in a way that the information is easily read and understood by the user. Legibility and clarity are foremost in the layout yet coupled with clear calls to action and a design to match your company identity. Most brochure websites are 3-15 pages in size and often run $3,000-15,000 to build.
The Marketing Website
Those who are looking to have their website as a key tool in their sales toolbox that generates leads will want the marketing website. The foundation of a marketing site is that, to achieve ranking, we need to make the site search engine friendly. We begin by defining and researching what words are key to finding your product or service? As we analyze them in our keyword tools, we may change the focus of them to better match what terms or long-tail phrases appear to be best for quicker ranking results. After establishing these terms, we wireframe out the website content, paying special attention to putting these keywords at strategic places on your site. We also build out text and photo content sections that build around the keyword goals. To further boost your content, we recommend adding a blog-style resource section to your site where you have articles that continue to build the identity and keywords of your website and link to those pages frequently throughout the site. Another key part of a marketing site is having the layout follow the story format on the page flow. We’ll discuss this format in another blog. After the content is defined, a web designer will design the site and the developer will build it. For faster results, we usually will launch strategic keyword ads after the site is launched to help kickstart search traffic to the site. We have found it can take anywhere from 6-12 weeks after a marketing site is launched until we begin to see results on local search results and up to 3 to 6 months to fully experience good results. Most marketing sites are a minimum of 7 pages and usually cost $7,000-30,000+ depending on the number of pages and keywords targeted.
As you consider your next website or upgrades to your current site, you need to think through what you want your website to do for you and with those goals in mind we can help you build a website that satisfies your needs for many years.
If you’d like us to explore website options with you, give us a call 717-340-5539 or contact us.