Website Design and Internet Marketing

According to Nielsen//NetRatings,* 19 million people access the web from homes in the UK - and plenty more access it from their workplace. The same research found that "The UK has the highest browse-to-purchase ratio of all the European countries," and this trend seems to continue in the foreseeable future, as Internet access becomes ever more affordable.

So it's not surprising that more and more businesses are feeling it's essential to showcase their products or services online - and often to sell them there as well. Especially as it's becoming easier and cheaper to create a website.

Yet there are many small or medium sized businesses in the UK which still avoid the inevitable. The reasons for this are usually the following:

1. Fear - the Internet is an unknown quantity. Where does one start? How much should a website cost? How long should it take? Is it for us?

2. Web designers' attitudes - most web designers have the wrong business attitude. They don't think in terms of what's best commercially for their customers and rarely offer effective after-sales support.

3. Lack of resources - most businesses find their web designers through personal recommendation. Even then, there's no guarantee as to the quality of work that will be delivered.

As you can see, the second and third factors reinforce the first: if you're not sure you're getting the right person with the right skills and attitude for the job, you're bound to be apprehensive.

The solution is to think not in terms of one person, but several. Of course the bigger the website, the more players with more skills are needed, but essentially, you need just three separate individuals to ensure your website is a success:

Website Copywriter
The website copywriter is often overlooked, but is arguably the most important person of all. It doesn't matter how dazzling your site looks or how much content you have if it doesn't make sense to your visitors, or if it doesn't make them interested in your products or services and want to buy them. In fact a poorly written site will reflect badly on your business - on and offline. A website copywriter will also make your site attractive to search engines by use of the right keywords in the correct places the optimum number of times - without making the content look stilted.

Website Optimiser
The link between a website copywriter and a web designer is the website optimiser, whose role is to ensure that visitors have an enjoyable experience while visiting your website and to keep them there long enough to make them into customers. This will include enhancing your message, improving site navigation, maximising loading speed and making it easy for customers to respond.

Website optimisation is not the same thing as search engine optimisation, although, like the website copywriter, the website optimiser must ensure that the site is search engine friendly. Professional search engine optimisation will ensure that your website complies with the technical requirements of search engines, and make sure it doesn't 'spam' them - which could have a detrimental effect on your site's ranking.

Website Designer
Like a graphic designer, but with important differences. The main one being the limitations that a website designer faces when designing a page - a website designer can never be certain as to what monitor type or size the end user is viewing and what connection speed they have. In addition, a web designer needs a good understanding of the many and ever-evolving web applications and their almost infinite possibilities.

For your website to be successful, you would do best to use all three of the above professionals - and if they are already used to working together, so much the better. Beware of individuals claiming to be so multi-talented that they can perform all three roles!

Furthermore, one way of knowing when you've found the right people is their attitude to after sales support. They won't just offer it, they'll strongly advise it. Optimisation is an ongoing process, and keeping both prospective customers and search engines happy involves regularly adding to, updating and revising your website.

To conclude, now is the time to take the plunge online if you haven't already done so - and with the right people to help you, you have nothing to fear.

* Source: http://www.nielsen-netratings.com