More and more of our clients are looking to extend their marketing activities and customer service efforts onto the internet. While most of us use the net on a daily basis, many don't necessarily understand the technology that drives the websites - or how that technology applies to a website for your business.
Here are answers to some common questions:
Reaching your business goals, or being "effective," is the whole point of creating a website. We work closely with you to determine how the website will be used by your customers and prospects, develop website functions and applications that support that use, and find a design that communicates your advantages. Content, Function and Design are the three legs that support an effective website. Failing to address all three aspects of website development is the most common mistake businesses make.
The simple fact is that search engines have turned to selling keyword listings as their primary source of revenue, and the free listings are ranked according to increasingly sophisticated analyses of patterns in your page content. Simply increasing the number of times you use a certain keyword has little value when the search engine is using 12-15 content factors to rank the page.
Idea Bank suggests you focus on well-crafted metatags to make sure you show up in appropriate searches, and consider the possibility of purchasing crucial keywords (see "Guaranteeing Your Listing"). There are no magic programming potions for better ranking, and companies that guarantee high listings are either, a) bulk buying keywords and reselling them to you at a premium, b) using banned techniques that could get you banished from the search engine forever or, c) fraudulent.
Metatags are hidden code that provide information to the search engines. For example, if you search for "marketing" on Google, one of the first page results is the website for the book "Guerilla Marketing Online." The metatags on their source code include this one: <meta name="DESCRIPTION" content="Guerrilla Marketing Online is a weekly online magazine for small business, entrepreneurs, sales people and marketers of all kinds.">. Look at their listing in the Google search to see how this description is used by the search engine.
Does it matter where my site is hosted, and what does "hosting" mean?
"Hosts" are, in their simplest form, any computers connected to the internet which can be accessed by other computers. Hosting services offer computer space that is always connected, is listed in the domain name database, and is running software specially designed for serving web files. You may choose your own host, if you wish, or Idea Bank can offer you an affordable hosting package with everything you need for a "turnkey" website. From the simplest of sites to complex online stores, we have a hosting package that will fit your needs perfectly. Just ask!
Idea Bank can give you a very easy way to perform site updates using nothing more than your own web browser. Our Content Management System is built on the most advanced open-source software framework available today, and provides a very simple, Word-like interface for making changes to the content on your pages. If you'd like to see a demonstration, we'll be happy to provide one.