Do you think having an expensive website is good for a business?

[Andy-TWDG 10]

I hate to put a dampener on people, but you need to be careful when searching for your own company on google. If you regularly visit your own website and search for it in google, it will realise that, for you, you are usually looking for your site.

 

Often your site appears higher for you than it does for others because of this. Check you've logged out when searching.

 

Logged in for a particular term I'm #10, logged out, #51

 

You can turn on private browsing mode now in modern browsers which removes all browsing history / cookies etc.. giving you more accurate Google search results.

 

but yes if you dont turn this on your search results will be tailored to your specific search behaviour.

 

 

Andy

[Andy-TWDG 10]

I built my own website by buying a package from 123-reg.co.uk, I'd never done it before and found it very easy to do. The support from 123 is great also. The hardest bit really was getting it in the search engines under something different than the company name, as people need to know your company name to google you and well if they knew that, then generally they'd already know your website one would think. So I found having an eBay shop and blogging on blogger.com helped loads. Dont pay for the google Adwords, you can end up with huge £300 bills every month (this has happened to quite alot of people I know). My site is easy to navigate and is full ecommerce, costs me £18.99 a quarter - bargin!

 

You have to be careful when buying packages, as often these site builder sites are not Search Engine Friendly.

[indizine 10]

I hate to put a dampener on people, but you need to be careful when searching for your own company on google. If you regularly visit your own website and search for it in google, it will realise that, for you, you are usually looking for your site.

 

Often your site appears higher for you than it does for others because of this. Check you've logged out when searching.

 

Logged in for a particular term I'm #10, logged out, #51

 

That happens if you have the history enabled, so it needs turning off in your Google account as it's enabled by default.

[SHsheff 10]

 

They are a fantastic company who I will be with for a long long time.

 

 

I had a look at your website because I'm in the market for a good web designer and the first thing that struck me is that there's a typo - or a spelling mistake, which is what I suspect it is, as it appears several times:

 

"Occassions". Now, that troubles me on two counts:

 

1) Would you as the cake decorator take the trouble to ensure that any message or name on my cake is spelt correctly? and

 

2) Would I trust your web designers to do my website, if they a) don't recognise a spelling mistake when they make it and b) can't bothered to use spellcheck? Answer: no.

 

Other typos also, but you can either check for them yourself or ask a friend.

 

I earn a nice few bob as a sideline proof-reading websites for a friend who's a designer. If you don't have the confidence or knowledge (it's not everyone's strong point) to do it yourself there are plenty of 'pedants' (ie people who understand grammar and spelling eg PlainTalker, strix but others too) on the Forum who would doubtless be pleased to cast an eye over your website in return for the odd tenner. It'd be worth the investment imo!

[unknown_sole 10]

Depending on what you are going to offer. Id say the first impressions of a website counts for every thing. Id definatly reaserch any company that offers websites before you buy and look at their previous work.

My website for example was four figures but it has attracted big corporate companies worldwide so was worth the extra investment.

[easysite 10]

I had a look at your website because I'm in the market for a good web designer and the first thing that struck me is that there's a typo - or a spelling mistake, which is what I suspect it is, as it appears several times:

 

"Occassions". Now, that troubles me on two counts:

 

1) Would you as the cake decorator take the trouble to ensure that any message or name on my cake is spelt correctly? and

 

2) Would I trust your web designers to do my website, if they a) don't recognise a spelling mistake when they make it and b) can't bothered to use spellcheck? Answer: no.

 

Other typos also, but you can either check for them yourself or ask a friend.

 

I earn a nice few bob as a sideline proof-reading websites for a friend who's a designer. If you don't have the confidence or knowledge (it's not everyone's strong point) to do it yourself there are plenty of 'pedants' (ie people who understand grammar and spelling eg PlainTalker, strix but others too) on the Forum who would doubtless be pleased to cast an eye over your website in return for the odd tenner. It'd be worth the investment imo!

 

I think if by pulling peoples hard work apart you intend to get work, you will struggle. Southyorkshire cakes added her own content and this is her first site build. Why not concentrate on the question of the tread instead of insulting other peoples hard graft?

Edited January 20, 2012 by easysite
...

[Guest]

Shef_fitness, I am not sure if you have taken any notice of what people have posted so if this is not for you then it may hopefully benefit others.

 

At Christmas it was evident that online sales were up by a massive degree as they have been year on year whilst shopping centres were hoping for a business saving last minute rush.

 

Competition and margins are worries for any business so a good website and cost effective website marketing can be a life saver for you and your staff.

 

As most businesses now have websites we are into a second phase where we have to build websites better than leading competition. If you have a niche business then there may be no need to invest thousands but if you are targetting mainstream products you will have to stand out above the others basically meaning you will have to spend more than your competition.

 

I would look into getting some decent stock images or hire a photographer to take some photographs of your workouts. I don't mean snaps either as photographers know what they have to capture.

Edited January 20, 2012 by Guest

[SHsheff 10]

I think if by pulling peoples hard work apart you intend to get work, you will struggle. Southyorkshire cakes added her own content and this is her first site build. Why not concentrate on the question of the tread instead of insulting other peoples hard graft?

 

My mistake, and I apologise. Perhaps if I hadn't seen this

I think a proffessional site can be achieved cheaply...

I wouldn't have assumed you had written the copy for southyorkshirecakes.

 

Anyway, I am sorry that I took the time to point out a spelling mistake as it doesn't seem to be a problem to either of you. I was certainly not intending to get any work from either of you, I think that is obvious from the way I suggested contacting other forumers who can spell for advice.

[SHsheff 10]

The following was emailed to me following a post on the Forum:

 

easysite has just replied to a thread you have subscribed to entitled - Do you think having an expensive website is good for a business? - in the Sheffield Business & Employment forum of Sheffield Forum.

 

This thread is located at:

http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=872840&goto=newpost

 

Here is the message that has just been posted:

***************

 

---Quote (Originally by SHsheff)---

I had a look at your website ...[shortened to save space]... It'd be worth the investment imo!

---End Quote---

 

Can I just say that to someone who has recently started out in the world of web I find this post rather offensive. If you read the thread or my posts at least you will find that they have not added content, they simply did the design and I did the rest, therefore I made the spelling mistake. Easysitesolutions are there as a support as I need them, not to proof read sites!

 

Thanks for pointing out MY spelling error, I am sure that everyone makes the odd typo on their first site. Why not concentrate on the actual thread question instead of insulting peoples work and trying to tout for work through it.

 

I have to say that if this is how you go about trying to get proof work then there is no wonder you have time to pull peoples hard work apart.

 

Hmm now that's funny. The first message you posted at 8.29 this morning (which is the one that was emailed to me) was obviously writted by southyorkshirecakes, albeit using easysite's login. Then, you realised what you'd done and quickly edited it to read as if easysite had written it.

 

No wonder you wrote, 'They are a fantastic company who I will be with for a long long time'. You LIVE with them!

[Love2print 10]

If you have to pretend to be a customer or get someone you know, friend/family member, to lie about your business then that's not a good sign.

 

I don't even know why anyone would do it, I have seen it more than once on the forum but usually it is so obvious their not a real customer they get caught out. This in turns gives your business a bad rep, so why do it?

[andygardener 10]

I find the best thing to do is go into private browsing mode. Even logged out I have seen erroneous search results.

 

Firefox: Tools> Start Private Browsing

Chrome: Tool Icon> New Incognito Window

 

Thanks for the info, I didn't know about that. Mercifully in private mode my results are still page 1 for the stuff I've optimised for, though a couple of entries lower in a couple of cases.

[Weazel2006 27]

I was working with a social enterprise here in sheffield last year and i was put in touch with one of their other businesses in oxford. They had payed £5000 for a website which i can only describe as daylight robbery.

 

It was not optimized for any major browsers, the design itself was obviously broken and stuck together with off the shelf scripts and i felt truly sorry for them, it had been a complete waste of their time.

 

Needless to say for a minimal dynamic site such as that my charge would be substantially less. The best thing you can ever do is ask other people about their experiences and expectations. Some people have no idea what a website is worth, or indeed how much work can potentially go into it.

 

But on the flipside there are people that do and they fleece customers quite badly at times.