Your Website is Never Just a Website
You can create the most aesthetically compelling website imaginable, Send out an email blast announcing the birth of your new presence on the web, print the URL on your stationery and make sure to incorporate it in any traditional advertising you design. The excitement you feel when you finally see the new website completed and launched is very real. However, without you knowing it, your website could possibly be useless.
If your website is not properly optimized by professionals that truly understand all of the parameters that determine whether or not your business can be found by people who are searching for your services, you might as well save the expense of designing the website. Launching a website that is not totally optimized is the same thing as printing thousands of brochures and storing them in the closet, hoping they will bring you business.
At The Discovery Communications Group, we see it all the time. Business people do not completely understand the universe of search engine optimization, other than to know that it is a necessary component of having one’s website found for certain terms and phrases (keywords) among the billions of sites that live on the web. We very often look at the HTML code of companies that we are in contact with and have to give them the bad news. We tell them that, given the way their website was built and coded, it is virtually invisible to the search engines.
If you are thinking about creating a new website, you need to do your homework. It is not just about creating something that is visibly pleasing, it is about creating a marketing tool that can drive traffic to your site so that you can convert those visitors to leads and customers. Your website must function as a highly efficient sales person that you do not have to pay to generate leads. It needs to be an accurate reflection of your company, what you do, who you do it for, and why. In the world of web marketing, less can very often be more, as long as it is done right.
In order for your website to most effective, it must be a well considered combination of aesthetics and search engine realities. Images capture people’s eye, but content drives them to the site to begin with. Visuals, content and code need to work together in a strategic manner to generate leads. Your website also needs to be coordinated, in a fully integrated manner, with all of your other marketing activities.
This is why a website is never just a website.
George Wallace is the President and CEO of The Discovery Communications Group, a fully integrated marketing company in Salem, NH.
