Web Development: Marketing Professionals vs. Templates
February 4, 2011 4:40 pm | Published by Next HorizonRecently updated on August 24th, 2023
Let us say you are a business owner without an online presence who wants to have a website developed. You Google the words “Web Development” and you are instantly presented with hundreds of options. Ads appear for ‘Custom Web Design – $299, $480 – Affordable Web Design. You might think to yourself “Wow, this is going to be cheaper than I thought!”.
Wrong- Website Templates Don’t Drive Sales
After looking at two or three options, you decide on a template from “cheapwebdesigns.com”. They promise a website for only $300 and within 8 hours. Great! Your site is up and now you’re ready for business.
Here is the problem, after a couple of months, you’ve had zero phone calls and the only emails from your site are SPAM promoting the most recent groundbreaking treatment in acne removal, balding cream, or “size enhancers”.
“What happened? Where are all the clients that are SUPPOSED to be seeking my services? I have a site, why are they not contacting me?”
You might have had the benefit of getting a site fast and cheap, but the drawback was a site that is bland, unoriginal, blends in with every other site with the same template, and is not tailored to meet your needs as well as generate leads. It works for your wallet, but not your business.
Web Development with a Focus on Searchability
Yes, templates are simple, easy to understand, and cheap. However, your customers won’t know it exists unless something draws them to it. Odds are that if you are deciding to skimp on the website, you probably aren’t spending a lot on advertising. That leaves search engine optimization.
For your website to come up regularly on search results, the content must use relevant keywords and your website should be built for mobile and speed. These can not be achieved with a template alone.
How to SEO Optimize Your Website:
- Analyze your website data – Understand why your call to action (CTA) is not converting. Use tools like Google Analytics to make informed adjustments to your site.
- Do your keyword research – It’s no longer as simple as picking a keyword, and then your blog could be found on SERPs that very same day. You have to do thorough keyword research with tools like SEMrush and Keywords Everywhere.
- Offer valuable content – Content is king! Pages that are full of relevant content will rank higher on SERPs.
- Optimize for on-page SEO – On-page SEO refers to headings, subheadings, URLs, and meta tags. Make sure these are up-to-par using tools like Yoast.
- Optimize for off-page SEO – This is where you can boost your SEO with external means like social media content mentioning your brand.
- Have a mobile responsive website – You want your website to be mobile responsive, especially after Google has adjusted to a mobile-first index. You don’t want users frustrated because buttons are unresponsive, and videos take too long to load.
- Make sure your pages are up-to-speed – Page speed is critical. If your site takes too long to load, it can negatively affect your ranking.
- Backlinks, backlinks, backlinks – The final and best way to help your website rank better is through backlinks. A backlink is when another website links to your website. When high-quality sites link to yours, Google interprets the link as a boost to your online credibility.
Once your website is optimized, it doesn’t stop there. You have to continue to update your website with fresh content that’ll keep you ranking higher in search results.
Custom design & development with an Agency is About Return on Investment.
The benefit of hiring a marketing agency to design and build your site greatly outweighs the alternative. When you go with web development professionals like those that Next Horizon, your website is custom designed and developed, built to suit your every need and the needs of your visitors.
When they arrive at your site, they will be presented with your brand, your services, and the right experience to generate a lead, all because it was built specifically for your business.
Your site will know what your visitors are looking for because YOU know what your visitors are looking for and have had those directives built into the site.
Your site will be built with more than just design in mind; it will be optimized to perform in all browsers and search engines.
There are plenty of extra benefits to using an agency for your web presence… accountability, hosting, maintenance, and the ability to quickly make needed updates.
