10 Steps to a Better Website-# 3 Establish a budget

This series of 10 steps to a better website is intended for the novice. For people not very savvy to “Internet stuff”
It just gives a little help on things that I needed help on when I first decided we needed a website.

The cost of creating a website depends on a lot of things. Many I covered in earlier posts. Cost will be determined in large part on the purpose of the site and how many pages. (Decide up front how much you should spend.)

The other key factors are high quality and high performance. There is no point spending any amount of money on a website that presents an amateurish image and does not function properly. Although a general rule may be that the larger your investment, the better your result.

I had lady in my office and she was asking for help with her website. She said friend of hers did her a favor and built her a website for “just a few bucks.”
I told her it would take less time to build a new one than to fix all the problems with here current one. She complained about spending money on the old site and now spending more for a new site. Probably all small businesses have had this same thing happen in some fashion or another.

If you want a professional looking website be prepared for it to not be cheap.
I do advise people get the best bang for their buck, but I learned from bitter past experience that hiring the lowest bidder to build a website or anything else is also running the risk of maybe having to do it all over again and paying for it twice.

Creating a website can be less expensive if you do it yourself, but only if you have the time, inclination, and tools to do a good job. Otherwise, get several bids from highly recommended designers and developers.

Clearly define your goals, style, and expectations for these Webmasters. As I suggested in another post and it’s worth repeating here, “Look at several sites that your potential Webmaster has built. If you don’t like the others he/she built, you probably won’t like yours when it’s finished.”

After you have what you feel is an acceptable bid, add in promotion and advertising expenses. As your company grows, you can expand your site, spreading your investment over time.

Buying advertising on Yahoo and Google to get more visitors to your site can get very expensive quickly. Decide on a monthly budget. Money spent on good Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a wise investment. Good SEO work can bring your website up in the search engines to the first page and many times in the top three.

It’s been my experience and that of my clients too, that if you’ve had good SEO work done on your site up front and your website is in the top three or four for your chosen key words, and then you also have an ad from Google or Yahoo right above it, or right beside it, you will get fewer clicks on your ad. Because people are becoming savvy to the fact that those sponsored results are ads.

Attracting customers for very specific ad words on search result pages where you are not in the top three is a good idea if the adwords are not too general.

For tips on getting the best use of your ad dollars in all your advertising, read 12 steps to More Bang for Your Marketing Buck.

My new book came out this week titled Get Big Results From Your Small Ad Budget it has some very good tips making your advertising dollars go farther. You can order it through Wizard Academy Press in Austin Texas.

Check out Vess Barnes seys Hello at:
http://www.mondaymorningmemo.com/?ShowMe=Vess_Barnes_Says_Hello

Contact me at Clay Campbell.biz