hat can I say? Great web design can be affordable. But I'm not talking about having one your family members put a site together. Nor am I talking about the $19.95 per month do-it-yourselfer. In fact, if you use either of the before mentioned options, I can pretty much guarantee that you(as a business person) are NOT having success with your web site and/or you don't take your business very seriously. So allow me to take a few moments and explain a really great way to get a web site up, functioning and ready to get traffic for a fraction of the time and money most businesses put into their web presence.

but first...

I want to talk to you about THE most important part of your web site....the content. Even if you have an ugly web site, it can still rank fairly well and get traffic... if it's built correctly. With that being said, an ugly site probably won't be making any sales or generating very many leads. But the important take away here is that the content on your web site should be your first concern. Why? Because if you don't have quality content, your web site probably won't be indexed in the search engines... let alone rank well. You see, the search engines, when they index your web site, sort of strip out all the fancy colors and pretty images that are used to give your site it's look. The most important part of your web site to the search engines (no matter which search engine) is your CONTENT. For example: I see HUGE mistakes all the time from web sites that create a fancy logo and header image in their site that includes their contact info and address , etc. Now don't get me wrong, the web site looks like a million bucks, but the search engines only see a pretty picture....NOT CONTENT. The search engines then grab what little text there is (if any) and tries to best find a place in it's index to put your site. It's no wonder why some business can't find their web site in the search engines even when they search for their own business name. Although search engines are getting better everyday at finding sites and digging content out of them to index...why make it difficult?

So what does this all mean?

It means that content is the number one important factor on your web site. The second most important factor would be having a good looking site that will convert those visitors into sales or leads. It needs to be clean, organized, easy to navigate, and built correctly. But get this... your web site could look exactly like 1,000,000 other sites... but the content is what makes the difference in a winner or a loser. Think about Google's web site blogger.com. They offer up a batch of templates that users can use to change the look of their blog. Let's just assume that most of the users choose just a handful of popular templates to use on their blog. That equates into hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of BLOGGER users that have a blog that looks almost identical to each other with one exception..... THE CONTENT. The content is what makes the difference and that is what the search engines are looking for.

What it means to you...

Just like the image to left, you should be waking up to the fact that content is what will make or break your site as far as traffic goes. Of course it needs to look good and be easily navigated by your prospects... if it doesn't... you won't get any sales or leads. But again... in order to get traffic you have to have content. You see, years ago, a web site's content AND look was all tied together as one. As web standards have progressed, it has become good practice to build a site keeping it's look separated from the content. This quite simply means that one can concentrate on creating unique and compelling content for your site, while leaving the "container" to others. That container could be anything... a platform like blogger or wordpress, facebook perhaps, or even a template. A web site doesn't have to "look" unique, the content does. ottome line: Why build a completely custom web site when you can buy an awesome looking template and find someone to enter in your own logo, images and killer content for a fraction of what you would normally pay for a completely custom web site. If anyone ever tells you that you MUST have a custom web site for your business is downright lying to you. While in a few rare cases a custom site is a necessity... the vast majority of web sites can be built using a template. This cuts down the costs of getting your business online considerably. For instance, you can purchase a professionally done template for around $50 dollars. Next, find a company(US!) to customize it and add your content in, and your up and running for about $1,000 or less! But, hey, we all know it really doesn't just end there. You can't have a build-it-and-they-will-come attidude. You have to work at it. That's where SEO comes into play. It's a bunch of work to do...thats for sure. But the rewards are definitely worth it! Hey, I almost forgot to mention this: If you purchase a template and have us customize it for you, we can (in most cases) add pages and make content changes for as little as $5 to $10 dollars per page/change! Saving money, making money and providing huge value...that's jameslbarnes.com!

Contact us today for a free quote!