Why should I outsource my Web Site Development? - 2/18/2005
Web Site Development is something that has become increasingly simple. So why would anyone, especially a small to mid-sized business with limited resources, outsource their web site development? One very big reason: Search Engine Optimization knowledge.
Many small to mid-sized businesses believe that creating an online presence is a fairly simple process. How hard can it be? Just create a few pages of text, have a graphics artist come up with a great design, publish your pages, maybe add an online store, and submit your site to a few search engines.
While this process may seem to work, and existing customers will be able to find your information online, these kinds of sites are grossly underperforming. Eventually, these sites will be indexed by the major search engines, and will show up in the top 10 results if you happen to type in the company name. So, customers that already know you can now find you online, but nobody else can. And if you’re trying to grow your business, this is a big problem.
What’s missing here is Search Engine Optimization expertise. Hiring a web site development firm that has Search Engine Optimization experts would change this scenario greatly.
Many sites, especially those created by automated publishing tools such as Microsoft FrontPage, prevent much of the content on the website from ever being found by search engines. The three most common reasons for sites not being fully indexed are poor internal linking, improper usage of dynamically created pages (pages running off of a database), and overuse of graphics.
Links between pages are the only way that search engines are able to crawl into the deepest parts of a website. Automated tools for website creation often produce navigation that works for humans, but not for search engine spiders.
Similarly, when pages of a website are dynamically created from a database (for example, a database of all products for sale), most of this information is never reached by a search engine. Think about that for a second. The most important information for an online store, their products, are not being indexed by search engines. SEO experts have many workarounds to this, and can insure that all of that valuable information that is tucked away in your database actually gets found by search engines.
In addition, the structure of the pages (amount of images, flash animations) often hampers search engine spiders from indexing pages. If a page takes too long to load, a search engine will simply give up on it. If search engines can’t see your content, then hardly any new customers will see it either. SEO experts will be able to strike a balance between graphically stunning images and the actual profitability of a website. In most cases, cutting a few images from a site does little to change how a user feels about a site, but often leads to better search engine coverage.
Even if search engine spiders are able to find and index all of the content on these types of sites, the content on the pages themselves can prevent them from ever being found. While off-page factors such as PageRank account for some of the weight in many search engine ranking algorithms, the structure and content of the pages still effect how well placed a page is in SERPs. Web Site Development firms with SEO experts will work closely with their clients to keep the message of the website very targeted. Often, just a few intelligent edits to web page copy that is specifically targeted at potential customers can boost SERP placement without sacrificing the message to customers.
While it is certainly easy to get a website up and running, that is precisely the reason why it is so difficult to reach your prospective clients. Choosing to outsource the development of a new website will easily pay for itself in the long run, if not the immediate short-run. Competition is fierce on the web for potential clients, and the help of a development firm with SEO experts can differentiate you from the masses.
|
|
|
About the Author: Netensify is an extremely effective internet marketing firm that works tirelessly to increase market share and profits for it's clients. Unlike most marketing firms, Netensify's staff have in-depth knowledge of all of the technical aspects of search engines, web site development, and marketing technologies, allowing them to deliver outstanding results.
<< All Articles