If done right, upgrading Web content complements business strategy
01/23/2004
Source: Boulder County Business Report
Author: Caron Schwartz Ellis

The old adage "those who can, do, those who can't, teach" has evolved into "those who can't, build Web sites."

Many in the "those who can't" camp are business owners who build a Web site in-house and wait for hits.

Unfortunately, the "build it and they will come" strategy usually doesn't work.

Web-editing software has become easy and inexpensive enough for just about anyone to put together a pretty good basic Web site. But you might want to consult a pro when it comes to making sure your Web site enhances your business strategy.

According to Laurie Webb-DesJardins, president and founder of Lafayette-based Webb Consulting Inc., there are two main things to keep in mind when designing a Web site -- your audience and what it needs from your Web site. Once those factors are determined "the most important thing is keeping content current and updated," Webb-DesJardins said.

At least once a year the entire Web site should be redesigned, she said. "You need to make sure it is still meeting their needs and getting out there to their audience."

When it comes to deciding whether to update a Web site it's not a matter of time so much as a matter of what's changed since the most current design, said M. Teri Robnett of Whole Brain Technologies LLC, a Web-development and marketing firm in Boulder. The four factors to examine, according to Robnett are: the latest technology, your business, your customers' expectations and the goals of your marketing. "Like many other things, the Internet has trends," she said. "Your Web site can look dated if it's stuck on the last trend."

For example, Robnett said, when animated gifs appeared in the mid-1990s everyone used them. But today, when Flash is "in" and little animated creatures that jump around are "out," if your Web site has animated gifs it looks like your company is "outdated," Robnett said.

Robnett has been working with a Greeley credit union for four years and has updated its Web site as its business strategy changed. All Agland Federal Credit Union needed at first was "a real low-budget Web site," she said. "It was an ugly Web site, but at least they had a Web presence. You could look up products, rates, current promotions, the newsletter."

But when the company changed its membership base from farmers to the entire Weld County community, it changed its name to Weld Community Federal Union and came to Robnett for a new logo, new identity and new structure of the Web site. "It's much more eye appealing, and they are adding different services including calculators," she said. The credit union doesn't have online banking, but Robnett designed the site so it easily can add that function, she said.

The cost of Web design varies by provider, but most designers have an hourly rate they aim for when writing a job proposal, said Carlos Espinosa, owner of RomanDesign, a Boulder-based Web-design firm.

Espinosa likes to work with people based on a realistic budget. "People want the moon, and I explain the impracticality of shooting for the moon," he said. "It will never fit in their budget."
Espinosa charges a fixed rate of $85 per hour, which he works into his proposals by showing "where everything is going to go and an idea of how many hours go into each part of developing a Web site."

But he also takes into consideration the financial status of the client. "If they are a larger technical company I charge them the value of my work, whereas if it's someone starting out I alter my prices to accommodate that," he said. "I wouldn't charge less an hour, but I wouldn't charge for all my hours."

Espinosa offers these ballpark figures for Web development:

" A small business will pay between $5,000 and $6,000 for a site that "has them smiling and that they send people to."

" A site that includes forms or is "heavy on the Flash" will cost between $6,000 and $10,000.
" Adding a shopping cart "with all the bells and whistles" will run about $15,000 plus merchant account fees.

" A minor update will cost about $1,500.

Dean Rizzuto, president of Boulder-based Internet strategy firm NewGuard LLC, typically performs a Web audit about every six months for clients. But a number of his longtime clients recently have determined, on their own, that their Web sites aren't living up to their potential.
"These companies came to us and said, 'We have a good Web site. People are coming to it, but we really want to understand how to make this part of our business -- to calculate the return on investment so we can meet our customers' needs. We want to be more innovative and use it as a business tool instead of a brochure,'" Rizzuto said.

The Cable Center, located in Denver on the campus of the University of Denver, is a storehouse of information about the cable TV industry including a museum, library and training facility. The Cable Center, a New Guard client for the past three years, wanted to be more interactive. "It's a media-based industry," Rizzuto said. "They want interactivity but not for interactivity's sake."
Rizzuto helped the Cable Center develop a Web strategy around its visitors. He asked, "Who are these people, and what do we want them to do when they come to the Web site?" The answers lead to creating a personalized online newsletter, a signup form for cable-related events and a shopping cart. Now visitors can interact with the Cable Center, get the information they want and purchase items available only online including cable TV pioneer Bill Daniels' "Cable Television Today."

MX Logic Inc. is a Denver-based e-mail security solution provider that's entire raison d'etre is based on the Internet. Having an up-to-date Web site is critical to its business strategy, said Vice President of Marketing Belinda Bauer.

The company Web site underwent a major overhaul about two months ago and now updates content on a daily, and sometimes an hourly, basis.

"The key reason to upgrade was the demand for real-time information especially when it comes to spam and viruses," Bauer said. "We needed to provide the information and tools that customers and prospects were looking for." Those tools include threat levels for spam and viruses, a continuously updated news and events page, white papers and more.

One of Bauer's favorite tools is a Spam Cost Calculator where visitors can figure out how much spam is costing them in terms of lost salary and productivity. Although Bauer called in the professionals -- Denver-based Guiceworks -- for the site makeover, she and her staff use a Web-based tool -- Macromedia's Contribute -- to make most updates internally.

Although it's difficult to quantify the return on investment MX Logic gets from its Web site, Bauer said a lot of leads are generated from its Web site because people can contact the company using a Web-based form, a phone or fax.

Bauer said customer retention also is driven by the site including invitations to events and Webinars.

It's also cost-effective: MX Logic allocates 4 percent of its marketing budget to Web site efforts.

For George Karakehian, owner of Boulder-based antique maps and prints shop Art Source International Inc., the Web has become critical to doing business.

About 20 percent of the store's business is done online, and much of that is international, Karakehian said. "We ship outside the U.S. four or five times a week, and those are sales we never would have had."

Although the Web site has had the same look and feel since it went online five years ago, it's been expanded with more items and new functionality, Karakehian said.

The Web database contains Karakehian's entire inventory of almost 20,000 items so visitors can search and shop online. The same database is used is the store for point-of-sale inventory control so there isn't a lag between what's really in inventory and what can be found online.
Two full-time employees built and maintain the Web site in-house. "It's not inexpensive, but it's a long-term investment," Karakehian said.

New features include two Web cams -- one facing the Pearl Street Mall and the other inside the shop. The Mall cam is "just for fun" Karakehian said, but the in-store cam is a business tool. "We do a lot of custom framing, and we will actually do a mock-up of a frame job, take a picture and then e-mail it to the customer. We're doing more framing than we've ever done before."

Best and worst Web practices
Best Worst

Content
Know your audience Not enough content
Avoid long pages Avoid ROT (redundant, outdated, trivial content)
Use correct spelling, grammar Long paragraphs
Define acronyms Showing pages "under construction"

Navigation
Use explicit addressing Unclear, over complex navigation
Check links regularly Repeat links
Always provide a link to home page Dead-end pages

Background and text
Select the correct background Text hard to read because of color background
Use cross-platform compatible fonts Text is too small to read
Do not over use text formatting Text that stretches all the way across the page

Design
Use a consistent look and feel Pages that are OK in one browser but not another
Do not cram your page Frame that makes you scroll sideways

Courtesy: Webb Consulting Inc.