We all want work but had a chuckle to myself when our client forwarded this exchange between them and another website design company that happened during a redesign website project.
[Website Designers] We was just looking over your website and noticed that it doesn’t seem to have been updated recently. Is it still active? If so I’m keen to work with you to build the business and I wondered if I could put some information in the post to you.
[Possible website client] Hi we would be interested to hear what you can offer, please be as detailed as possible in what you can do for us
[Website Designers] Thanks for your response to my enquiry. I came across your site by accident and whilst it is great that you have a site I could see substantial opportunities to help get your message to your potential clients. Particular areas where we could help you would include:
1, More modern design – Your site must look appealing to your target market so we’ll start by discussing with you whom the site needs to appeal to and then I’ll get the creative guys (graphic designers) to create a fantastic looking new web design for you.
2, Initial population of the site – When you are happy with the design we’ll build it and help you to populate it with sufficient content ready for launch so that the new site can go online as soon as possible and start working for you. No long delays waiting for the launch!
3, Content Management System – ALL of our websites include a Content Management System (CMS) enabling you to update the content on the site whenever you wish at no extra cost. The CMS is intuitive (we’ll train you how to use it) and is simple to use for anyone who can, for instance, set up, layout and amend styles in a “Word” document. We can give you a demonstration before you part with any money to ensure you are happy that you will be able to operate it. On the other hand, if you want to leave all of the site management to us we can do that too.
4, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) – Basic SEO comes as standard with the site i.e. as part of the CMS you can enter appropriate descriptions, titles etc for each page. It is important too to ensure that “key” words, the words your target market would type into a search query, are included in the text on each page. This is simple to do via the CMS and we’ll give you some advice on how best to do this as part of the training.
4, Unlimited pages – You can have as many pages as you wish and with access to the CMS you can keep your target market engaged at all times. And you can add as many images as you like, for instance include a “gallery” of dives etc. Showing your clients on your website is a fantastic way to keep them coming back.
5, Newsletters – With a newsletter linked to your website you could contact your customer base and keep them up to date with special offers, promotions, news and views. It’s a really good way to keep in touch. Two newsletter examples from other clients can be seen in our portfolio, both use exactly the same CMS so you can see just how flexible it is!
Your new site will look great, get built and be online with the minimum of fuss and we’ll continue to work with you whenever you wish to help you to get the most out of your site. A professional site will help you to stand out from the competition! If you would like to meet up please let me know. We could perhaps also discuss the other websites you have.
[Website Designers] Re: Design – The long centred text on the Home page is a little dated and some of the layout is slightly out of alignment (e.g. the “Offering the full range…” graphic at the top is slightly out of kilter). There is often no right or wrong in design but I would just say that the design, whilst not bad, lacks the finesse of a graphic designer.
Re: Populating – When creating sites for clients I always work with them to make sure that the site gets content onto all of the pages to be available on line (i.e. populating the site). There are a lot of links on your site which end up on the same page. This would be annoying for someone using the site expecting to find information and you’ll probably lose them as a client if they just get the same page every time. It would be better to un-publish the blank pages until you have some content on there.
Re: CMS – Basically, without a CMS how do you intend to get the pages that are currently incomplete to be updated? Presumably you need to contact the web design company in order to make any changes. How about special offers and promotions, new courses, new dive centres. Any changes you make to the business should be part of a dynamic website and with a CMS you can do that very easily. Without it you need to contact the web design company whereas in the same amount of time it takes to ask them you could update the site yourself, for free!
Re: SEO – Search engines like to see websites that are constantly updated. Access to the CMS will help you to do that. In addition, the CMS gives you an easy way to update the “Meta data” which you would otherwise have to code into the html yourself.
Although you say that the site is “Modern and fresh” I note that on the home page it also says you are redesigning the website, have you someone already doing this work?
I certainly don’t mean to be overly critical but I know that a new, well design and executed site would benefit the business. If you would like to see some of our work please have a look at the portfolio (the images are clickable). And if you type into google “designer jewellery” you will find one of our clients in position 8 on page one which I achieved last month by simply using the CMS and targeting the right key words (they previously ranked nowhere for that term) and without any extended SEO campaign.
