Web Design Company talks the future of Ecommerce

Web Design companies create virtual real estate for businesses to house their products and services.  Much like the real world housing developers, web design companies have evolved over the years.

As home owners demanded more than four walls and a bathroom, opting to invest in homes that not only improved  comfort  but demanding homes that are developed to accommodate the technology that people rely on to conduct their daily lives.

Smart homes like smart websites have become the new nuggets of gold in today’s rush to the top.

Technology spreads like wild fire; each day brings us the newest version of yesterday’s latest and greatest gadget.  It has almost lost its sex appeal and instead is an expected bump.  It seems that as soon as consumers dish out the cash to buy the new model or generation of a product then the next “better” items is on the shelves.  This statement is a fact and not meant to convince any reader of this product technology cycle.  The statement was made to give perspective to the reader so they can better understand the information that is coming next.

Business owners living in, and competing for customers and clients in the technology age often find themselves playing defense so many hours in the day that they run their business with a blatant lack of offense, leaving them leaps and bounds behind competitors and completely out of the loop of how their consumers and clients are using technology to make their buying decisions.

Not only are customers using technology in their spending choices, and that trend will only continue to increase and morph in ways that we can’t even imagine.  You won’t have to wait 20 years to see the new world of commerce change; it’s an ongoing daily change.

Step back even 10 years and imagine that someone explained to you the changes that you would see in desk top computers, phones, lap tops, iPads and the like.  Not only would you have not been able to wrap your mind around it, you would have probably waved them off and made a call to the Yellow Pages account rep to secure your top listing for the upcoming release.

If only we could take a trip to the future and see how technology is being used 10 years from now.  We could position ourselves and our businesses to take over our perspective markets.  But, alas, there is no time machine to show us where to target our efforts.  Instead we spend our days on a massive scavenger hunt, looking for the items on a list that will help us win the game.

So, what do you do?

If you want to compete and be successful in business today and the years to come you must dump all the preconceive notions you’ve been operating under and get in the game.

No?  You have no interest in changing the way you’ve done business? The slowdown in sales and revenue is just temporary?  Things will turn around and you’re willing to wait it out?  Okay.  We will remember you fondly, just like the mega companies that are no longer around.  Like you, they did not our could not find a way to exist in the new era.  I miss them.

As a website designer and developer, I come across a dozen business owners a week that are convinced that their websites are “really not important to my business”.  They say this, of course, because their current websites are not only completely lacking in the design and coding to bring them business but most of these owners sites are badly presented to both the visitors that may stumble across the site as well as the search engines that simply have been given no information that could be used to determine what type of search query that website should be showing up under.

Still these owners opt to sit and watch their P&L statements as the “L” slowly takes over the “P”.

Why does this seem to be the norm?  Fear, False Expectations, Anger, Frustration.

Fear
Fear that making a wrong choice could end it all.  Business owners provide jobs for their staff and most take this to heart.  What if I do this and it doesn’t work? How many more months could I have stayed open if I just hadn’t spent the money to get my business up to speed?

False Expectations

This is a valid point if a business owner really does need a flood of traffic to come through their doors (virtually or in real life) tomorrow.   To bring my point home on this frame of mind, I recently worked with a business owner that had been dabbling with creating a new website for over a year.  Stating that they figured they needed a site but not really ever gaining new business from the site they put up 7 years ago, they were not really eager to get it up and live.  We created the new site.  Trained and educated the owner about how keyword research worked and why certain articles needed to be titled in a certain way.  The client opted to change the wording, the Meta descriptions and article names, ignoring the black and white data that Google keywords tools was displaying.
Less than 24 hours after the launch of this new website ( a new domain name that had been parked for a year) my client called to express concern that he had done a Google search for multiple terms and that he had even gone all the way to page 8 in the results and his business just wasn’t showing up. 

This type of expectation is yet another reason that businesses steer clear of investing in technology.  There seems to be some confusion about the differences between having a website that is coded properly and optimized for the search engines, SEO and Marketing.

Those three areas are independent of each other.  Organic traffic is the ultimate goal however there is little difference in believing that just because you invested in an office or mall space, purchased the equipment and product and turned on your “now open” sign that you are done with your efforts and that customers across town or across the street somehow receive a divine message that make them get in their cars are drive to your business in flocks or that you did the same with your website.

Organic traffic takes time.  The search engines are busy crawling over 600 million websites in an attempt to understand and grade these sites before they decide a site should be one of the 10 choices that appear on page one of a search.  Did you catch that?  There are only TEN spots on page one.  There are 600 million websites.  You don’t get to cut to the front of the line that easy.  Your website being optimized is just the first step.  You have to convince your visitors as well as the search engines that you can be trusted and that you really know what you’re doing.  You customers just have too many options.  The burden of proof is on you.

If you’ve missed the trend in our education system then let me fill you in on how our children are learning about the world they live in.  More and more online choices are being offered to our children.  Just today on the news I saw that a local district here in Colorado will be offering online classes for all grades including 1st grade.

What could that possible mean to a business owner?  The answer is EVERYTHING! Your customers, clients and consumers are growing up using the technology provided to them.  They will use this technology in ways that us old school people will never get the hang of.  They will learn, communicate, socialize, explore and most of all consume products based on the information they get from technology.
The search engines are spending a boat of money and time to try to figure out what this new group of consumers wants and how they want it.  If your website and business model is not on top of this trend then you, like the dinosaurs will become extinct.

Adapt or perish.

Anger

Anger is a natural emotion, especially when you’ve been told you have to change how you conduct your business or you will not survive.  Take a minute, vent your anger, and scream to the clouds and then just move on.  This is not conjecture; this is the way it is.  Stagnant ponds will not support life. 

Frustration

Knowing that you have to change is not the same as knowing what direction to take first and how to gain the long term benefits from the changes you make.  This is where the frustration really sets in.  You can really start to appreciate the mindset of the “deer in the headlights”.  What to do? Where to turn? Who to trust?

Now that you’ve made your mind up to get back in the game you will find no shortage of others making a good living by selling the “how to” of eCommerce. 

Let’s slow down here.  The recipe for success in this era is not just about the ingredients list but also about measurements, the cost and quality of the ingredients you use and the all mighty judges in this highly competitive arena.

You could wind up in the fetal position in some corner if you try to comprehend all the ideas and concepts offered to get ranked.

My best advice for this is that you first understand that anyone that is selling “guaranteed results” or any other snake oil that will cure all your pains is lying.  Your money would be better spent as firewood.  It’s not that what they are selling doesn’t work or hasn’t worked for some and for a limited time, it’s that the rules of the game keep getting harder.

Not to bring up any sore spots but you can liken the ranking game to the sports world.  One year the consumption of cold medicine is not a violation, the next year a component of that medicine is on the banned list and your entire career could be in the trash if you have that medicine in your blood.

This is the same for what is “white hat” and what is “black hat” on the net.  One year everyone rushes out to beg borrow and steal back links, the next year Google says they will be taking away rank from sites that are associated with “Link farms”.   One year you’re told to get a domain that is an exact match for your keyword, the next year you find out that Google has taking rank from these sites.

The list goes on.  What does not change is the search for quality and authority.

Yes, you will need some salt, veggies, sauce and spices if you want to serve up the best stew but without the meat your stew will lack the taste and end results need to slap a blue ribbon on it from the judges.
The one constant in optimization is content. 

Content will bring you the visitors that want information about your product and services, Google recognizes this and will give you authority if your content is valid and original, other sites will link to you if you prove yourself to be a good source of information and education, you will get more traffic, your rank will increase, your organic traffic will increase and, if you’ve laid out your site correctly for ease of use, your sales will increase.

What a concept right?

If it’s just that easy, why doesn’t everyone do it? 

The quick answer is they don’t know where to start and they don’t have the knowledge or resources to be consistent in their efforts.

If any of what you just read hits home and you feel like it just might be time to get off the fence and really make the changes your business needs to be a dominate force online and in your bank account then call us right now.   You will not talk to a salesperson.  You will be given all the information you need to make an educated plan.  There is nothing to lose and the call and information is free.  Now, what is the reason to not pick up the phone?  Call 719 302-5029.  We have voice mail if you call while we are helping another business owner, leave your contact information and get a call back before the end of the business day.

Complete Web Solutions is a Web Solutions Company located in the United States.  Your business is our business.  Call or email today.