What Is The Purpose Of Your Website?

Crete Buster

The first question to ask yourself when you get ready to invest in a website should be, "What is my purpose for this marketing activity?" It shouldn't be what is the fanciest, the cheapest, the easiest, the quickest fix etc.

Evaluate it just as you would a piece of equipment. What is best for your purpose and needs? Here are some possible answers:

* Image Building
* Lead Generation
* Relationship Building
* a combination of any of these and many others

I have a general contractor friend that I'm going to help create a website.

Most contractors get caught up in one of these two areas when looking to get a website.
1. The cheap or free diy site that comes with your yellowpages ad etc.(cheap isn't always economical)
2. The fancy looking flash site that an expensive web designer shows you. Without knowing your purpose a web designer may lead you in the wrong direction and some diy sites lead in no direction at all. The answer for most of lies somewhere in between.

Back to my friend. What's his story so we can determine what HE needs.

1. He gets almost all of his jobs working with a major university near his business. (he hasn't done any work more than 20-30 minutes from his office) Sometimes out of state contractors, who have already been made of aware of him by university, ask him for a web address so they can check him out.
2. He is not, at this point, really involved with residential work and it is not his desire now.

We established that SEO is not a priority for him because he is not looking for his site to generate leads. More and more out of town contractors have asked him for a web address, so image building is needed. He needs a bit of relationship building or trust building. He would like a website that gives him the flexibility to grow it and its purpose over time if he desires.

So we didn't decide to go with a website/hosting in a box because some of them look like you did it yourself and some have limited flexibility. He needs flexibility. (This isn't to say that there are not some out there that we didn't see) We needed a web 2.0 professional look, but no fancy graphics. A content management system (cms) was the best match and everything (domain, hosting, design) will be a few hundred bucks. Basically he just needed a professional "online business card."

No need for him to purchase seo packages, high end hosting packages with marketing etc. (Once again it this doesn't mean some of you may not need it.) I'm not even saying that it may not benefit him. But that is not his goal/purpose. Probably the same way you buy equipment, not always the cheapest or most expensive. (Unless your specific need justifies it)


There are lots of great posts on this forum from guys that understand all the different topics of web development, you just need to find the ones relevant to you.

P.S. Most members of CT that wants to use a website to generate traffic, can dominate our organic listings in our area through the tips on this website.(I say most because a big market like NYC may be a little tougher) Now I personally didn't have the time or patience on our last site to do it myself so I hired someone. But I had threads printed off from this site that were used as topics of discussion with the web designers I talked to. I now can do them myself.

I leave you with this - the challenge just begins once you get traffic. Are you converting the traffic into leads is the question?

**I AM NOT A GURU, NOR AM I CLAIMING TO BE. I JUST HAD AN EXPERIENCE HAPPEN IN MY LIFE THAT I THOUGHT MAY BE HELPFUL TO SOMEONE. THE CONTENT OF THE POST ISN'T AS IMPORTANT AS SOMEONE JUST MAKING SURE THEY ASK THAT QUESTION BECAUSE MOST DESIGNER WON'T ASK YOU THAT SPECIFICALLY. IF THEY DO ASK AND YOU ARE NOT SURE MOST OF THEM DON'T KNOW YOUR BUSINESS ENOUGH TO GUIDE YOU PROPERLY.**

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Confined Space & Fume Free Specialists www.cretebusters.com
Electric Powered Mini Excavators, Demolition & Material Hauling Equipment http://mini-equipment.com
Concrete Buggies, Power Buggies & Georgia Buggies Beware

mickeyco

A place to show off my monkey animations, I have several.







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Some people climb mountains. I take out the trash. But we both do it for the same reason.

DetailHandyman

Sometimes just having a website is enough to differentiate you.

That may apply only to the business segment that I am in.

Many people have told me that the reason they called me rather than someone else is because I was the only one with a website. The site made me more professional in their eyes. They didn't really care about the content.

FWIW.




Any monkeys flinging poo?

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The cat box ain't gonna clean itself.

tinner666

* Image Building
* Lead Generation
* Relationship Building
* Client Education
* Informational purposes
* a combination of any of these and many others

And like Tile Lady said, it's simple to navigate, easy to load, and clients away from dsl can view it too.

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Frank Slate Roof Repairs, Richmond, Va.

Crete Buster

@DetailHandyman - That's great. One of the main purposes of your site is imaging building. If they say the reason they chose you is because you have a website, it sounds like they may have heard about you from places other than just a google search. So the fact that you have a "online business card" was all you needed. Evaluating you competition, if any is a great point to realize as well. You don't need the best seo, design, strategies etc. if no one else in your area, that does your type of work, has any online presents at all.

My contractor buddy is found by other contractors through Blue Book or as a reference from the university of other contractors that have performed work there etc. If he had an interest in residential work right now then SEO would be a big purpose to help generate traffic because residents often don't have a Blue Book or list of past university contractors to go from. They google etc. Well, I guess they do have Angieslist, which is popular is some parts of the country.

__________________
Confined Space & Fume Free Specialists www.cretebusters.com
Electric Powered Mini Excavators, Demolition & Material Hauling Equipment http://mini-equipment.com
Concrete Buggies, Power Buggies & Georgia Buggies Beware