Web Site Design and Marketing have both come a long way since the early nineties when it was easier to be found as the number of web sites numbered in the millions, unlike the billions of today, many of which are now personal web logs (or BLOGS).   Large companies didn’t seem to feel quite the same enthusiasm in those days whereas the SME market sector grasped the business concept far quicker.

Today, marketing your web site has become much more sophisticated and things have changed considerably, it can take longer and requires a little more effort to get noticed.  Large companies have now embraced the Internet but it seems more to promote their products and services.  Small business growth however, seems to have slowed down,  which is strange when you consider that Christmas 2004 saw the largest growth yet in Internet based sales, up by 42% on 2003 to £4 billion (IMRG).

So why are 48% of small businesses in Wales still without a web presence?  Could it be that they just can’t see the benefit to their business? This is a peculiar reaction when more people are now using the web to search for products and services than any other method (Bibby Financial Services)!

If recent experience is anything to go by then it’s because many web sites are hard to find or not listed by the major search engines.  Countless times of late I‘ve carried out a web site ‘health check’ only to find broken links, missing images etc. and search engines that aren’t ranking them!  Either they haven’t been submitted correctly, optimised or they just haven’t been updated.

Maintaining and Marketing your web site on a regular basis is essential.   After all, you service your car don’t you!

In some respects this is one of the biggest growth areas, using the web not just to promote your companies services or goods but using it to distribute marketing material to people who might not necessarily come into contact with you.

By creating e-brochures which can be downloaded in a portable document file format (‘pdf’), a prospective customer can see a professional product or service catalogue without any of the normal delays, anywhere in the world.

This type of marketing can be just as easily carried out via an email campaign.  This is especially helpful when sending out up to date brochures etc. to a large number of customers or prospects!

All this without the associated printing/delivery costs,  no wasted or unused company literature. And this is just the ‘tip of the iceberg’ as changing your marketing material this way takes a fraction of the time of traditional methods.

Web site design is a complex mixture of what the customer and visitor want to see and what is going to work, successfully!