Who is your Web Design Auckland Recommendation?

You asked the people who provide direction for the company that you own and manage.



The first director had a graphics company do their website. She was effusive in her praise.

"It was a beautiful work of art. Stunning.

"The design was innovative and eye catching. The style was vibrant and professional.

"When people see their little five page brochure site they go wow!

She is still dining out on the beauty of their website.

The second director had their second site also built by a graphic design company.

"It had over 32 pages and had all the latest graphic design bells and whistles.

"I think they're called Flash. Or something," she offered.

"It looked fantastic and did things that a "regular" site can't. Like things that fade in and out. Or move across the page from side to side or top to bottom.

"The only problem is that it was really involved to update things.

The third director had a web development company do their website. It was their second website.

They needed to be able to sell stuff so they had an online store created.

"Their web design company built a big database that did all these amazing things. Automatically.

"The site wasn't that much to look at. (They spent so much on development there were no design dollars left)

"But it was easy for customers to buy from them. And they didn't complain about the look.

The fourth director had a search engine marketing company develop their website. This was their first.

The SEM company has been working with them for over three months now.

They are focusing on learning about the online market that their client business is in.

They are doing that by testing offers with paid advertising (called Adwords and Pay Per Click).

When their customers answer the ad, their contact details are collected before they are sent to the temporary offer page.

If the customer buys they know they have discovered a buying keyword.

When the SEM company have discovered several buying keywords they then build the site around those.

They haven't built the first page of their website yet.

The fifth director was onto his third site which was being developed by an Online Business Adviser.

The OBA company helped them develop their unique selling proposition then provided a complete keyword description of their vertical market.

This description reflected keywords their customers were using at each stage of the buying cycle across all stages from initial enquiry to repeat purchaser.

They also produced a search engine driven website keyword blueprint (of over 100 pages) to be implemented by web design, development and marketing talent.

As well as a network blueprint to ensure that their website could be continuously promoted by a network of blogs and social marketing sites over several months.

They deliberately aimed to own their online market over time with their website and their network.

Wow!

After all these descriptions, your head was spinning.

All these options.

All seemed to be talking about web design.

Question was:What definition of web design was best for you?

There's a couple of things you already know as a small business owner.

The first is that you have neither the time nor desire to do a Design night class, seminar, course, certificate, diploma or degree.

The second is because you provide services and products to your customers, you are already a designer.

You design solutions for your customers problems.

That you either create yourself. Or source from other suppliers.

As long as you solve your customers problems, they don't care where the design came from.

A design is simply a solution to a problem. Their problem.

What you are looking for are online solutions to your business problems.

(If you don't have business problems, why do you need the web? And web design, right?)

Graphic Design is traditionally responsible for visually branding your business: from your business cards and stationery, all the way through to your print and television advertising.

Traditionally, a graphic design job ends when your printed material has been delivered to you by the printer.

It is not their job to distribute your graphic material to your customers and market.

They leave that to you.

It's not their job to test their material.

They leave that to you.

Their job is to give you a look according to your brief.

They leave everything else to you.

This is not right nor wrong. Good or bad. Just how it is.

And what made that work for them and you was this:

There was no offline Google that they had to work with.

They worked just for you.

And when graphic design people do web design they change hats. But they act exactly the same.

They act as if there is no Google.

They act as if it is just you and them on the net.

As if there is no Google.

They act as if online is exactly the same as offline.

They act as if they are NOT totally different environments.

And the biggest difference is Google.

And they are blinded to what that means for you.

So how does the blind lead the blind you might ask?

If Graphic Designers are the web equivalent of interior decorators of house construction, web developers are the equivalent of electricians, plumbers and engineers.



Web developers are geniuses at making sure things work under the hood of your web site.

Web developers may talk about creativity but they're more likely to talk about connectivity, iterations, switches and all that other stuff.

Web developers live in the world of code and computer languages and obsess about things in symbolic terms not understood by person in the street.

Web developers are a completely different breed from graphic design people. They are as similar to each other as interior decorators and plumbers.

A web site created by a web developer will be quite different from one created by a graphic web design shop.

Their focus is on connecting things and making them work together. Cosmetics is not important.

Code is what's important to them. And having pages described by computer efficient numbers than customer friendly, descriptive names works better for them.

So much for their differences. What of their similarities?

Web developers often create large websites driven by databases. Their focus is on making the database work with your web display. Their focus is within your site. And ensuring the "plumbing" of the site ticks over.

This internal focus prevents them from looking externally to your market.>

And from factoring in that entity that mediates between you and the market: Google.

Unlike web design and web development people, search engine marketing people place search engine awareness---especially Google awareness---at the heart of their service.

Google Adwords is the best known service.

Google Adwords is also called Sponsored Links. You see them on the right hand side of a Google Search page and above the results on the left.



How does a sponsored link work?

Like an advertisement. Except when someone clicks on your ad, you play Google so much for that click, hence the term, pay per click.

Why do you use sponsored links?

Because your web page does not appear on page one of the Google search results, let alone in the top 3 results. So you pay Google to make your page visible to the visitor.

After they click on your advertisement, the visitor is sent to your landing page. Here you provide the visitor with compelling content and a call to action. This may be to download a free report or sign up for special report or click on a link for more information or click on a buy now button.

Through Google you can trace every action your visitor takes (or doesn't take) and your SEM consultant learns which search terms or keywords your customer is using to buy your offering. Is that information valuable to you?

At this stage your website might be no more than one or two pages with a few bullet points of information on each and a small product image on one of them. When things are working well you won't be bragging about the aesthetics of the page. But you may be celebrating the sales that your vanilla looking pages achieve.

In some circumstances, this may be your complete web strategy.

Assuming an ability to lead your market, you'd be using your pay per click strategy to discover your customers buying keywords that you can build an organically successful website around. When that's achieved you won't be paying for your clicks anymore as you will have the top search position for that term.

And visitors will click on your organic position more readily than on your paid position.

The advantage of this approach is that you are getting immediate feedback from your customer. You don't have to wait for a website to be built. Just a three line advertisement leading to a landing page is all you need to test an offer with your market.

A possible problem with this approach is that there is little room for educating visitors who are a step or more away from becoming paying customers.

In other words, this approach addresses only those at the buying end of the sales cycle and not those at all the previous stages. It's a sales sytem. Not a marketing one. Despite calling itself search engine marketing.

Your online business adviser is firstly a business centered person who focuses on the fundamentals of business.



Cash in. Cash out. No customer. No offer. No sale. No business.

Find out what the customer wants. How they want it. When and where they want it. And sell it to them.

Your business adviser is focused on your business.

Your market. Your customer. Your offer. Your business uniqueness. Your sales system. Your business systems. Your values. Your motivation.

Your business adviser focuses on finding more sales and more customers to grow your business. Ecologically. Ethically.

Your business adviser evaluates offline and online opportunities from one viewpoint: will this opportunity grow your business in measurable, manageable, ethical, ecological ways?

Your business adviser communicates the opportunities that the web offers your business to you. In your own language. From your viewpoint as a business owner. In plain English.

Your business adviser can help you through the internet maze.

And translate business goals across the many technical, creative, marketing and sales skill sets that research, scope, specify and implement your web strategy.

Like your senior manager of web strategy.

Your Online Business Adviser starts from your unique selling proposition which says why customers will buy from you and not your competitors.

The next stage is researching your online markets.

Your online markets may be the same as or different to your offline markets. Your online competition may be the same as or different to your offline competition. Your offline customer may behave quite differently online. Your online market may be bigger or smaller than your offline one.

All your offline business assumptions are checked against online research.

Out of this comes a search engine verified, keyword rich description of your market which describes to you in great detail how your customers are looking for you, how they find you and what keywords they are using at each stage of their search.

These keywords are semantically ordered into web site blueprint around which your organic website can be built.

This blueprint makes it easy for Google to recognise your site as an authoritatively organised one. Relevance? Web pages from authoritative websites appear on the front page of Google for their target keyword.

As in the offline world, having a good location for your shop is part of the solution. You still have to promote and advertise your shop to the market and your customers to make the most of your location.

Similarly online.

Remember how Google can see everything going on under the bonnet online?

If Google sees your front page websites not being promoted, that's taken as a sign of disinterest and your web page is demoted. If it continues your page could slip off the front page altogether. Which, online, is another way to say oblivion.

Conversely, what do you think Google thinks if your sites are being consistently and continuously promoted? They think the opposite and entrench your position making it hard for competitors to dislodge you.

That's why the Online Business Adviser also creates a network blueprint . So that your network of blogs and social marketing sites can promote your website with the right keywords to create the right links.

Mark Joyner, Internet Marketing guru, defines strategy as the ability to see the battlefield. No matter what.

With this knowledge you know when and how to---strategically advance, wait or retreat so you can---hit your targets.

Your Online Business Adviser helps you see your targets clearly, helps you focus your business attention and energy on your targets and helps you select the right troops at the right time to hit your success targets.

They are your market analysts, keyword blueprinters, search engine optimisers, search engine marketers, web content writers, web developers and web designers.

Then your online business adviser arranges and orchestrates them .

So that your web design solves your business problems. In your online markets. Within your resources. Within your timelines. Within your values. Within your purpose.

Your OBANZ Online Business Adviser will do this grunt work for you.

Your Online Business Adviser will show you how the web benefits your business. And how your business benefits the web.

He has been through all the stages of your small business. In several different markets.



His "in the trenches" CEO experience and "street smarts" directorship experience ensures he's on your wavelength.

The state of the art, online keyword research tools and expertise he has inside access to, ensures your business is on the same wavelength as your customers who google you.

The industrial strength, next generation, online market research tools and systems he employs for you, ensures your business is on the same wavelength as Google who effectively defines how the web works.

Guiding you through the internet maze to profit is the sole purpose of your online business adviser.

Bringing together the online skills you need to make your strategy successful is what you can't do. It's what your online business adviser can do for you.

Your OBANZ consultant is available only through referral by qualified Web Design Services.

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The legendary team at Phil O"Reilly Design will deliver your website that will look amazing and wow your customer. They will also work with your Web Design Auckland Recommendation partner to help your web site rank in Google. And make it easy for your customers to find your small business Auckland.