“If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys,” James Goldsmith, the late billionaire, once said. This approach remains more true than ever for online services like SEO and website design. Too often, people assume that they can get great web design for less by hiring someone from the local college or from Craigslist ads, rather than from established and experienced digital advertising agencies.
The reality, though, is that this peanuts approach is dated, and will hurt websites that are trying to operate successfully in the competitive online space of 2014. Investing in bad SEO, for example, will prevent a large number of people from ever viewing your site. But if they do get there? Bad online web design may either drive them away immediately, or prevent them from feeling comfortable enough to make a purchase from you. Here are several facts you should keep in mind regarding the digital advertising agencies you choose to hire for your website.
Bad SEO Can Do More Than Just Keep Your Rank From Rising
Why not try investing in cheap link buying plans, just to see if they work? Before putting down $50 for 100 links, think hard about what Matt Cutts, Google’s head of webspam, has said regarding these practices. “People need to realize that, as we build up new tools, paid links becomes a higher risk endeavor. We’ve said it for years, but we’re starting to enforce it more,” he’s said.
This past year, several high-profile websites such as Rap Genius saw their website completely removed from search results, owing to illicit link schemes. Is it worth the risk when 35% or more of your business likely comes from organic search results? You be the judge. But we would recommend that you hire an SEO company with a great reputation, and years of experience, that will help get your site’s links associated with quality content, not link spam.
Great Design Has to be an Appealing Front Door
Talk to enough small business owners, and you’ll hear that many of them want to work with marketing companies, but not with website design agencies. This is a backward approach — it’s inviting people to a business with a “closed” sign in the window. Even if the door is technically open, most people will turn away. Did you know that 70% of customers will leave a website if they think the business is indifferent to them? A great website intrigues a consumer, makes them feel that their information is safe, and makes them feel like their time and loyalty is valued.
Do you plan on hiring digital advertising agencies for your website?
