If you aren’t already a smart phone or tablet user, you might not have had a chance to view many mobile websites. And as a marketer and/or business owner, you might even be wondering what the big deal is. After all, aren’t they just miniature versions of your existing website? And do you really need one?

The answer to both questions, in most cases, is a resounding yes.

And the reason doesn’t have much to do with what’s special about mobile websites themselves – as cool as they are. It’s about the people who use them… namely, that there are a lot of them. At this very moment, nearly one hundred million men and women in North America regularly access the web via a mobile device. A number of leading industry analysts predict that within three years, more people will be going online through phones and other next-generation communication devices than traditional computers.

In other words, this isn’t a trend, it’s a wave. And like all huge waves in business and technology, it’s one that you shouldn’t let your company miss out on. If your company’s website isn’t already accessible via mobile devices, you can bet your already behind some of your competitors. Would you rather catch up, or find yourself asking what’s so special about mobile web design again when it’s too late?

Let us know if you would like to use our mobile web design services!

Surprise! we did not realize we share a birthday with Google though! I remember when Google launched, I was in fact making websites at that time but had not actually named the company and made it official.

If you launch a new small business website, and especially if you don’t choose the “private registration” option offered by your domain registrar, you will eventually get inundated with phone calls, e-mails, and even letters from a number of “SEO experts” offering their services for your search engine optimization efforts.

Unfortunately, most of these vendors don’t plan on doing much more than cashing your check and providing you with a lot of information you could have found by yourself, usually for free, and in a few minutes on the Internet. Their information is almost always “out of date” and some of their tactics may even hurt your site instead of enhancing it!

These firms rarely really do their homework regarding your business and it’s obvious when you start asking questions. We get these calls all the time since they believe MaryDesigns® is a hair salon, interior decorator, etc… Like I said, they don’t even do their homework! I almost always play along to see what they will tell me!

Since my attorney won’t let me put the transcript or recording of the conversations here for you, I’d like to offer a few items you can ponder before your next “SEO cold call.” Be on guard for any of these common warning signals that suggest you might be doing business with someone who isn’t reputable:

1. Getting calls that reference info and reports you never requested. Why don’t you just outright ask them where they got your contact information? Why do they have time to do work for a company that hasn’t even hired them?

2. “Marketers” who are vague about their company name, background, or stumble around with the question of how they found your information.

3. Telemarketers who don’t know what you do for a living. They’ve never been to your website. Isn’t it interesting that they don’t know what you do but they already know they can get you to rank on the first page? What for?

4. Fast talking salespeople who act like they want to do you a favor or are tossing around technical jargon meant to make you think they know what they are talking about.

5. The “guarantee” … they love throwing out that 100% guarantee about how they can organically rank you on Google!  Many will outright tell you that they have some sort of an arrangement with Google.  Google has a much different opinion about that!

6. Price tags under a few thousand dollars.  That $300 deal to be submitted to thousands of search engines is not anything close to what you want!

How about doing a quick search for “search engine optimization” in your citiy and see if that company is even in the first page SERP’s themselves! Check them out on the Better Business Bureau website…any complaints there?

Regardless of what these people may tell you, there aren’t any shortcuts to the top of search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing – so learn to spot the scams and stick with reputable web partners.

MaryDesigns has a background and expertise in  SEO consulting to make your web project a success.  We also have the time to research your business and offerings to thoroughly understand your positioning and then raise it.

The same applies to your business website.

There are a lot of design companies out there that are looking to make a quick buck off of your need for quality small business website. They have all kinds of samples that look fantastic, and relatively low-priced packages that draw people in. How are they staying profitable at those rates? Most of the time, by building websites that borrow coding from other designers or  because they are working from a template that is mass ordered and produced.

These sites might look similar to what you need at first, but it only takes a quick taste to tell the difference. That’s because, when you find a quality web designer who works in scratch, everything gets built up around your specific needs – you’re not taking a “one-size-fits-all” approach and hoping that it’s going to turn out to be something that works for you and your customers.

Building a website from scratch takes more work, and sometimes costs a little bit more. But if you’re serious about growing your business in the future, make the smart choice and go with a professional web designer who is willing to digitally bake you something fantastic.

These things happen, of course, but what made his particular case stand out in my mind was something he mentioned as part of his reasoning not to pursue the project: “Before too long, we won’t even need these websites, anyway… we’ll just use Facebook.”

With that in mind, I decided to take this issue – and the underlying question – head-on: Is Facebook making business websites obsolete?

As great and interesting as social media marketing is, I’m sorry to say that it isn’t going to replace your need for a high-quality business website any time soon. You certainly should be participating in, and trying to find new customers through, websites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, but don’t count on them to replace your other online marketing avenues just yet (or any time soon). Here are just a few of the quick reasons why:

Search engines are still much more important. Facebook already has about 500 million members, and many of them use the site every day. Contrast that, though, with the roughly 2 billion hits that Google gets every day, and you start to understand why 85% of all online purchases begin with the major search engines, and why you can’t afford to ignore them.

Facebook is still more social than commercial. Although it recently added more advertising and promotion features for businesses, the fact is that you’re still pretty limited in what you can do to find customers on Facebook. This is particularly true in terms of design, facilitating online transactions, and so on. In short, Facebook isn’t your website, just a different avenue for getting to know others in your personal and professional life.

People typically don’t shop for products or vendors on Facebook. The vast majority of people don’t go to Facebook – or the other social media sites – looking to buy something. They log in because they want to connect with friends and family. They might agree to be a friend or fan, but most would rather look at buying from you on your website, not in this space that they come to for enjoyment.

If you’re having trouble figuring out what you can and can’t accomplish on sites like Facebook, and how they fit into your overall online marketing plan, you aren’t alone. At MaryDesigns, we talk to business owners and marketing managers every day who need help in these areas. Why not contact a leading Indianapolis web design firm for a free consultation today?

So why are so many low end web designers trying to take the easy way out?

What I’m talking about, of course, is the (surprisingly common) practice of lifting text, images, and other materials directly from a website and putting it on your own. There are more so called “professionals” willing to attempt this than most people would think, but the real question isn’t how much material is being copied, but why it’s being copied in the first place.

The easy answer is that taking someone else’s work is faster and easier than doing your own! Like copying a test in school, it seems like a simpler way to get a good grade than putting in the long study hours would be. When you take a deeper look, however, you find that copying material from someone else’s website often costs you a lot more than it saves.

Here’s one good reason why: Google and the other major search engines highly value unique, interesting content. In other words, they’re looking for sites that offer a product, service, or viewpoint that’s somehow different than what people can get everywhere else. They do this because that’s what the humans who use their search engines want, too – few people are looking for the exact same thing they can get anywhere else. Google also knows the date of that original content!

So what happens when they find out that your content or layout isn’t original? Well, in the best cases they simply ignore it. But more often, they remove your whole site from search engines, ensuring that you’ll never be able to get much from your business’ web presence. Even worse, modern tools like CopyScape make it a virtual certainty that you will be caught, and quickly, leaving you open to lawsuits and fines. Sound like a road you want to go down?

There are really two lessons here, one for non ethical web designers, and the other for business web design clients.

For creative types: don’t steal other people’s work. It’s that simple. Just don’t do it, and you won’t have these kinds of problems. It shouldn’t need to even be said, but it’s an issue I run into at least a few times a year, and one that can easily result in legal action that will ruin your finances, reputation,and career!

For business owners and marketing managers: be careful about whom you do business with. If you see a proposal that looks too good to be true, find out why. If it turns out your design team is stealing from other web design companies, copywriters, photographers, etc., your company could find itself in a very tough position… regardless of what you did or didn’t know about the theft.

It can be tempting, when you see something great on someone else’s website, to try to borrow it or tweak it make it your own. If you want to stay in business, however, count on your own work and creativity to keep your company growing.

So what does any of this have to do with web design? I’m glad you asked…

My job, or at least a big part of it, centers around coming up with websites that are built to be as beautiful as they are functional. For my clients to succeed, they need something that’s part artistic masterpiece, part bottom line business tool. That can be enough of a challenge on its own, but it’s all the more difficult when a terrible logo is thrown into the mix.

Lots of new business owners out there who turn to their local copy shop or bargain bin discount software package to generate a visual identity for their company. Usually, it’s because they’re in a rush or working with a limited budget, and that’s certainly understandable. At a certain point, though, the business outgrows the eyesore, but it seems like too much time and trouble to replace it.

As with most bad design choices, however, it’s shortsighted. There’s a reason that entire books, seminars, and companies have been founded around the idea of a logo, and that big companies will spend six figures finding the right one: a good logo tells people exactly what your business is about in less than a second. It forms an instant impression of you, your products, and even your business culture – and does it all on such a fast, subliminal level that it’s hard to change that mental picture once the customer has seen it.

That thought should be enough to convince any business owner to change a poorly designed logo. If it isn’t, however, consider that your logo will often become a central element in every other marketing piece you produce – including your website, which might be seen by thousands of people each year. Do you really want your companies image to be constrained by an icon that came out of a $10 CD?

If you bought your logo out of the box, don’t fret. We were all young once and made impulsive decisions. That doesn’t mean that you have to be married to an ugly piece of corporate artwork forever, though. Talk to us about ways we can improve your company’s image with something better, because a mass-produced logo says to customers that your company isn’t ready for their business, and you might not ever get a chance to tell them otherwise.