Going into January 2009, I wasn’t 100% sure what to expect.  January is always a web design company’s busy season as companies and retailers have Christmas revenues and are ready to go with all those projects they had been putting off the last 3 months. From everything I’ve seen, business is definitely increasing.  Freelance sites are busier than this time last year, as well industry chat boards and forums are filled with questions.

Businesses should be spending more money on Internet Marketing, which could include SEO, pay per click and online advertising.

Why you ask? The simple answer would be online marketing is much cheaper than traditional print and media marketing and yields far greater exposure.  Instead of paying $2000 for a small newspaper ad or $5000 for a city wide mailer, businesses should opt to spend that money on internet marketing and reach people in the search engines and through online advertising.

A good SEO campaign for 1 year with an ethically priced company would cost less than that one newspaper ad.  How much more exposure would 15 to 30 well ranking keywords in Google yield in a year over one ad in a local newspaper, or one mailer?   Yes, the newspaper or mailer would be seen by far more people but how many of those at that exact moment are interested in what you are offering.  SEO on the other hand, puts your website in front of those looking for exactly what you have to offer.  That is by far the most powerful way any small to medium business can spend their marketing budget in tough economic times.

If you don’t have an SEO company or an internet marketing company, than keep reading below as we’ll give you vital tips on what to look for in a good SEO company.

Over the past 5 years web design has  certainly evolved.  Website owners and business owners have learned the value their website has and the importance to appeal and hold visitors to them.

First it was important to have a modern and current looking site.  Then as attention spans shortened it was important to have a modern, current looking site that also visually communicated your company’s or website’s services or products.  Then it was important to have animation, movement and life to your site.

Now website owners are actually having to revamp and redesign their sites every 2 years to stay current. With all this website design trends have started to show up in the last 3 to 4 years.  3 years ago it was all the rage to have a black and grey site. Soon that trend died off and beiges with pastel pinks and blues became very popular.  Now glassy web 2.0 looks with bright neon greens and oranges are popular.

Like clothing, website fashion trends only last for so long and if you are interested in staying on top of the trendy styles you also have to be willing to accept that in a year or 2 it’s going to look outdated and you’ll have to redesign the site.  Do you have the time and capital to invest a thousand or so dollars into your site every few years.

The other option is the little black dress that since the 1900’s has never gone out of style.  Choose elegent, professional colours and styles and your site could be good for 4 to 5 years instead and even then may only need to update some photos, graphics or add in some flash animation or a video.

You don’t need to be on the cutting edge of every trend and every new design feature, but having a professional site that is current is invaluable.  It builds trust with the visitor and shows them you value your business as you invest in a good website.  84% of consumers won’t shop from a store that doesn’t have a website, 72% of consumers also won’t buy from a shop that has a poor website.  A poor website included an outdated look, broken links, broken buttons, missing pages or generally an ugly site.

So what is the best strategy for your site, the little black dress or the latest in fashion trends right of the runway from Paris?

So many people who come to us for website designs are so focused on the overall design, the navigation and that it looks professional, so much so that they overlook their content.   Now don’t get me wrong, a professional, modern looking website is very important - for the first 10 seconds… to build consumer confidence and to visually demonstrate what your site has to offer, once on the site they stay for the content.

This is where so many ecommerce sites now fail.  Not only do a lot of ecommerce sites to fail to provide reasonable information about each product but they have horrible pictures.  Horrible in the sense that they don’t look professional, or they don’t match in size throughout the site, or they are blurred, or they are small, you get the picture (no pun intended).  Horrible in the sense that they cost these websites sales!

The picture is likely the biggest selling factor of any ecommerce store.  People want to know what they are getting and expect and accurate depiction of the product.   Shopping online has it’s limitations as most people like to feel and touch a product before they buy it in a brick and mortar store, however you can’t do this online so they expect very good photos.  They expect photos that are clear, show the whole product and the exact product they will be getting and if available in more than one colour, they expect to see all the colours. 

So many ecommerce store owners either rely on their suppliers or manufacturers to supply the photos or take an unprofessional photo themselves.  If your supplier or manufacturer doesn’t have all the photos you need or offers unprofessional photos then:

1. Invest in a tripod, background and some photo lessons

2. Hire a professional to photograph the products

If you opt to take the photos yourself, the photos don’t need the highest resolultions, they only need to be 72 dpi, so any standard digital camera can take the photo.  You do need to make sure you have a good background and consistent lighting.  You may then need to hire a graphic designer to clean up the images for you afterwards.  Also consider taking the photo from other angles if its a larger product or has a lot of elements or details (obviously you wouldn’t need to do this with a t-shirt, but with a car engine you would).  Also makes sure you take photos of all the different colours available and if it comes in a box a photo of the closed box as well as any extra products that come with it (Tiger Direct is a good example of this they typically have a photo of the box, the product and all the wires, cables, batteries etc that come with the product). 

This may seem like so much work and a real investment of time and money, but not having a great photo to show off your products will loose your business valuable sales!