In this hypothetical case, you would have to pay to register and host at least fifteen new Web domain names. Since many Internet search engines and directories actually penalize mirror sites, you would have to spend time building fifteen different web sites. Additionally, you would have to pay to host those fifteen Web sites.

You would also have to spend time, actually many weeks just to optimize the same fifteen web sites. You would then have to spend more time submitting fifteen independent web sites (very time consuming).

You would then have to build link popularity to each separate web site. You would have to start doing some reciprocal link exchange trading with quality sites that are in a similar and related sector to your actual field of expertise. If you are starting to think that this sounds like a lot of time, effort, energy and expense, you are 100% right.

Instead, consider this: your other option is to do all of the above, but just to only one site. Now, you may be willing to put in that extra time and expense if it means more chances to rank well in the search engines. The thinking behind this strategy is that you could buy fifteen keyword domains and focus the content of each site so narrowly that it will rank very well for a few terms. Experience has taught us that, in reality, it doesn’t even come close!

Webmasters who try to use this strategy find themselves doing fifteen times the work, and rarely, if not ever, getting the results they would have if they’d simply put all that effort into one single domain to begin with. We like to compare this to the straight line principle: the shortest distance from A to B is still the straight line.

Why won’t all that extra work translate into extra rankings? Well, there are several reasons. Depending on the actual content that you place in these domains, search engines and directories would flag them as mirror sites and refuse to list them. You will spread your incoming links (and therefore link popularity) across multiple domains. This will keep any one of them from ranking as highly as your main domain would if all the links pointed at it.

You have less ability to cross-sell and up-sell the products that you have listed on one of your extra web sites. A visitor may not realize that you offer blue widgets as well as green widgets.

As a general rule of thumb, larger sites nearly always outrank smaller sites. It’s going to be difficult to compete with a company that has a two thousand page web site when your keyword-rich mini-site only has ten pages. Think about sites like Yahoo and Amazon or eBay. They clearly have more than enough information to warrant dozens and dozens of smaller sites, yet they choose to house all of these areas of content under their main, single domain name.

If you have multiple products or services to offer, make sure that everyone that comes to your site realizes it! Don’t undermine your chances of success by hiding your content on separate domains in an attempt to artificially improve your rankings. It just won’t happen.

What will happen however is that you will probably make things a lot worse for yourself and your Web site could get penalized.

The Right Way To Have Multiple Domains

Having said all of this, there is one way that you can have multiple domain names all pointing to one website, and that’s by using a permanent 301 redirect for all of the secondary domains. For example: typing in the URL for any of the secondary domains will redirect you to the main site and it’s primary domain name. This change can easily be implemented, at no cost other than a few of minutes of time.

In this example, 2nddomain.com is redirected to 1stdomain.com and and neither visitors nor SE spiders ever “see” content under the secondary domain name. The same logic should also be applied to the non-www versions of both domain names to complete the process and to prevent potential conflicts with the search engines.

A rule of thumb, for instance, is that remodeling a home office is a poor investment for home re-sale; however, an additional bathroom can make your house more attractive for quick sale.

As you consider which web site improvements to budget in this year, consider only those that likewise will increase your site’s “sale value”.

Here’s a list of the do’s and don’ts for companies on a limited budget (aren’t we all?):

• New content: Do. Review your site’s current positioning on the major search engines and create content for important terms with which your site is not performing.
• Search engine optimization: Do. If it hasn’t been, have your site optimized for the keywords that your customers and prospects would use to locate you on search engines.
• Link-building program: Do. This is an important way that search engines measure your site’s importance in your industry.
• Web site audit: Do. A comprehensive audit will check to make sure that internal and external links work, contact forms are operational, your site’s performing on search engines, etc.
• Foreign language pages: Do. If you routinely do business outside the U.S., devote pages to the language of your other markets. It’ll help position your site in foreign search engines.
• Technical data sheets: Do. Give your prospects enough information about your products to want to do business with you or contact you for more information.
• Site redesign: Do. If your site hasn’t been professionally designed, it’s time to ante up for the good paint.
• New site navigation: Do. If you’re site looks like it has Bandaids all over with buttons and links that were added after the site was launched, it may be time to re-do the navigation to make it more user-friendly and attractive.
• Back-end applications: Do, if it improves your company’s ability to serve your customers in an efficient manner. Don’t, if you’re trying to cut out customer service by making your clients do all the work.
• Flash: Don’t, unless you’ve already done the do’s and have money left over.
• More images: Don’t, unless the graphic conveys information better than text.
• Videos: Don’t, unless your video shows something that would be difficult to describe or illustrates a significant difference in how your products work or are used compared to competitors.

Unfortunately, more and more disaster stories like this one are surfacing: “I hired one of those $500 companies to build my website—but they did a horrible job, they never finished, nothing works properly, and now they don’t return my calls!”

If you’re thinking of cutting corners, be warned! Here’s a little preview of what to expect:

1. No Talent

A talented web designer is a prized possession. A web designer with no talent works for a $500 web design company, which lacks the artistic creativity of a professional design house like WebTech Net Solutions.

2. Poor Communication

$500 web designers have no formal education. This limits their expertise and communication skills. So be prepared to expend a much greater effort—and more time—to build your site. Some phrases you’ll soon be familiar with:

• “Can you please repeat that?”
• “I thought we went over this already!”
• “You said you’d call last Monday!”
• “This is the third time I’m telling you!”
• “You said the project would be done by now!”

3. Bait & Switch

Many companies advertise $500 websites just to “pull you in.” The final bill is often many times that amount. Make sure to see a contract up front and read the fine print carefully. Most $500 websites come with an obligatory 2-year hosting fee of $39 monthly, $49 monthly, and even $59 monthly. So you end up paying for a nice website—but getting stuck with a cheap one instead! Not to mention unreliable hosting that you’re stuck with for two years.

4. Atrocious Copywriting

A website is only half graphic design, the other half is copywriting—the words used to grab your audience’s attention. Copywriting is crucial. Your website has only 6 seconds to captivate visitor interest before it’s “Asta La Vista, Baby.” And, no, they won’t “Be back.” Do you think $500 designers work hard to ensure that visitors actually stay on your site? In fact, most cheap web designers charge extra for their atrocious copywriting. But what are their writers’ qualifications? Are they university trained? Do they have real-world marketing experience like WebTech Net Solutions’ copywriters?

5. Irresponsible

What separates a good work ethic from a bad one? The answer is simple—salary! Imagine you worked at a job paying $13,000 a year. Now imagine the boss asked you to stay late every night. How would you feel? But how would you feel staying late for $75,000 a year? Sure, we all like to think we’d go all out no matter what. But if we be honest with ourselves, reality is a bit different. Bottom line? Getting paid less will show in one’s work and dedication.

6. Shoddy Outsourcing

Some $500 designers outsource coding, scripting and HTML overseas to third world countries. What do you get? An outdated website that’s horribly designed, that doesn’t function properly and that is virtually worthless.  Not to mention how hard it is to make contact with the outsource company when you want changes or something is totally wrong to begin with. It pays to buy American.

7. Boring Templates

$500 web companies use dime-a-dozen templates, giving you no control over the finished product, and make your site look like every other site out there. Ask them to change the design, and their answer will be “I can’t.” Ask them to shift the text, and their answer will be “I can’t.” Custom designers like WebTech Net Solutions know you never get a second chance to make a first impression. We distinguish your company by standing you head and shoulders above your competitors.

8. No Guarantees

$500 web designers make you sign a contract tipped in their favor. Ask to take a peek and you’ll read, “The website is complete only when the designer says it’s complete. The client has no say in the matter.” They know you won’t be 100% pleased with the finished product! We at WebTech Net Solutions make sure you are completely satisfied with the results before we label the project as complete. Which company would you rather work with?

9. Unreliable Resources

Ever notice how some websites download faster than others? Guess who builds the websites that take ten years to download? You guessed it! Same deal with website downtime. Ever notice how some websites you visit often suffer downtime more than others? WebTech Net Solutions relies on top quality resources like top tier servers. So if you want to ensure that your website will be there in the morning, or that your site will download at lightning speed, steer clear of those $500 designers who rely on cheap resources.

10. Can’t Deliver

Most $500 designers have limited expertise. Some don’t know flash, others don’t know how to create contact forms. Some can’t create search functions, others don’t know log ins. Make sure you ask the right questions. If not, you risk getting stuck with a company that can’t deliver what you need.

Putting things into perspective, when you hire a $500 web design company, you take on all the headaches and frustration of dealing with an inferior staff, lesser quality and questionable service. In other words—you get what you pay for. Sure we all like to save money if we can. But you shouldn’t buy a website at a rock-bottom price for the same reason you shouldn’t buy a $9 pair of shoes—because you’ll be wasting your money and getting what you pay for. Top quality web design and copywriting is a matter of price.

Sometimes your budget is limited and the $500 web design company may seem your only option. Dedicated design houses like WebTech Net Solutions usually care enough to offer payment plans. Just ask.

The moral of the story is that you get a much better value by partnering with a reasonably priced web design house like WebTech Net Solutions. You work with a dedicated team of kind and friendly professionals who always deliver what you want on time, within budget, and in a way that’s going to make your website impress prospective clients…and convert them into paying customers!

1. Not investing in quality design

Many new-comers to e-commerce attempt to keep their cost down by using a template shopping cart website or hiring the cheapest designers around to build their website. This may help you budget-wise but it will never help you build your business. Customers will view your website and business as unprofessional and will figure that you are not a place worthy of their spending. There couldn’t be a worse first impression if you tired! So, be smart! Invest in a web firm that can create professional looking graphics that help bolster your business and your sales.

2. Lack of Follow-Up and Auto-Responders

Whether you’re selling t-shirts or cell phones, customers want to know where to begin. When you send your product be sure to include a “Read this First” or “Getting Started” document to help them through your product step by step. In addition to this you should have an auto-responder sequence that is generated from your website that follows up with them and reiterates this information.

Whether it’s Wash and Wear or Plug in and Play…help your customers understand your product as best as possible.
After the product has shipped, get in touch with your client. Let them know you care.

3. Weak Product Line

At best, there are a couple of dozen success stories as a result of selling a single product. If you are relying on selling to new customers then your chances of long-term success are minimal. It is well known that overcoming the sales hurdle is much easier when you are dealing with an existing customer. Without additional related products you cannot upsell. Moreover, you reduce the possibility of starting a relationship with your customer if they have no reason to return to your website.

4. Living In a Virtual World

Don’t underestimate the value of human contact. As much as we love all the conveniences of technology, your customers will appreciate the ability to talk to a real person – especially when they have a problem or a question. Use e-mails, forms, and support tickets as an option but always offer a live representative for your customers. This will go a long way with building the rapport and trust that leads to long-term business relationships.

5. Inconsistent Branding

The value of brand recognition is huge! You need people to recognize your products. Give a consistent look and feel to everything you do online and off. Your website should look like it is related to your products and your customers. Think of it as keeping it all in the family.

Whatever you sell online, your offline materials and the look and feel of your website should be related. Just like with twins, people will know that they are related. It’s easier to sell a product to someone who is comfortable with you and branding is a critical aspect of increasing consumer’s comfort level.

Even when you select the make and model of a car, the cost of accessories can cause the price to vary drastically. There are choices to be made: 6 Disc CD changer vs. single CD, ipod dock vs. no mp3, dual-sided climate control vs. air condition, 1-touch automatic windows vs. automatic windows, heated leather seats vs. leather seats, and the list goes on and on. Each of these decisions will be reflected in the final price of the car.

A website comes with “accessories” too. We refer to these as “features and options.” Within each feature there can be any number of variables that dictate the simplicity or complexity required to develop a feature. Just like there is an extra fee for a car with a multi-disk CD player vs. one with a single-disk CD player so too is there a premium for a website that has Flash in the header vs. one that uses basic HTML in the header.

In nearly every aspect of website development, there are design features and programming options to take into consideration. To help you better understand the individual costs, contact us to get a FREE price list emailed to you. Typically a web design firm will bundle costs together making for a lower price, so treat these as estimates. Cost will vary depending upon complexity of each item.

You should expect no less from a website design company than for them to be able to provide you with a cost sheet of everything they offer. Any company that refuses this, isn’t worth the heartache.

In website design and development, just like most other things in this world, the adage of ‘You Get What You Pay For’ stands. But this adage applies ten-fold in website design and development.

With the proliferation of freelancers who call themselves website designers to the thousands of off-shore companies who work for a few dollars an hour, you can, indeed, have a very inexpensive website built for your business. Unfortunately, you will get exactly what you pay for: poor design, sloppy programming, confusing navigation, and so on. Not to mention the miserable customer experience you will have. If you think calling the toll free number for Dell customer support is bad, then sit down, because you have a whole new type of misery in store for you when you work with freelancers and cheap web development firms.

It is widely agreed that a website is a reflection of your business. If you want to appear shoddy and cheap then perhaps this is the route for you. If, however, you are serious about your business you will need an intelligently designed website. This means you hire a web design firm that has years of experience in design, website strategy, and technology.

Look for a web design firm that has that perfect blend of the three divergent capabilities it takes to produce compelling design. A great web development firm fuses art and science, solid logic and inspiration, primitive intuition and cutting-edge know-how to build fabulous websites.

Will it be expensive? That depends on the features and functions of your website. For any web design firm that is worth their weight, you can expect to pay a minimum of $3k for a basic ecommerce business website. Prices range from there on up. The bottom line is, when you want results that are both refreshingly enticing to your site visitors and exactly what you envisioned for your company’s website only a proven professional design firm can get you there.

What is Keyword Expansion?

Keywords are the foundation of every search marketing campaign (be it paid or organic). Keyword expansion is a technique for constantly increasing the size and scope of a keyword list. By growing their keyword lists, marketers are able to ensure that their search efforts will also grow and evolve, which is imperative to a healthy, thriving search marketing campaign.

Point being, a business needs to be constantly moving in the search space to stay ahead of the competition and be successful in search. Keyword expansion is one of the keys to making this happen.

What are the Benefits of Keyword Expansion?

Expanding your keywords creates new opportunities to target and reach new potential customers. By identifying new, action-producing keywords and adding them to your keyword portfolio, you’re able to delve into uncharted markets that your business has yet to explore.

In short, keywords expansion done correctly will save a company money and boost sales.

The primary benefits of growing your keywords are:

• Discovering keywords that your competitors aren’t targeting.
• Finding keywords for paid search with lower cost-per-click and higher conversion rates.
• Uncovering fresh opportunities for traffic and conversions.
• Gaining more insight into how people search for and identify your product or services.

What are the Best Practices for Expanding Keywords?

There are many ways to expand your keyword lists for your search marketing efforts. Some of the most popular methods of expansion include:

• Brainstorming for new keyword ideas.
• Examining your competitor’s websites to find which keywords they’re targeting.
• Using keyword tools to discover new keywords and keyword variations.
• Checking the data from your own analytic files to find keywords that are already proven to work for your website, but ones that you may be missing

These are all good methods, but in my opinion the most reliable and effective way to conduct keyword expansion is to mine your websites search history for new keywords.

By constantly examining your own server log data, you will find new keywords that searchers used to find your site. These are keywords that are proven to elicit desired actions, such as clicks and conversions.

Point being, if these keywords worked for your website before, chances are they’ll work again.

Once you’ve discovered and compiled these new keywords, you can leverage this data and create new, targeted search marketing campaigns around these new keywords, which includes developing new, relevant content and highly-optimized paid search ads and landing pages.

By following this approach to keyword expansion, your business has the power to explore new search verticals with cheaper keywords, target new customers, and improve your overall search marketing ROI.

Before you build your web site, you should be clear about the goals and objectives for your web site. What are you trying to accomplish with your web site? You need to have a clear objective in order to build an effective and successful web presence.

Make sure your web site looks professional and competent

Many customers will get their first impression of your company from your website. For this reason, you want to make sure that your web site presents a professional image. There is nothing worse than having a web site that looks like it came out of a box or some pre-designed template. A professionally designed web site will always create a better impression than a home made web site.

Ensure that your content is effective and powerful

Content is one of the most overlooked components of web design and development. As a business, you should ensure that your web site contains powerful marketing content that will engage the viewer and prompt them to take action. What is it about your business that will want to make someone contact you or buy from you? What do you do better than your competitors? Convey this message powerfully and clearly.

Put your biggest benefit on your home page

Your home page should clearly state what benefit you are offering potential clients. It should only take a visitor a couple of seconds to know what your company does, and what goods or services you have to offer. The goal of the home page is to get the user’s attention, and entice them to take action.

Promote your web site

You could have the best web site, but of what use is it if no one can find it? Search Engine Optimization and web site promotion are critical to your success. With the number of web sites growing exponentially, you need to ensure that your web site is easier to find than your competition’s.

Contact us to learn more about building a great web site.

This website boasts a very attractive and complex use of dynamic dropdown menus that really make the site pop, and even with the mix of the two different categories of products offered, we successfully pulled off very user-friendly navigation.

Features:

• Complex & Versatile Shopping Cart System
• Custom Logo Design
• Social Media Marketing Strategy
• Search Engine Optimization
• Dynamic Drop-Down Menus
• Ad Design
• Website Search Function
• Company Blog

So we worked together to create just that, but without the cluttered, busy look of the other websites offering similar services.  We created something that people were actually using because it was so simple.

Features:

• Content Mangement System
• Custom Logo Design
• Complete Ajax Rating System
• Company Blog
• Integrated Forum
• Search Engine Optimization
• Website Hosting
• Domain Name Registration