Introduction

A business website exists for the purpose of making money. I have heard website designers make the claim: If you have a business, you need a website. I cannot agree! In this era of internet information, MOST businesses can BENEFIT from a website. This does not make it necessary, and it does not imply that a website will ALWAYS benefit a business. It is only true if you get the RIGHT website. To suggest that every business needs a website is ignorant. To believe that having a website instantly makes a business more successful is also ignorant. In the last year alone, I have encountered many business owners who had a website that functioned, but which did not even pay for itself. They are disillusioned, and discouraged. In every case, a quick review of the site has shown the reasons why it has failed to perform. Those reasons may be technical, aesthetic, or due to lack of professional quality to the site. Occasionally, the reason for failure to meet expectations is due to unrealistic expectations. Some of those expectations are perpetuated by web designers who fail to educate their clients in the processes of the web. Some are perpetuated by other sources. Amazing potentials ARE there, but they take time and effort to establish the foundation, before they can be realized. We have produced this guidebook to provide an overview of what realistic expectations are, and to help site owners be able to look at their site in a new way, to pinpoint common reasons why sites fail to monetarily justify their existence. In our experience with site reviews, virtually every site had several of these factors which were not carried out in a way that proved effective. We have tried to include all the major reasons why they do not perform. It is our hope that you can read through this, and either increase your understanding of how to improve your site, or have a better idea of what specific services you need to hire, and how to find a site designer who is competent to do them – if they understand these issues, your chances are better of having a favorable outcome. Because with web design, it isn't about cool design, or how badly I want a contract, how much money I want to make, or how many sites I have built. It is about YOUR business. Any web designer that does not understand that their job is to partner with you to help you EARN better, will not be able to understand how to make your site reach your customers. Some of the issues in this booklet get a little muddled, because many of them intertwine and cross over into other areas. Some of the issues are very subjective also – what is right for one site is dead wrong for another, so it is difficult to formulate rules that are helpful in all situations. It means that sometimes the instructions are more oblique than we'd like them to be! We have tried to stay as clear as possible, and apologize if any of the content is confusing. As always, if you have questions, you are welcome to email us at yashpalgns@yahoo.com, and we'll be happy to assist you in understanding anything that we did not make clear here.