Dachiu
Member
I’m not too sure what forum this would best fit into - Kind of sounding off - but it is directly related to on-line business.
Please do NOT take offense to anything here... I am not poking fingers at anyone in particular.
I have been looking closely on-line at some of the web sites that we have reciprocal links with and others that are possible contacts for future links - and have noticed an incline of decreasing quality. Some sites are simply put together very poorly, some sites look nice but are horrible to navigate, while others are aesthetically designed and easy to navigate - but it looks like a child wrote the HTML.
Many new sites are first attempts by an individual to develop their presence on-line - and this is understandable. Who wants to pay another person to design a site when many ISP’s offer free web building tools for their users? They go ahead and play with it a while - fine-tune it to their abilities - and see what happens. These sites are pretty easy to pick out at first and as the owner gains abilities, the web site develops. Kudos to them…
My concern is that more and more you’ll see “Web Design by So-n-So” at the bottom of the pages - So-n-So, one would assume, is supposed to know what they are doing. Now, ’I've seen some sites that are really crappy and also sites that look really cool with flash and other extras that “designers” have put together for people - that don’t have a child’s prayer of ranking anywhere in a search engine.
This may be acceptable for the hobby breeder who only occasionally has items available for sale. But I’m now noticing this more frequently on (reptile related) business web sites. Is it that we in general, as business owners in this industry, do not know what to look for in our web design? Or to ask of the designer? Are we really easy targets with an extra several hundred dollars to just hand out to anyone who can buy a program and put a web site together?
For instance at the top of this page it reads “Fauna Classifieds” - Such-n-Such Forum. For each different forum you visit here, the title of the page changes - the way it *should* be. On an un-named site I was looking at earlier today - there was NO title. None, nada, zip… On another, the title of every page within the site was the same - XYZ Reptiles. Something is better than nothing, but redundancy is not of much help either.
Or am I just expecting entirely too much from people? A friend was actually told “I don’t do that.” when she asked about simple HTML dynamics that were missing from a web site she paid a “designer” to create. They created a web site design for her sure; but the ‘bugger’ took the money and ran!
There is SO much more to a web site than pretty, little graphics that bounce all over the page and mouse-overs. Go ahead and Google “leopard gecko” for instance. Now Google “leopard gecko breeder”. Google’s “Lizard” directory is listed there above many well known breeders. Why?
I believe it’s because many of these web sites are built for catering to the user only - completely ignoring the search engine requirements. Web designers know that to build a successful web site, they have to cover all of the bases… yet they don’t. Is this a case of ‘what you don’t know, wont hurt you - and when you finally figure it out Ill be long gone’? Or do they not realize this themselves?
The fact is that if there is no traffic to your web site - where can you expect the sales to come from? They cannot be pulled out of thin air and your friends only need so many pets. If people don’t know you’re out there - and can only find you through posts on forums or by running a search for your name - you are pretty much invisible.
In addition, I see many (seemingly honest) people who’s business would benefit with a web site - but they have not taken that step. Why not?
Business is business and if you are wanting to do business on-line - then you have to find a way to make your presence known.
I apologize now if this seems more like a rant - but I suppose my questions are born of frustration.
V.
Please do NOT take offense to anything here... I am not poking fingers at anyone in particular.
I have been looking closely on-line at some of the web sites that we have reciprocal links with and others that are possible contacts for future links - and have noticed an incline of decreasing quality. Some sites are simply put together very poorly, some sites look nice but are horrible to navigate, while others are aesthetically designed and easy to navigate - but it looks like a child wrote the HTML.
Many new sites are first attempts by an individual to develop their presence on-line - and this is understandable. Who wants to pay another person to design a site when many ISP’s offer free web building tools for their users? They go ahead and play with it a while - fine-tune it to their abilities - and see what happens. These sites are pretty easy to pick out at first and as the owner gains abilities, the web site develops. Kudos to them…
My concern is that more and more you’ll see “Web Design by So-n-So” at the bottom of the pages - So-n-So, one would assume, is supposed to know what they are doing. Now, ’I've seen some sites that are really crappy and also sites that look really cool with flash and other extras that “designers” have put together for people - that don’t have a child’s prayer of ranking anywhere in a search engine.
This may be acceptable for the hobby breeder who only occasionally has items available for sale. But I’m now noticing this more frequently on (reptile related) business web sites. Is it that we in general, as business owners in this industry, do not know what to look for in our web design? Or to ask of the designer? Are we really easy targets with an extra several hundred dollars to just hand out to anyone who can buy a program and put a web site together?
For instance at the top of this page it reads “Fauna Classifieds” - Such-n-Such Forum. For each different forum you visit here, the title of the page changes - the way it *should* be. On an un-named site I was looking at earlier today - there was NO title. None, nada, zip… On another, the title of every page within the site was the same - XYZ Reptiles. Something is better than nothing, but redundancy is not of much help either.
Or am I just expecting entirely too much from people? A friend was actually told “I don’t do that.” when she asked about simple HTML dynamics that were missing from a web site she paid a “designer” to create. They created a web site design for her sure; but the ‘bugger’ took the money and ran!
There is SO much more to a web site than pretty, little graphics that bounce all over the page and mouse-overs. Go ahead and Google “leopard gecko” for instance. Now Google “leopard gecko breeder”. Google’s “Lizard” directory is listed there above many well known breeders. Why?
I believe it’s because many of these web sites are built for catering to the user only - completely ignoring the search engine requirements. Web designers know that to build a successful web site, they have to cover all of the bases… yet they don’t. Is this a case of ‘what you don’t know, wont hurt you - and when you finally figure it out Ill be long gone’? Or do they not realize this themselves?
The fact is that if there is no traffic to your web site - where can you expect the sales to come from? They cannot be pulled out of thin air and your friends only need so many pets. If people don’t know you’re out there - and can only find you through posts on forums or by running a search for your name - you are pretty much invisible.
In addition, I see many (seemingly honest) people who’s business would benefit with a web site - but they have not taken that step. Why not?
Business is business and if you are wanting to do business on-line - then you have to find a way to make your presence known.
I apologize now if this seems more like a rant - but I suppose my questions are born of frustration.
V.
