The world of websites has progressed extensively since the World Wide Web was introduced in…1989 by the English Scientist, Tim Berners-Lee. We now live in a time where pretty much every online service out there has a website builder of some type. Godaddy has introduced theirs and make it seem so simple – I believe they promote that it should only take an hour. Others like Wix have progressed to try to be a service that is easy enough for the small business owner to be able to use but in-depth sufficient for some agencies. Still, there are even more builders such as Squarespace, Webflow and so many others that I don’t even care to list them. Oh, and don’t forget that there is a HUGE difference between wordpress.org and wordpress.com. But, why do I have to deal with the question or statement comparing my services to a website builder?
These website builders have helped make websites into a commodity of some sort. Rather than placing focus on the value that a well designed and laid out website can bring to your company, people are focusing on how quickly their son’s friend can get a website put together that looks alright. But should that be your focus?
First, I think there is something that needs to be understood – you are paying a web agency for their time. Yes, you could spend that time but how much do you value your time? Second, is the website that you are going to build helping your business bring in more leads and revenue? Now, let’s jump back to that first point. You are paying the web agency for their time AND their experience. They most likely have worked on projects that have produced actual results for their clients.
In my view, I see websites as having come full circle…or maybe having traveled the entire World Wide Web. We don’t use flash player anymore to create this annoying graphic that can now only load on specific browsers. The goal is to be as simple as possible and work seamlessly on mobile devices. Further, the goal is to convert visitors to leads and then to clients or customers. Some businesses purely need a landing page that will sell their product. But, should the web agency have to charge less for building a landing page that is creating revenue for a company rather than building a website that would have generated no revenue for this company? No, they shouldn’t. The bottom line should be the bottom line. Period.
Take Nike for example. Guess how much they paid the graphic designer? Well, $75 is all. But, eventually Nike became Nike, and they paid the graphic designer in stock that is now worth 1 million dollars. Why? Because of the value that the Nike logo has brought.
As a client and as the digital marketing industry we have to move beyond the tools that we use to get the job done and focus on the leads and revenue that we are actually in need of. Stop trying to get website designers to build you something that you don’t need. Stop trying to use website builders to create something that you don’t know how to do. I understand you know how to use Wix, but do you know how to layout a website and have it convert? Probably not. We are more than a commodity. We are here to drive traffic, leads, and revenue to your business. We understand that we are different at StarrWebVision. That’s fine.
