My Website Design + Marketing Philosophy
"If Necessity is the mother of Invention, let's run a paternity test on Creativity."
Like most web site designers and logo designers, I'd like to think that my work essentially speaks for itself.
But just in case it doesn't, here are a few words about my design style and marketing philosophy:
Simplicity is best.
When it comes to web site design, this is a fundamental conviction of mine. Simple pages are easier to navigate and faster to load (ensuring maximum retention of your online visitors), and HTML-based coding is the preferred language of the search engines.
Stand out, don't showboat.
Of course I recognize the importance of creativity in web site design--every business needs to set itself apart from its competitors. But so many designers today take their creativity two steps too far, developing entirely Flash-driven sites with gobs of unnecessary bells, whistles, and various animations. Not only is this expensive for clients, but it is a turn-off to many customers. A clean, attractive web site is far more effective than a "Flash-y" one.
The Yellow Pages are on life support, and are about to be disconnected.
Unless your business caters to an elderly or downscale demographic, the Yellow Pages are far from your most effective form of advertising. A huge percentage of the population has 24-hour Internet access, and as the Net continues to pervade the public consciousness, more and more people will turn to it when they look for local businesses and services. Now is the time to expand and target your web presence.
Ad agencies are a rip-off for small and medium-sized businesses.
I should know, I used to work at one. While the number of account, creative, and production staff is entirely necessary to keep advertising on track for Fortune 500 companies, someone has to pay for all that overhead. Hourly design rates take this into account, and many agencies have been slow to recognize the importance of Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization in website design and internet advertising, if they've recognized it at all.
There's room for everyone on the Internet.
So many small businesses seem to think that they can't afford a good Internet presence, or that their bigger, stronger competitors hold too many advantages when it comes to Internet advertising. Nothing could be further from the truth. While the web sites of large companies typically have tremendous link popularity, and higher PageRank, it's rare that each one of the hundreds or thousands of pages on those sites will be keyword optimized or statically served. Meaning your business has a perfect window of opportunity to jump in there for your product or service.
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