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Your Website makes Burnt Toast

By Staff

I know you have all heard countless stories about people that took a small idea, made a website, and out of nowhere made a great living selling stuff online. I bet you have heard just as many stories though of people that failed miserably. You might be failing at it right now.

Why?

You are over-spending by under-spending on your website.

That's a very loaded statement, but I'll try my best to explain. If you were to buy a toaster would you rather have:

A) a 5$ toaster that burns your toast every single time
B) a 15$ toaster that burns your toast 50% of the time
C) a 50$ toaster that works

Now unless you like burnt toast, you either want to not buy a toaster or you want to buy Toaster C. The sad thing is that when many of you eventually decide you need a website, you are going to end up with Toaster A or B.

Why?

Because websites are a lot more complicated than toasters.

Neither you nor I want you stuck with a Toaster A or B website so I am going to have to teach you a little bit more about websites.

Websites can be broken down into three categories.

1) Brochure websites
These websites are the most basic and also the cheapest, but their lack of complexity is their strength. They are usually only a single page, but websites with a few pages can still be classified under this category. When done correctly, they act like a large advertisement in the newspaper featuring all necessary contact information about your business, a short description about what is you do and why you are so good at it, and some pictures so readers know your business actually exists.
Example: Monte Carlo Restaurant

2) Information websites
The standard website that can be useful to virtually any business or organization. They feature multiple pages and as a result require some form of navigation. When done correctly, they feature an easy to use navigation. The navigation must be immediately noticeable when you first enter a page and should look exactly the same on every page of the website. Like the navigation, the content (contact information, business description, pictures) also needs to be layed out well and should be featured in the same spot on each page of the website.
Example: Tourism Camrose

3) E-commerce websites
By far the most complicated and expensive type of website. While it's good to make a Brochure or Information website rank high in searches, it is absolutely essential for this to be done to reap the maximum benefit out of an E-commerce website. The goal of this website is to sell a product or products and as such an E-commerce website, like an Information website, needs to have an easy to use navigation. An E-commerce site must be made so that a reader can find out information about your products easily as well as buy them immediately if they are interested in doing so.
Example: Pedersen's Florists

What makes a website Toaster C quality?

The following represents things that should apply to all websites, but remember that your website represents your business and every business is unique so additional features are often required above and beyond this list to fully suit your business' needs.

1) Domain Address
The domain address, also called a url, is whatever comes after the www. One way to identify a Toaster A or B website is that they don't have their own domain address instead they have something like www.[company that made the website].com/[your business name]. This means that the website is just a subpage of the [company that made the website] page. This makes it very difficult for your page to show up highly in searches. A lot of people end up with these subpage websites because companies like geocities and angelfire give them away for free, but as a result your website has to have pop ups on it as well as being hard to make accessible in searches.

2) Fast load time
Now while a dial-up modem can make even the most basic website load slowly, you still should expect a load time of under 8 seconds for your website. If pictures on your website don't seem to be able to load in this time, it is because they have not been optimized properly. However, you also have to take some responsibility for this aspect as well. If you insist on numerous pictures for certain pages of your website then even the best graphic optimization won't help. A good rule of thumb is no more than 3-4 large pictures per page. If you want more, then in order to maintain a quick load time, small thumbnail pictures that when clicked on pop up a large version of the image are an excellent solution. A common way to identify a Toaster B website is that small pictures seem to take forever to load. This is because they have resized them using the html code rather than saving them as a smaller size image initially. Toaster A websites can be identified by a long page with ridiculous amounts of large pictures.

3) Easy to use
When you first enter a website you should know what page you are on immediately. Also, you should be able to identify where the navigation is as well. The only exception is a Brochure website which does not require navigation since it is a single page. A common way to identify a Toaster B website is that the Home button that takes you back to the homepage is not at the top of the navigation list (or at the immediate left in the case of a horizontal navigation). A Toaster A website doesn't have a Home button at all.

4) A professional design
A website needs to look good the first time a viewer sees it, but it also should not annoy them the 10th or 100th time they see it. An easy way to identify Toaster A and B websites is use of bright blinking text, text that scrolls across the screen or sound that automatically plays with no obvious way to shut it off.

How do I get a Toaster C website?

1) Check out the website company's portfolio
You should expect that the person or company that you are working with on your website has done other websites for other clients. The website business is constantly changing and even people that have taken classes on web design at the university level do not have the proper training to make a professional website (a fact that I was shocked to learn myself). You should go to these other websites that the company you are thinking of working with has done and ask yourself if you would be satisfied with them. Don't be afraid to contact the owners of these websites to see if they are satisfied with them too. Basically, a company’s portfolio is like the references on a resume. You wouldn't hire someone without references on their resume, so why should you hire a website company without a portfolio?

2) Meet with the company
This will give you a chance to lay out what you expect out of your website as well as allow you to figure out what type of people you are dealing with.

3) Get a proposal
This will give you an idea of what your are paying for. Some expensive aspects of websites (in other words, they require a lot of time to create or implement) are things such as lengthy, advanced forms, ranking high in searches (search engine optimization), online databases, website management systems, and E-commerce payment systems. Some cheaper aspects of websites (things that can be done quickly or with less effort) are things like adding additional pages, optimizing pictures, and basic contact forms. Some things to watch out for are claims such as a guaranteed top 10 ranking in Google or any other popular search under a generic term such as book, food, hockey, etc. or being given a bunch of features for free when there is no special offer on. Basically, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

4) Get a contract
This is essential so that you get exactly what you ask for. Otherwise, you may find yourself out the full amount of money with only half a website.

Does your business need a website?

Yes. Any business will gain from a well-made website, but I do not encourage a business to spend money on an amateur website. Get a Toaster C or get no toaster at all. After all, burnt toast is just a waste of bread.