Information is the currency of the Internet. The more information a website has, the richer it is. The more current and relevant the information is, the more valuable the website. If people can't find the information on your website its worthless. If the information is not attractive it gets passed by.
3 key ingredients in website design and management make a website more functional and usable than an average website. Midsourcing as a service can help a small business organize and execute in with the right amount of each to make a site that is not management intense, looks great and is easy to use.
The First Ingredient - The Structure
Technology companies use this as the catching point for a small business considering using a web design firm. The concern is that design firms focus too much on esthetics and not enough on the technology driving the site. Structuring a site is a challenge, but most technology companies get it wrong too. They sit down with front heavy discussions and project plans and roll out websites that function well but don't match the design muster of attractively designed sites.
Midsourcing plays a key role in helping a small business build a website. Like most companies a small business doesn't have a clear vision of what it wants and changes are likely to occur during the process. These changes are costly when you work with a project oriented company, however midsourcing is very flexible to this. Businertia uses an agile process and helps structure components of the site that can be seen, used and restructured before it is finalized. With years of experience in software development and channel distribution, Businertia leadership understands the necessary cycles a small business should go through before finalizing a structure. After all, if the structure is wrong, the website as your key business application will fail to get used.
The Second Ingredient - Esthetics & Design
To counter point a technology company, a design and marketing firm is very focused on making sure your organization looks professional and can be differentiated from everyone else. Design firms do make great points about this, however its important to understand that the Internet is not an art gallery. While at a store front a picture may speak a 1000 words, on the Internet it only supports the words that surround it.
Under a midsourcing agreement a small business has the ability to focus design on the key elements of a site while establishing policy to manage and control the display of information that will be posted without design. By focusing design dollars on key elements a small business can better spend and budget dollars and get the most from the design budgets. This allows a small business to control costs and improve return on design dollars.
The Third Ingredient - Content
Most websites are refreshed with a new design every 3-5 years. This is mostly due to content being intertwined with structure and esthetics. By keeping these functions completely separate, a small business can extend the life of a website. What most technology companies and design firms struggle with is helping an organization keep a fresh layer of content for viewing on the home page of a site.
The one thing Google cannot take away from a small business is how often content is created. If a small business can keep its content fresh, Google and other search engines are forced to continue indexing new and relevant content. The challenge is that small businesses have focused more on where to display their message (trade shows, print, etc) rather than establishing processes and the necessary functions to consistently create relevant and fresh content. One of midsourcing's key differences from Outsourcing and managed services for the web is the ability to provide the necessary leadership to help an organization create the necessary content culture to minimize the amount of work it takes to create content and maximize the output of the content that is published
The Conclusion
The legged stool that is a website requires the proper structure, seasoned properly with design elements that support the generous amounts of content available on a website. Too much structure results in website sprawl. Too much design results in a gallery and to little content results in a website poor in Internet currency. Businertia can help you define very key steps toward making sure your website can be a resource for your audience and the envy of your competition.