Creativity reigns supreme right? It is common knowledge that only the coolest websites get top exposure. Part of me, as a web designer, hopes this would be true. However, creative web design only takes a business so far. Ultimately, there are thousands of terribly designed websites that get more traffic than award-winners. If you want your website to work for you beyond a cocktail party talking point, then you need to know that Web Design is a part of Internet Marketing and not the same thing.
As cleverly explained by the cartoon, you can have the most creative and interesting website in the world, but if you market it horribly, then not many people will see it and you won’t get a very good return on your investment. OCG Creative’s team of dedicated and nerdy Reno web designers and developers work hard to produce these award winning sites. We have done this for numerous clients for many years. Part of the creative web design also involves the user’s experience with the website, which is why an analogy of a website being a poster is only part-true. In reality, a website is a fluid document – it changes with input from the user and looks different on different devices. OCG works to build the coolest website imaginable for our clients, but we know at the end of the day that it is essential to market it correctly, and websites should never stop when the design is completed.
As a secret confession, I used to wonder this question all the time. There are plenty of online tools to build a website, and before I became a web designer, I even built my own portfolio using one of these tools. The issue with all of them… they’re awful. Even discounting the fact that all of them stop at the end of web design, the web design itself is clunky, confusing, and very limiting. I didn’t realize this until I experienced it first hand. A website should never stop at the end of creative web design. Instead, it should be a rocket-powered branding piece pushing the client forward to more exposure and spurring the start of a comprehensive effort to convert website visits into leads. OCG custom designs each website so it is beautiful and branded, but most importantly, they are scalable and sturdy for expansion in traffic and tailored to convert site visitors into customers.
After website design is completed, many people stop and never touch it again. It’s similar to making a cool poster and then never posting it anywhere. Why? Internet marketing takes effort, DIY site builders don’t have the resources to market each site created and the sites themselves are cluttered and reject efforts to market them. A lot of this is due to lack of on-site SEO support in addition to other elements such as effective landing pages and lack of Conversion Rate Optimization. It is much easier to stop after finishing the web design part.
The point is, OCG Creative is a dedicated and experienced Reno web design and internet marketing agency that has the resources. Websites should be built to be optimized for internet marketing. The issue with DIY site builders, is the website's inability to integrate with a meaningful and comprehensive marketing campaign for individual clients. This is because DIY sites purposefully exclude any means of integrating with an internet marketing plan, it is simply too much effort for DIY site builders to accommodate these features. Internet marketing takes time and a sturdy website foundation specifically built for internet marketing. Additionally DIY site builders don't want to manage campaigns because they take time and constant tuning. Hard work with SEO, Landing Pages, CRO, and other services, take time to gain traction. OCG maintains these campaigns, constantly tailoring our client’s Internet Marketing plans to coincide with optimal conversions including tracking page visits and valued keywords to get them ranking higher. You can’t get that level of detailed attention with do-it-yourself websites. It takes significant time, specialized data collection, and informed decisions to be implemented after data collection to market a website correctly.
If you’re not sure where to go from here knowing all of this or if you still think an awesome looking website is the most important thing for you or your business, give us a call or browse our other topics. We’ve been doing this for a while and know the internet marketing world front and back.
Yesterday started out as an average busy afternoon, evenly spaced with quick yet heated discussions about Ender’s Game (movie and book), as well as, the “rumored” participation of the great Harrison Ford in the upcoming Star Wars Episode VII. Soon enough, said conversation abruptly sputtered out of control, down the proverbial rabbit hole that encompasses a geek's curiosity and need to discover hidden things on the interwebz (internet, for the nontechnical demographic out there).
I got what I thought was a “can you do something?” or worse yet a “did you do something?” request from Caroline, our wonderful SEO and many other talents guru (yes I am attempting to suck up). While oblivious to this request, Caroline so very politely reminded me to check my email. In my inbox yielded a message with the subject line “Can you figure this out?”.
So, what was this is all about?
Reno Startup Weekend is an event where “entrepreneurs come together and turn an idea into reality within 54 hours”. Later this month there will be a weekend full of events and competitions for entrepreneurs to bring their ideas, get mentored, launch startups and build products all at Reno Startup Weekend. The organization was posing a challenge to receive a discount for tickets to this year's event. A friend and colleague, Nicole- @nicolerosedion, from The Abbi Agency had been trying to get me to participate in this event for a couple of weeks now. I was familiar with the event and was well aware that I was running out of time to buy my ticket. Funny enough, Caroline found this challenge while Facebook-ing, I mean doing industry research. Though had I checked my text messages, I would of realized that Nicole already tried to clue me into the challenge earlier that day.
I followed the link and was greeted with this... “Things are not as they seem.” Well, that is all it took, I was hooked and sprang into action. Ah, the excitement and pressure as Caroline watched on clearly expecting a "Eureka!" 30 seconds after my quest began. Luckily this was not the case, so she left me to solve it on my own time and soon enough I had it!
I will tell you of the joy taking 15 minutes to doing something fun like this brought me. While I didn’t find this annoyingly challenging, it did force me to think outside the box and get creative to find the solution. This also reminded me that we should all take a few minutes a day to learn something new, using skills that we may not have to rely on everyday, or just do something challenging that's outside of your normal task flow. This will help to keep your creativity up and make the time you do spend being productive that much more valuable. With that rant, I hereby pass this challenge on to other any other developers and the curious who are up for the challenge. Take a few minutes out of your day to follow the white rabbit and be handsomely rewarded by not only the treasure at the end of the quest but by the enjoyment of taking a few minutes out of your routine to have some fun.
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