Myths About Websites

All sites are not created equally, and all sites will aim for different goals. Your business' website is a distinct business tool, and should be perceived, created and managed as such. The "product" supplied will differ greatly from one web design company to the next. Be mindful of that age old adage: You get what you pay for.

This is not always the case, but in truth, it is quite rare to find a business that could not benefit in some way from having a website. Some universal applications include email addresses, company contact information, listings of products and services, as well as brand recognition and proliferation. But getting a website just because your neighbour has one is definitely the wrong attitude to take. Your needs and goals will be unique and your website should therefore be unique.

Sadly, this is not true. It is true that, in time, the major search engines will most likely find your website and index it, but this may not happen for many months and they may not index your site favourably (i.e. visitors searching on your products or services may not be able to find your website).

Active and passive techniques should be employed to bolster the amount of targeted' traffic your website receives (targeted traffic consists of visitors who are actually interested in your business and its products and services, as opposed to visitors who wind up on your site by accident or misleading techniques). Apis Design's complete web strategy approach focuses heavily on garnishing high quality visitors to your website. There is an assortment of different ways to promote your site, and Apis can help you get started, or take your existing strategy to the next level.

Yes and no. Good brochures, like good websites, have goals. They set out to achieve something specific. A good website understands who its audience is, and helps them to achieve their goals.

This is a big mistake. You have invariably spent lots of time and money creating a brand for your business. You have certain fonts, colours, and styles that are already associated with your brand. When someone who knows your company "offline" visits your website and sees something completely different, they may feel as though they have landed on a different company's website (who happens to have the same name as your business). This dilutes your brand and can work against your marketing efforts.

Your website should be closely tied in to your other marketing and branding efforts. You need to present a unified front to your customers to be memorable in the marketplace.

You wouldn't entrust someone with an interest in watching ER to perform your heart surgery, no matter how close of a friend they were or how well they could spell 'angioplasty'. You would trust the professionals; that's us (not at heart surgery, though - we tend to focus on websites).

Not so. People browsing websites from handheld devices have completely different objectives, needs, and usability characteristics compared to people browsing at their desks.

Handheld screens are typically a few inches across, at best: Desktop screens are almost always bigger than 19 inches.

Handheld browsers are in a hurry; they're on a bus or walking down the street; they only have a few seconds to find what they're looking for; they're not interested in browsing - they're interested in finding. Desktop users can take their time.

Read our article on how to build a mobile website, or visit our mobile site to see the differences. Mobile sites are one of our specialties, so contact us if you want to learn more.