How To Choose the Right Website and Vendor

Selecting a Website is not like selecting an automobile -- until it comes time to choose the company from which to buy.

For most of us, a car is transportation. Almost any car that has an engine, tires and a steering wheel will get you where you want to go. That's true of a Plymouth or a Porsche. Leather seats and a monster stereo may make us feel better, but they don't increase the basic utility of the car itself. But, Taurus or Jaguar, you need to select a dealer who will get you started and keep you going over the long haul.

In the case of your company's Website, basic functionality should be directly related to what you pay. If you follow our advice in the October issue (find it online at www.businessnewsnow.com/issuelist.htm), you will have developed an online business plan to determine precisely what you want to accomplish with your Website. The more you want your Website to do, the more it will cost. But even if your budget is limited, your online presence can give you the look and feel of a much larger and well-established company. Good design and a solid site structure need not be expensive.

It's useful to divide Websites into three basic categories: low-end, mid-range and high-end. Several parameters define these categories:

* The amount of digital space. Think of it as pages-your site will occupy. A Web page is a variable entity, but you might think of it as a legal-size electronic page that contains text, graphic elements (your logo, for example), and internal and/or external navigation links. Another way to think of a page is as a discrete set of information, such as your company mission, your product list, your company history, etc.

* The complexity of the site itself. Is it essentially a static company brochure that describes who you are and what you sell? Or do you need a site with frequent updates and sophisticated functionality such as electronic commerce capabilities?

* The amount of time it will take your provider to complete the site. A basic site of five to 10 pages will be very easy to do-and will be something your provider has done over and over with relatively minor variations. Even a large, but straightforward site may be easy to build. On the other hand, a complex site such as ours (www.businessnewsnow.com) or that of Suncoast Lamination (www.idsource.com, built by Westside Automation), require a unique approach and sophisticated programming skills.

Here's what you should expect at various price points:

Low-end: Cost $500-$1000. Your site will contain five to 10 virtual pages that combine text and graphics. Even at this size, you should be able to describe your company, its mission, its people and its products. And, if you have an area of expertise that will attract visitors, you can include that as well. You may also be able to add some unique functionality -- letting patients make appointments online, for example. Montgomery Eye Centers does all that in a simple but useful site (www.montgomeryeye.com). Naples Cheesecake is another good example of a site that is relatively simple but attractive, well designed and functional (http://www.naplescheesecake.com/).

Mid-range: Cost $1000-$3000. You should expect not only more physical content in 10 to 30 pages but added functionality as well. For example, you may want some basic ordering capability. You may also want to take advantage of some multimedia tools such as streaming video that enable your site visitors to explore your facility. The Naples Graphics Website (www.naplesgraphics.com) enables you to do just that. You may also expect another kind of functionality at this level. That's on the back end. If you have a site that needs updating, you may want a form-based tool that permits you to refresh content from your preferred location without having to learn html. Awebstation (www.awebstation.net) is beginning to offer some standard tools that make it easy for the user to update their site. For example, they are now offering a basic online newsletter creation capability.

High-end: Cost $3000 and up. At this level your site will not only be very large (perhaps 50 to 100 virtual pages) but will have sophisticated functionality both on the front end and the back end. For example, it may be driven from a database that is continually updated. The page you see on the screen does not actually exist until you arrive at the site; then, the database serves up the information elements, which make up the page you see. That's how BusinessNewsNow.Com is able to change its content daily with relative ease.

This requires an extremely knowledgeable team that can design and program not only the web pages but also the database driving the content of those pages. In effect, lots of hard work has to go on behind the scenes so that it is easy for the site owners to update the site and for the site visitors to find information that they want. This is how the Naples Philharmonic site (www.naplesphilcenter.org/) lets you find the kind of event you want at the time you want to see it. And this is how Cameron Real Estate (www.cresfla.com/) permits you to pull up listings of its commercial and residential properties.

Selecting Your Vendor

Southwest Florida is fortunate to have a number of local Website developers who give great value for your dollar. Once you have decided what size and type of site you need, selecting a vendor involves:

* Determining the breadth and depth of their capabilities: What are the technical qualifications of the staff? What kind of graphics design talent do they have? Do they have the ability to do database-driven sites?

* Reviewing Websites they have built: how do they look? Are they logically designed? Is the performance good? What did they cost to build? How are they maintained? What is the cost to maintain a site or sites you have reviewed?

* Talking to their clients: What was their experience? Did the vendor deliver on time and on budget? Did the vendor promise too little and deliver too much or (hopefully not) promise too much and deliver too much?

The bottom line: The world is headed to the web. You can afford to be there, too. Even with a limited budget, you can have a compelling Website that serves as a local, national or global marketing tool 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you select your vendor carefully, you may wind up with a Website that is as sleek and powerful as a Mercedes 600SL and as affordable as a Honda Accord.

Warning: Be sure you own your site and its name. When you contract with a developer to build your site, it is essential that your company own the content of the site. Some Website developers create your site and maintain ownership. The result is that if you decide to change providers, you must start all over again. In addition, you must be certain that the address of your site (www.yourcompany.com) is registered to you and not to the folks who built your site.