Keep it Clean

Let me start by saying this is hard. You’ve got a complex, real-world business. There’s a lot to say about how great you are.  But it’s too easy to fall in the trap of trying to find a spot for every bit of content on every page. Not every new thing is “the most important thing”. You need to understand what your users are looking for, then pare it down as far as you can. Find your message, and stick with it.

Keep it Fresh

If keeping clean is hard, then keeping fresh is easy. (Unless you’re Outkast. They are both.) Your website shouldn’t say it’s 2007. Or 2009. Or anything other than the year it is. It shouldn’t have pictures of employees who left in shame after the last Christmas party. Not because of the shame, because they aren’t there anymore. Especially with a Content Management System, there’s no reason not to keep things fresh. It makes you look professional and relevant.

Keep it Obvious

Your business website can be clean and fresh and still not convert traffic to sales if it’s not obvious. A call-to-action is that thing you want your user to do: make a phone call, buy your widget, download your e-book. If you don’t ask them to do that, then they won’t, because they don’t know that’s the point. If you say “Well, it’s obvious!” then just make it look obvious. Don’t make anyone guess how to be your customer.

Pay Attention

Getting a website is not a “one-and-done” type of activity. The web is changing, growing, and advancing, and part of being in business is keeping up. If your site is clean, fresh, and obvious, you’ve made it for today. Tomorrow, check back. You change, your customers change, and the medium changes. Stay on top and ride the wave.

I can’t tell you how other website design firms do it, but let me tell you how we do it.

Collect information and provide a free, itemized estimate
Before we provide an estimate for your web project, we want to know all about your business. We believe that we will be much better marketers if we understand and believe in your product completely — that way we don’t have to pretend. We also want to make sure that you fully understand your problem. We have done this before, and we will ask difficult questions to make sure that the whole process is fully understood by both parties. In our experience we have come across dozens of products and solutions that will make building your website easier. There is no need to re-invent the wheel.

We will then take all of our recommendations and provide an itemized quote for you. The choice is yours which items you will do initially, which ones you will leave for later, and which ones you want to scratch all together. The final quote price will then be easily estimated.

Start with a template
The majority of our websites come from templates or pre-made designs. We find that it’s easier for most people to pick and choose what they want from a template site and then pay us only to customize it (even if it’s changed extensively) to create the kind of design they want. In cases where no customization is needed, you can save a bundle of money by using a pre-built solution by a professional graphic artist.

If you’ve already got a design in mind, we can work with that too. Our graphic artist can listen to your requests and provide mock-up designs based on what you want.

Add functionality
Once the design is solidified, the next step in website development is to add functionality. We will discuss the regions of your page that you would like to have special functionality — web forms, message boards, interaction, flash, etc. — and we will take care of the programming to make it happen.

Focus on internet marketing from the beginning
Internet marketing cannot be an afterthought. After all, your website is useless to you unless it makes you money. Before agreeing to an internet marketing job, we perform extensive keyword research to find out exactly what the competition is like. That way, we can sculpt your content in such a way to achieve maximum search engine rankings.

Final walkthrough
Your quote will also give you a timeframe for the project. You will receive periodic updates throughout the process (along with necessary communication), and will be given the opportunity to do a final walkthrough before your site goes live. All of our sites are built in a secret development area which you will have access to, and during the final walkthrough you will be able to inspect every facet of the project and insure that it is what you had in mind. Once the page is approved, we will help get the code transfered to your live server for all to see.

Continued relationship
We’ve been in business long enough to learn that even project based work doesn’t end when the project ends. We aim to develop an on-going relationship with our clients so that they can feel comfortable asking us questions and using our services in the future. If you stand still, your competition will pass you by and that’s why having a powerful internet marketing partner is so important.

If you’d like a free quote, give us a call or fill out our online contact form.

We look forward to working with you!

Dallin

The advent of the Internet is changing the way the world does business at an alarming rate. Staying on top of it is a challenge even for the experts, let alone for business owners. Skyhook Internet Marketing aims to make the process simple and profitable by consulting these business owners and helping them build their online presence.

Our Process
Skyhook Internet Marketing is different from other web design firms. Our goal is to make your project a success. We understand that a beautiful and powerful website will do nothing for you unless someone sees it. That’s why we build all of our websites from the ground up with the visitor in mind. Our pages are more likely to be found on search engines and to be visited by more visitors.

The first step in our process is to provide a comprehensive, free estimate. We ask lots of questions to make sure we understand your website’s purpose and your business’ problems correctly, then we go to work and provide you with a quote you can hold us to. The quote will be an itemized list of everything we’re recommending, along with a proposed time line.

Next, we consult with you to make design recommendations based on our expertise and what you’ve already got in mind. This is an important step to us not only because we want your site to look good for your visitors but because we want to build a portfolio for ourselves that we can be proud of.

The next step is to decide on functionality. We look at the current and future needs of your business and design a website that will support those needs. With our vast knowledge of products available on the internet, we are often able to make recommendations that will save you headaches in the future and keep cost down from the get-go.

Finally, we will construct your website on a private domain where you can constantly check up on our progress and give important feedback. Once the site is finished, you will have an opportunity to do a “final walkthrough” and make any changes to the site that you wish. We will then make those edits, and you will have a final product uploaded to your “live” webserver.

Internet Marketing
At Skyhook Internet Marketing, internet marketing is not an “afterthought.” In many cases, web design companies leave search optimization to other firms believing that their “focus” is on good design and not necessarily on getting noticed. We believe that these two elements are inseparable, and that internet marketing needs to be taken very seriously from the beginning.

Skyhook Internet Marketing focuses on both on- and off-page factors when working on an internet marketing campaign. All of our pages are standards-compliant, complete with optimized title, meta keyword and meta description tags as well as other tiny details that make a big difference on search engines. For off page factors, we offer monthly services to “stir the pot” and get your site noticed on a number of social media sites relevant to your industry.

Hosting
Skyhook Internet Marketing takes the headache out of web hosting by partnering with United Hosting, a web host that we’ve found after years of research to be one of the most solid in the industry. With their solutions, we are able to offer near 100% uptime for our customers, 4-times daily backup and quick answers to support tickets. Skyhook Internet Marketing adds value by taking care of the setup and maintenance of your website so that you only have to think about running your business.

For our customers in Surprise, Arizona and throughout the greater Phoenix metro area, working with a local designer has been important. Much work can be done over the internet, but many times (at least with the tools available now) it is more effective to sit down with a local designer and plan out a project.

Surprise is now a bustling community of nearly 90,000 people. It is now the second fastest growing community near Phoenix (after Gilbert) and many new businesses have opened shop in the last year. Skyhook Internet Marketing is proud to provide web design and development services for our customers in Surprise, Arizona and around the globe.

This is especially true in virtual web design groups.

At Skyhook Internet Marketing, we take full advantage of every tool we can sink our teeth in to that promotes online collaboration. We use Google Calendar for planning out our timeline. We use Google Docs and Zoho for real-time, shared document editing. We have used E-groupware for project management and time reporting, and are currently giving Zoho projects and Zoho invoicing a try. It seems that with each release, these programs are making it just as easy for people to work together from across the country as it is for those who sit two cubicles apart!

Creating websites through virtual groups keeps costs down
Perhaps the biggest reason we take advantage of collaboration software to create websites is that it keeps costs down. Gas is expensive, but our team does the majority of our work from home and never has to commute! That also allows us to get an earlier start in the morning and often finish early or at least get more done because we spend our time and efforts working — not commuting! Because of this, we haven’t had to invest in an expensive office or any of the expenses that come with it. We wouldn’t use them! The same is true for office supplies, fees, etc.

Creating websites through virtual groups provides a better finished product for the customer
The real benefit of collaborating online through virtual groups is that it creates a better finished product for the customer. Because costs are down and communication is up, we are able to put a lot more effort in to our websites for the same price or cheaper than other firms. Not to mention the fact that being online all day exposes us to thousands of websites and we are often among the first to see new trends or hear about new ways to do business.

Virtual web design groups free up time to do what we want
Don’t get me wrong one of my favorite things to do is web design. But as you would probably agree, looking at a computer screen starts to hurt your brain after a while. Working in virtual groups lets us get our work done quickly so we can move on to spending time with the family, improving ourselves, exercising, thinking, organizing, etc. which, at least for me, is a huge benefit.

Virtual web design allows us to work when we feel like it
There are a lot if interests that vie for my time, and one of the things I appreciate most about online collaboration is that it allows me to work when I want. When I was in school, I was able to spend mornings in class and afternoons in study groups, letting all of my work pile up online during the day and then hammering it out at night.

Whatever evidence or reason there may be to avoid online collaboration is slowly fading away. As software applications become more powerful, there is every reason to switch to an online environment. It will give you the competitive edge over the other guys. It will help you live a better quality of life. It will help you produce better work which will in turn benefit society as a whole!

Dallin