Why Have a Website?

There are three good reasons for every organization's having a website.

1. The public presentation of a website is viewed by many as an organizational mark of legitimacy. Those without websites are viewed as backward, small-minded, or lacking vision. It has become a sine qua non of any serious business entity.



2. Many organizations have begun using interactive websites to support essential, but expensive, business processes, such as customer support, technical support, and product registrations.



3. As a tool for distributing information, the web is without peer. It is versatile, expeditious, inexpensive, flexible, and downright fun. While other applications-such as email, listservs, Archie, Gopher, Internet Relay Chat (IRC)-have been used for over a quarter of a century to support communication, the phenomenal growth of the Internet only began after the introduction of the World Wide Web (WWW). So, if your organization does not have a website, get with it!

A Website Is Deceptively Powerful

Organizations that have (or soon will have) a website should recognize it for what it is-a tool that possesses a tremendous range of power-from announcing basic information to exchanging vital business transactions in real time. But whatever may be the purpose of the website, if its intended audience cannot find it-then it will likely be a disappointment. Now, I'm going to switch from taking about it, them, and they, and make this very personal. To be used, people must be able to find your website. So how do we announce and advertise the existence of an obscure website like yours? (After all, if an obscure website can be made findable, then surely any website can be.)

Traditional Media

You can use any traditional medium to advertise a website. Ironically, you are using the older media to advertise the upstart that's trying to take its place.  You should print the domain name (web address) on business cards, newspaper advertisements, stationery, television and radio plugs, and the like. That will increase the number who see and remember your website address, but there are two severe shortcomings to this as a sole strategy.

1. First, paying for the creation, publication, and distribution inherent in any one of these older media forms is less cost/effective.


2. Secondly, and perhaps more important, these media have a narrow, limited scope. They are really designed to get the attention of a local or regional population. The WWW's strength is that it is worldwide. With this technology, you have the ability to reach a worldwide audience of possible customers and business partners.

Use the Internet

Current research has found that 90% of website accesses begin by using a search engine (such as Google, Yahoo, Lycos, etc.) in which the user typed in a "key word" or a "key phrase" related to what they are searching for. However, even if your web site were the best-written of all and your products represented the highest possible value, it is still unlikely that it would be ranked high enough to be found by a search engine. The reason for this is sociological--not technical.  We live in a contagiously impatient world, whose inhabitants are used to--and expect--instant gratification. While the use of the Internet did not originate that character trait, it has certainly indulged it.  Most search engine users rarely look past the third page of the search results. If what they want is not found there, then they typically start a new search with different key words or key phrases.  Your web site must achieve high ranking (e.g., the first three pages of a search engines results list) by the top search engines or an important part of your customer base simply will never find it!

This is the point at which we can help. We will optimize, submit, and monitor your site with search engine optimization (SEO) tools and strategies to achieve maximum ranking with the search engines. Our optimization of your site will result in a vast improvement of your online advertising, promoting your site cost-effectively, and positioning it well in a search engine response list (SERL). The traffic you receive from search engines consists of pre-qualified buyers who are looking a product or service that you have. This whole process, as outlined, is generally called Search Engine Optimization or just Optimization.

What We Do For You

As we perform it, SEO consists of the following:

• We rewrite or edit your existing copy
We have writers who are, without question, flat-out experts at writing copy. We will determine your focus products, services, and target market. We will analyze your existing pages and make change recommendations to effect top ranking by search engines. Content is everything in the SEO process. We will select the most effective key words or key phrases that are relevant to your business.


• We will optimize the "hidden parts" of your website
A browser does not display all of a web page's code. We will determine the popular key words and key phrases, and use these to optimize tags, titles, graphics, and other parts of the code to improve your site's indexing by major search engines.


• We will submit your site
We will submit any or all pages on your site to all of the major search engines. We will also make some recommendations about developing a "pay per click" (PPC) strategy that will speed up your website's ranking.


• We will monitor your progress
Search engines change their ranking procedures unexpectedly and usually without fanfare. A number of factors makes monitoring your site important to keeping your ranking high. If your site is not found in the first few pages, it won't be found. Search Engine Optimization is a continuous process to attain and keep a high ranking. We will monitor the search engines for a minimum of three months (or for the duration of our contract with you, whichever is longer) to ensure that your URL continues to maintain or improve on its ranking and remains indexed. We will resubmit your site, as necessary.

Optimizing your site for high search engine rankings really works! Western Consulting Associates is committed to understanding what matters to your customers and directing them to your site! Contact us using any of the methods described here.