Internet Building Codes Blog

The investment that many organizations make in their websites is significant, at times exceeding $100,000. The assistance that the IBCC provides, assures that your vision for your web development project is communicated effectively to potential vendors through the request for proposal.  But for many, writing the RFP or request for proposals is the easy part.  Once the proposals start to roll in, then the process of selecting the right website developer with the best qualifications begins and if you’re not versed in the technical aspects of website development, that can be a daunting task.

So how do you know you’re making the right decision.  On paper, all of the companies look similar.  They all claim to have the experience to handle the work.  They all have great testimonials and their prices may even be similar.  After receiving dozens of proposals, comparing apples to oranges can be a difficult task. Because no two proposals are the same, the evaluation process often proves to be as tricky as the writing of the RFP itself.

So how can you choose the right one?  It’s difficult.

You’ll probably wind up speaking with many website experts throughout the process but who can you trust? While each of the vendors you interview will undoubtedly offer great advice, only the IBCC can offer completely unbiased advice because the IBCC doesn’t have a dog in the fight, so to speak.  You’ll have piece of mind knowing that the experts at the IBCC are on your side, holding your hand as you make these important decisions for your company.

Website RFP assistance provided by the IBCC was developed to serve small businesses, non-profits, government agencies and NGOs as they begin the daunting process of finding a qualified vendor for their website development project.  But the help doesn’t end after the selection of the vendor.

The IBCC can help from start to finish, even offering an unbiased review of the website after it goes live.  Our unparalelled website review looks at more than 190 different points in a website to determine if it’s meeting its full potential in areas such as initial impressions, marketing, sales, SEO and more.  This 3-part custom audit will reveal the weak areas within the site that can be silent killers while also highlighting the most successful areas of the site so that they can be capitalized upon.

For assistance with your RFP, website vendor selection or post-production website audit, please call the IBCC for more information.   Our toll-free number is 888-674-0079.  Remember, we’re here to help.  Can you afford to make a decision as important as this one, on your own?  If you’re thinking that you may be dealing with a subject that’s a little beyond your comfort zone, then give us a call and we’ll walk you through the process.

Have you recently been asked to develop an RFP for your organization’s website? Do you have the experience necessary to handle the writing of the RFP and then evaluate the vendors that respond with proposals?

If you’re like many people who have been charged with the task, you may feel like you’re being asked to do something for which you’re not qualified. And not only is the success of the project on the line, so is your reputation. In an economy where new jobs are hard to come by, your success is important to your career.

But what if you knew you had an expert to lean on to assure that you were making the right decisions on something as important as your organization’s website?

We know how you’re feeling. And that’s why the IBCC began partnering with companies and government agencies, offering unbiased consultative services geared to help in the creation of the initial RFP and then evaluate the list of respondents. Since each vendor is likely to make a case for why they’re the strongest candidate, only an unbiased expert can identify potential red flags and read between the lines to determine the best fit for your project. With the IBCC’s RFP assistance, you’ll have peace of mind, knowing that you’ve made the best decision for your organization when choosing your next website development vendor.

If you’re in the market for a new website and you’re feeling overwhelmed at the thought of choosing the right website developer, let a qualified member of the IBCC be your guide through this complicated process. Call 888-674-0079 and let one of our representatives answer your questions.

Google just loves websites that are updated frequently. They’re in the business of organizing the information on the Internet and they like sites that provide good content that’s ever-changing. Not only will they reward your site for frequently changed content, they’ll also add the new content to their site more quickly.

Here’s what I mean. Did you ever wonder how news sites like CNN or MSNBC can get their headlines listed on Google within minutes of when they’re posted? Google visited their site and realized that there was new content since the last time they came so they came back again, but this time sooner than the last time. If the first time they read through the site, they found new stuff, they’d come back again in 30 days. If they find new stuff again, they’ll come back again in let’s say 15 days. New stuff again? Maybe they’ll check out the site again in a week. And so forth, until they visit the site every couple minutes looking for new content.

So, if you’re wanting your site to be spidered more frequently, you just have to post content more frequently. Eventually, your site will reach the point where you can post new content and find it on Google within minutes.

So what’s the best way to do this? Why not add a blog. There’s a reason why the word blog has become known as an acronym for Better Listings On Google. Google loves blogs because they typically change more frequently than standard static pages. You don’t have to use a blog though. I you use new articles on your site, that’s fine too as long as you have new content added to your site on a fairly regular basis. Just make sure that you use all of the same SEO techniques that you’d use in any other page of your site. I see so many sites that waste their time blogging about a topic that’s irrelevant to their overall business objectives. For instance, I just read a blog post that was teaching people how to optimize their sites. Instead of actually using a phrase that was related to their business, they chose to use “red sports cars” as the example. They must have mentioned the phrase 30 times in the blog post. I wouldn’t doubt if they’re found at the top of Google for phrases like “red sports cars” rather than things that actually help their business, like “website design.”

Hope that helps.

Chadd Bryant

Text to code ratios are becoming more and more important in the all-important SEO race to the top of Google’s organic listings.  Simply put, a text to code ratio is a measurement that shows how much of your page is code is compared to the amount of visible text you have on your pages.  A page with lots of code and just a little content will have a low text to code ratio, a number like 3%.  A page with clean, well-written code and lots of great content will have a higher ratio, like 40%.  Google has shown preference for sites with higher text to code ratios simply because they have lots of great content.  But notice that just having lots of content won’t give you a great text to code ratio.  You also have to have clean code.  If you’re a programmer that writes bloated code, like Dreamweaver does, then you’re likely to offset any gain you see by increasing your content because while adding more content, you also add more code to display it.  So you have to use clean code AND longer content to increase your text to code ration.

How do you do that?  The best way is to avoid the use of tables for your layouts.  CSS can position your images and format your content with limited code so relative to programming with tables, your code will be cleaner.  Google can look at your code and easily find the content.  They’re in the business of finding your content, not your code so if they have to week through thousands of lines of code just to get to a couple lines of content, they’re likely to leave and stop reading through all of the pages in your site.  But if you have a page of code that’s only 50 lines long with 25 lines of content, Google will reward you.

Hope that helps.

Chadd Bryant

In this digital age, it seems that more and more, people are becoming more and more prone to use the undo command.  Back a few years ago, when something was designed, it was done with pencils, markers, rubylith and waxing machines.   But these days, everything is digital and undoing things is easier than ever.  Plus, with the advent of the Intenet, nothing is set in stone.  Since Internet files are never sent to print, we’re not stuck with 50,000 copies of an old out-dated brochure.   But, since everything is fluid, things are constantly changing and clients are more apt to ask for changes with little regard to the intentionality that was put in place in the original design.

I call it “Monkey Boy” when a client sits over your shoulder telling you exactly what to do, as if they were the expert.  This scenario almost always results in lack-luster results.  So how can you avoid this scenario?

Here are a couple tips to avoid becoming Monkey Boy:

1. Always maintain a professionalism in every aspect of your business.
2. Increase your rates.

Let me address each of those points separately.  First professionalism.  Clients are looking for professional advice.  As long as you maintain that professionalism they are more likely to respect you and your expertise.  But when you display anything that’s unprofessional, you immediately close the gap between your expertise and their naivete.  It may be something as slight as a hesitation.  They may ask a question and you may hesitate.  They take that as a clue that you may not really understand your craft.   Or maybe it’s that you answered your cell phone after hours with kids in the background.  That can immediately lower you in their mind from a professional to a common dad.  Sure being a dad is great and establising relationships are wonderful, but nonetheless, that can diminish your credibility and ope the door for them to begin treating you like Monkey Boy.

Now let’s talk about your price.  You know it–you get what you pay for.  If you’re charging too little, then your clients are likely assuming that you may not be as good as the next guy who charges more.  Are you clients more likely to butt in and offer their opinion if you’re perceived as the chump that is punching the keys of if you’re the high-dollar professional from out of state?  Charge more and you’ll likely get a very different reaction and will immediately command more respect.  But you’d better know what you’re doing.  People can see right through a hack and if you don’t offer value, they’ll ditch you.

Does this ever happen to you?  You design a new site.  You love it.  It’s the hottest thing you’ve ever made.   Then you close the Photoshop file for a couple days.  When you open it you hate it.  What happened?

You were too close to it.  You couldn’t see straight.  Closing the project and revisiting it a couple days later gives you a fresh perspective.  It allows you to be more objective.

Unfortunately, the same thing can happen at any point in the design and development process.  It can happen with the writing, the layout, the programming or the marketing.  The good news is that the Internet is fluid and nothing is locked in stone.  If something needs to change, you can change it, because it’s digital.  One of the best ways to get this distance is to just remove yourself from the equation.  Even after a couple days you can still be so close to a project that you can not see it objectively, like someone who’s never seen the site before.  That’s why assembling a group of people to test the site can prove invaluable.  Preferably, use people who are in your target market.  If you’re selling video games, don’t bother asking your grandma what she thinks.  Find people who would likely use the site.  But don’t just get their feedback.  Actually watch them as they surf the site.  See where they click first.   What paths do they follow through the site?  Are those the paths that lead to your desired action, like a sale through a shopping cart?

It doesn’t have to be a formal thing either.  Many marketing companies spend millions on testing with control groups, and that’s not a bad thing, but if your budget won’t support that, then just do what you can.   Asking five other people is better than not asking anyone at all.  These informal straw polls can reveal glaring issues that otherwise may have gone unnoticed.

Try not to get offended.  You’re obviously going to hear some negative feedback.  Your initial reaction will almost always be defensive.  Don’t try to explain why things are the way they are.   Just take the criticism and evaluate whether or not it’s worthy of further discussion.  Sometimes taking a couple days to digest the information can also be helpful, so you let your defenses down.  If you’re even a little bothered by the results of the critique, just put it on hold and usually a few days will allow you to accept the feedback as a positive thing rather than a negative thing.

Hope that helps.

As the ecomomy seems to worsen, more and more people are turning to SEO for their marketing efforts.  SEO has proven time and time again to provide the highest ROI compared to any other form of marketing because of the global exposure that can be gained when a site is found in the search engines.  But search engine optimization isn’t always inexpensive.  In fact, many SEO companies are charging tens of thousands of dollars every month to help position their clients’ sites at the top of the SERPs.  So how can something so expensive provide the best ROI?  Simply because the return is proportionate to the amount spent.  Sure you might spend a small fortune, but if your business model is designed correctly and your margins are sufficient, you should profit from the exposure.  So how do you avoid spending too much?

Let’s take a look at a basic example to figure out how much is too much for SEO.

Let’s say you sell something that’s a pretty popular item, like iPods.  There were 24,900,000 searches last month for that phrase.  I suppose if you captured just a small portion of those people you’d be happy, right.  So let’s assume that you spent $100,000 on SEO to get your site ranked at the top of Google when someone searches for ipods.  If you could get half of the people searching to click on your listing that would mean that you’d get about 12 million visitors/month to your site.  Not everyone is going to buy an iPod from your site so let’s shoot really low and assume that only 1 out of every 500 people buy from you.  That’s 24,000 sales.  Even if you only make $10 on each iPod, that’s $240,000 profit/month or $2.8 million/year.  Don’t you think that the $100,000 spent on SEO would have been a good investment?

Let’s look at another example and see if the formula always works out.

In this case, you’re selling a map of the Denver metro area.  Sure tourists might like it but only 1000 people per month are searching for maps of Denver and frankly, most of those people are getting their maps for free from the Internet.   So if you were to spend a chunk of change to get your site listed at the top of Google when tourists are searching for “Denver maps” would you be able to make money.  If you could get even 500 of those 1000 people to visit your site and even if 1 out of every 5 bought a map, you’d only sell 100 maps/month.  Let’s say they sell for $12 each.  That’s $1200 per month or $14400 per year.  When you consider your costs for printing the maps you may only make $3000.  Looks like you can’t spend much on marketing in order to sell your maps.  When you have a small niche like maps in Denver, in order to profit, you also have to have an extremely high sales conversion rate.  No amount of SEO can make more people search for your product so you’re stuck.  You have a fixed number of people searching for your product.  You have little control over that.  Unless you have limitless marketing budgets, creating demand for a product is difficult at best.  We always say that you can’t make a market.  But you can serve an already existing market.  Keep that in mind when you’re looking for opportunities.  First find a market that’s underserved, and then find a way to fix their problem.