Do you need a mobile version of your website…or is it overkill?  Good question, and hopefully we can help you with the decision making process a little bit.  But first, a few quick facts:

• The iPhone retains a significant portion of the overall mobile device market share—and it doesn’t display any of the Flash-based components that traditional web browsers display.

• According to AdMob, one of the leading mobile advertising networks, nearly 40 million unique Android and iPhone mobile devices were in use worldwide during the month of April 2010.  And this is just 2 of the major mobile players—it doesn’t even include Blackberry or other popular devices.

• In Q1 2010, shipments of smart phones numbered 54.7 million units; this is a 56% increase over the previous year (see ZDNet article here).

The bottom line is this—more and more people are relying on their mobile devices to access your website.  While there is expansion and growth of the overall web market (in addition to traditional standard web browser use), there is also a trending shift away from traditional computer-based web browsers to mobile devices.

What Does This Mean For My Site?

Well, if you’re utilizing a Flash-based design, chances are, you’re already experiencing some trouble if you don’t have a mobile version of your site.  Your mobile visitors are simply not seeing all of your site (if any at all).  This is something to remedy one way or another as promptly as possible.

If your site is graphically heavy, or utilizes robust multimedia or programming functionality, its performance on mobile devices will be significantly impacted in a negative way.  Remember, not all mobile device users are on the latest high-speed data networks; also, mobile device processing power isn’t exactly as robust as your home or office PC.

Simpler, clean sites without all of the extra gimmicks should do well on most mobile devices without any additional modifications.  It is always important to test and verify this though.  Lightweight, standards-compliant sites will naturally do better on mobile device browsers than other, more resource-heavy websites.

What Does It Take To Go Mobile?

Creating a mobile version of your site is not always as difficult as it sounds.  With a modern, quality CSS-coded site, usually displaying the content in a mobile version of the site can be accomplished by simply creating an alternate stripped-down version of the CSS style—and then using automated code to direct mobile users to this version.  Some CMS sites have ready-to-plug-in mobile templates available to take even more of the hassle out of the process.  Of course, in other more complex cases, it can be quite a bit more challenging to accomplish.

Some site owners are choosing to just give the major areas of their sites a mobile-friendly makeover.  In the end, it’s really up to you to decide.  If at all possible though, it’s probably wise to just bite the bullet and go for it.  Your mobile visitors will definitely appreciate the fact that your site has considered their unique situation and tried to make life better for them!

If there is one thing about investing in a quality website that’s built upon solid web development, it would probably be the fact that once the initial site is done, future improvement and expansion is a breeze.  Let’s start this blog post off with an analogy:

Think about it for a minute—when you buy an older house that needs some modernization, do you tear it down and start over, or do you remodel it and return it to the modern livability it deserves?  Well, most of the time, the scenario follows the path of remodeling—it’s usually less expensive and less time consuming to produce perfect results this way.  Of course, sometimes, the renovations required would be extreme enough that starting over from scratch on a clean slate is the best approach to creating the dream home you have imagined.

The moral of the story?

Well, usually homes designed and built with quality in mind from the beginning are more future proof than those that are simply thrown together for a quick profit.  Both will need facelifts and updating in the future—that much is inevitable.  But the expenses and time required to keep up a well-built home are clearly less than the alternative in almost every case.

The bottom line here is that websites are really no different than homes.  Build them right and continued development is possible.  Yes, facelifts are necessary from time to time to keep things fresh, but the hard work will have been done upfront.  Now back to the original question for a few minutes…

How often should you give your website a new facelift?

The honest answer in short form is probably just a little bit more frequently than you’re comfortable with.  Web technology changes from day to day—most sites can weather these intensely short term changes well when they have been designed with a forward-looking approach to begin with.

But even then, the realty is inevitable.  Sites do need to be updated and modernized from a development and technology standpoint just to keep on functioning well with current software and hardware (and also to remain attractive from an SEO standpoint).

And even more important than the behind the scenes technology outlook is the fact that current graphic design standards change even more rapidly.  Think about your favorite looking mainstream website for a minute…do you remember the last major design facelift it’s had?

Chances are, you’ve just answered, “probably not.”  After all, the mainstream sites change so gradually and so frequently to keep up with the latest trends in design and marketing that it’s difficult to notice abrupt improvements (but try an internet archive search for that same site 3 years ago, and you’ll most definitely find that an extreme facelift has indeed taken place over the years).

Same goes for your favorite magazines and other media—look at a current issue and then pull one from the archives, just a few years in the past.  While the main subjects and topics remain the same, major design and style changes have taken place over the years.

Your website visitors do have an eye for design (even if they don’t realize it).  Seriously, in the design and marketing driven world we all live in today, constant exposure to commercials and advertising—all featuring cutting-edge graphic design—is completely the norm.  We’re programmed to recognize and expect certain design components and trends even if we don’t realize its taking place.  It’s just subliminal.

So in an ideal world, if the time and financing permit, giving a website a new facelift needs to take place frequently, little by little, making gradual improvements and updates.  Every different industry and niche permits growth at a slightly different pace; you’ve got to be in tune with what your competitors are doing to stay sharp.

And even though in the real world, most of us aren’t able to refresh and give our sites facelifts on a day-to-day, or even month-to-month basis (like the top online players are doing), we still need to look at our websites at least once a year to give a them a solid review and determine if it’s time for a good facelift.  If there are any doubts, then the answer is, yes…a facelift is in order.

Remember, your website should be a ROI-building tool.  Keeping it fresh and up to date in the eyes of your visitors is an important investment that simply must be made.

Getting a web design project launched down the right track is really about half of the entire project.  As different as one website is from the next, one thing stays static for all different kinds of web design projects—big and small, simple and complex—better planning always equates to better end results.

Here are 6 questions you’ll want to give some serious thought to (and discuss with your designer) before proceeding with the production phases of the website design project:

1. What’s the difference when it comes to pro vs. amateur web designers?

It’s always a good idea to go through the vetting process with each of the designers you’re considering working with.  You might get a few lowball bids by developers that would seem to have some knowledge of web development, but when push comes to shove, simply don’t have the experience or professionalism to ensure a smooth project from start to finish.  Ask all of the right questions to weed out the amateurs from those experienced in producing better-than-satisfactory results for projects similar in caliber to yours.

2. What is the price and how do payments work?

If you think a web designer is being a little bit forward by wanting to discuss payment details and amounts quite early in the process, please know that they’re just trying to keep you up to speed in that department so there’s no sticker shock or surprises later on.  Experienced developers can usually get really spot-on when it comes to estimating the scope and price of a project, but there needs to be a contingency plan in place if the scope should need to be escalated along the way.  Make sure you’re on the exact same page as your web pros when it comes to pricing and payments before ever thinking about beginning production.

3. What is the purpose of the site?

You’ll want to really think about this one and ensure your designer grasps it very well too.  Unfortunately, it happens all too often that an organization decides to create a new website just for the sake of needing a new website.  But what goals should the site encompass?  Who should it attract, how will it bring visitors in, and what will the site do for the visitors once they are there?  By nailing out these essentials before going any further in the design process, the site can be custom-developed to accomplish these extremely important goals—rather than trying to address the concerns and retrofit the site once it’s too late.

4. What features and content will the website offer?

Once goals of the site have been carefully planned out, the next step is understanding and setting up a precise plan of action to accomplish them.  This is where the site’s features and content come in.  What needs to happen in order to achieve all of the goals set forth?  It might be writing a well thought-out section of quality, SEO-optimized content; it might be adding relevant maps, databases, or subscription forms.  It’s all about fully understanding the feature set required to make your site perform the way it should.  Working with your knowledgeable, experienced designer, really sit down and get these aspects of the site right…right from the beginning.

5. How will you bring in your visitors?

Every site has its own unique approach to visitor acquisition.  Some sites will be more like online brochures that serve as a place for offline referrals from phonebooks, offline advertising, and similar sources to land.  Other websites will be developed around a philosophy of attracting a ready-to-purchase, niche-oriented audience from the search engines.  Whatever the case may be for you, just be sure to figure it out upfront.  This way, the developer can work in all of the necessary components from the ground up.

6. How does ongoing site maintenance work?

Maintenance is sometimes the very last thing you want to think about before the website is even designed to begin with.  But it’s still important to ask the question here.  After all, maintenance can play a huge role in how you’ll want to create your site.  For example, if you’re building a new e-commerce enabled site, would you want to have the ability to go in and manage your portfolio of products yourself…or will it be necessary to pay your web developer to add, edit, or remove products from your online shopping system?  Same goes for adding or editing website content—do you want to pay hourly developer fees just to add a new article; or would it be better to integrate a content management system (CMS) in to the site’s structure right from the beginning, so you can make your own updates and changes with no additional developer fees required?

Getting these details, along with all potential wrinkles, completely ironed out at the conceptual phases of the project always makes for a more efficient and more smoothly-implemented project.  Remember, it’s inevitable that better planning can only lead to one thing—a better website for you!

How much does a website really cost—it’s a good question, and certainly one of the more frequent inquiries within the web design trade.  But more importantly, it’s a question that just doesn’t have a simple, one-size-fits-all answer.  Let’s explore the topic a bit.

The $99 Special Vs. A Real Website That Actually Works

First of all, don’t be fooled by the bargain basement website offers out there.  They might get your most basic contact information listed on the web, but it would be a miracle if anyone actually found you through such a site (except those darn spammers—they seem to be able to find everything), yet alone found enough inspiration though the bargain site to take the next desirable action, whatever that might be for your business or organization.

Factors To Consider

Besides just being a creative, catchy graphic design, a website that works is actually much, much more.  Naturally, it’s going to cost more to create than a printed brochure or a stationary/business card package.

• SEO – A well-designed website takes full advantage of search engine optimization to draw in scores of free targeted traffic from all around the world.  Compare this to a direct mailing campaign, where sending just one round of sales material is very likely to cost as much as an entire web presence in many cases.  The only difference is the website keeps on working every single day, not just the one day the postcards hit your customer’s mailbox.
• E-commerce – It’s not a big surprise that so many retailers are emphasizing their online stores and gradually fading away from brick and mortar locations.  E-commerce operations are incredibly more efficient and fit the shopping model that so many consumers demand these days.  Sure, developing an attention worthy national or worldwide e-commerce setup is not going to be cheap—but compare it to the annual cost of operating just a single retail location in one locale, and it suddenly looks like a real bargain.
• CMS – This stands for “content management system,” and without going into every last detail, it can save you thousands of dollars over the long haul.  Basically, what CMS does is to allow you or the authorized users you specify to log in and make changes, additions, edits, and updates to the site at anytime from any web-connected computer.  It’s as simple as writing an email.  Compared with paying expensive web-designer hourly fees each time you need a word or two changed, spending a little bit extra upfront to establish a user-friendly CMS system is worth its weight in gold (figuratively speaking, that is…we know CMS doesn’t actually “weigh” anything).

And as far as other features go, there are hundreds of different options out there—each with a cost associated, but also each with a strategic advantage or selling point as well.  It’s safe to think of web design as building a house; it’s not just how many rooms you want and what color they should be painted…it’s also about what features you want, how much detail to include, how long you want it to last, and of course, how much you want to spend.

Another Way To Look At It

What will a bad website cost you?  What is not having a website costing you?  It’s easy to become distracted by realistic figures when it comes to the price of a website, but the idea behind developing an effective, professional website is to actually build and constantly improve that every-important bottom line.  Dollar for dollar, a high-end web presence is probably one of the single most practical and affordable marketing tools you’ll ever be able to take advantage of.

Your website is your online building.  It’s your brand online.  Done right, it’s even like having an entire sales force working for you 24/7…driving in sales and conversions around the clock and not even costing you the typical commissions.

So, how much does a website cost?  Anywhere from $500, to millions, or more.  It just depends on what it needs to accomplish and on what scale.

The real question is how much does not having a profit-producing website cost?