Visually spotting a bad choice of web design company
It’s no secret: the internet is no longer limited to computers. The proliferation of smartphones, tablets and phablets is bringing many changes to web marketing and website presentation. For example, a website laid out in two vertical columns doesn’t lend itself well to viewing on a smartphone, even if the format may be appropriate for a computer screen. If yours displays a single version regardless of the type of device used, the company that built the website didn’t bother to do “responsive web design,” that is, optimizing the display according to the specific criteria of each viewing device.
Another easy-to-spot sign can be found on your home page: the company that built your website didn’t “sign” its work by putting its logo or name at the bottom of the page as an anchor to its own website. Far from being just a way to advertise at your expense, this boosts their positions on Google, their “ranking.” Google likes links to credible external sites, and this gives your healthcare business a little boost in visibility.
Here’s a third sign, even more obvious than the previous one: the website address. If it’s long, broken up, unreadable, or doesn’t mention your location for a local business, it’s a sign that there was no SEO strategy behind it.
If in doubt, ask yourself whether you could remember your healthcare business’s website address if you had nothing to write it down with. Even if you can’t memorize it, it should seem obvious.
Professionally spotting a bad choice of web design company
If you were involved in choosing the company that designed your website, here are a few other signs that can help you judge whether the choice was a wise one.
Search engines don’t deliver results to queries completely at random: the order in which results appear in Google depends on your famous “page rank.” Google’s algorithms seem complex, but web specialists know them and know how to take advantage of them.
If no one took the trouble to sit down with you and explain what SEO and SEM are, you’re unlikely to know how to optimize your website and your content to increase your chances of appearing on the first page, which is a priority in web marketing. If the text used is the same as in your printed brochures, it’s more than likely poorly suited to the web.
Hello, is anybody there?
One last sign, but not the least, since it’s a very bad one: the company that built your website is no longer in business. If that’s the case, see this bad luck as an opportunity to get off on the right foot now that you know more about it.
Don’t forget that you always have the right to ask questions. Without becoming an expert, you can have a general understanding of the subject: even if detailed knowledge of hematopoiesis is limited to health students and professionals, Quebecers know that red blood cells are renewed. It’s your money and your healthcare company’s image, after all.
