It is a given in today's world that most industries can benefit from some type of web site. That doesn't mean that the same web site solution will work the same for each business, quite the opposite really. Sometimes, it is easy for the non-technical to get enamored with features that are unnecessary or perhaps hurtful to the end goal.
Recently, I had a client come to me who was expanding their business. They had purchased a Flash template from an online vendor and now wanted to modify and SEM (search engine marketing) for the new web domain. Great! That we can do.
The only issue was that there was so much Flash and imagery, search engine spiders were going to have a hard time reading the actual content. It looked great to a person, but when sending a test run of the Googlebot, it didn't show any text. This wasn't something impossible to work around, but it did add cost to modification of the template and added time to how long the page took to index.
Her initial goal had been to create an attractive web site that would interest people to apply for employment. The site needed to rank well for a very specific region and industry. This could have been accomplished in a different manner that would have presented similar costs with better results.
Another client had come to us and needed to have all of their paper documents made virtual. Only catch was they were under Federal reporting requirements so these documents couldn't be lost, had to have workflow touches, and more. Now, mind you, this was 2000 and SharePoint was still in its infancy.
At the time, they had been looking at the current document and workflow software that would allow this. We presented a different approach. For the cost of the licensed packages + maintenance, we custom developed an Intranet application that made use of their already compliant databases, legacy mainframes, and other IT properties into a single portal which allowed them to reduce the number of touches per transaction and stay in a single interface.
The point of this story is that a web site is not just a web site. The Internet is such a common thing that many people take for granted the actual technologies and needs behind the web sites that make them what they are. Whether you are a veteran of 100 web site implementations or this is your first one, taking the time to move through each of the goals of the overall site will save you time and money on the implementation stage. Often what looks to be a cost savings on one side will end up being a greater expense in a later phase.
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