Internet Marketing – Web Design Ethics

It can be very frustrating when dealing with online Ethics… such as web design, you can have nearly the same look and feel yet be search engine friendly or not. More than 90% of the time, online marketing work (after industry research), is to rebuild what was purchased from a web designer. The web designer is a very important factor for all the great visual effects required, but don’t design to sell the owner, design to sell his clients. The actual owner in some cases wants the design and is never concerned about all the other marketing factors until… they have had their new web site for 6 months or so and then begin to wonder why nobody is contacting them from the web site or even wonder if the forms on the site work… or even worse, is there any traffic? They are all catch 22’s.

What a business person truly needs is not usually what they request. This proposition must end up being a business asset, not an ongoing expense. The entire web presence needs to produce, not just be their name up in lights for the owners and their friends to see. But of course the correct way, the company asset way does have a higher price tag and will take longer to create, but may still “look” the same to the human eye. Ethically, I have to back out if the demand is only for web design as they will never, ever be happy with the end results… which is what the real bottom line is.

Here is an interesting experience I had with a business owner who just spent three weeks viewing proposals from web designers. He called me, I asked some up front questions to get me started with a little home work, then brought him my proposal about 8 days later and after going over it this was what he said to me: “Oh no, what I was about to do is buy a new car without an engine and park it in a garage for nobody to see”. It still makes me laugh today, but it was the best example I have ever heard of what happens when someone only wants web design.

In today’s war between competitors online, the website itself is only about 15% of the total battle for a successful web presence, yet that alone has so many positive or negative directions it can go in. Now add another few hundred marketing options and decisions outside the website. But, If your end goal is to Dominate your industry, then you already know there are many battles to face, and you also know that at the point you begin to Dominate, your rewards will well outweigh the sacrifices you have made on the road. It truly is a mind set.

Here is my personal observation after 10+ years in this business, and final question: Since the term “Internet Marketing” includes such a large spectrum of very specialized tasks which can alter significantly between industries, regions and languages… how is an expert possible? Implementing an industry domination strategy starts with you and your expertise in your business! There is a ton to do, let’s get busy!

C. Martin Guinn – www.eDomination.com