Website Design

[optical-rep]

Websites... do you do it yourself or hire someone to do it for you and if you hire someone, what is a reasonable amount of money to pay for the design? Thanks

[Jacqui]

I'm not computer savvy enough to do it myself, so I usually get students from the tech school to do it for me. They do a good job and are allowed to use it for their portfolios, grades, etc. Work cheap, usually $10 - 15 per hour cash plus coffee and cookies.

[Fezz]

I let the FezzJohns IT Department handle it!

[rbaker]

I'm not computer savvy enough to do it myself, so I usually get students from the tech school to do it for me. They do a good job and are allowed to use it for their portfolios, grades, etc. Work cheap, usually $10 - 15 per hour cash plus coffee and cookies.

I am curious to see the web site that your $10.00 an hour thumb monkeys from the local tech school published. What is the URL?

[Johns]

If anyone is looking for a great website for their practice, let me know.

It's as easy as web2-3!

(Really!)

[Jacqui]

I am curious to see the web site that your $10.00 an hour thumb monkeys from the local tech school published. What is the URL?

It's down now, was up for several years as CDOptical. The new one will be up in a bit at $12.00 hour and so far looks pretty good, just needs new photos and some editing.

[Chris Ryser]

Websites... do you do it yourself or hire someone to do it for you and if you hire someone, what is a reasonable amount of money to pay for the design? Thanks

It makes no difference how much you pay to design a beautiful website or if you make a crappy one yourself or have it done by a cheaply working student, have it set up on the web and see it go into oblivion in no time.

The best looking website can make it nowhere, and be without decent ratings if you do not understand the basic functioning of it and work it like you should, according to the rules and ways to success.

Website are like common advertising. They only get one looker in so and so many visitors to contact you, to enquire about your product or services. Therefore your site has to make the highest possible rankings in thousands of search engines to make visitors come and come again by the ratio you need to be successful.

Any dollars spent or time used is for the birds if you do not do it right. And doing it right is very cheap, the best advise is all free and given to you in weekly free reports by e-mail by the many search engines around.

A valuable test on good ranking websites is the Amazon owned http://alexa.com . You type the URL onto the search line and get instantaneously the websites popularity ranking. If it is in the 15 millions there are that many better ranking sites around and if it is 1 there is only one better one around.

There are only 8 websites in the optical supply trade that are ranking below a 500,000 Alexa rating and another 5 between 500,000 and a million. That is the range that is the most desirable for any website operator.

OptiBoard, May 25 today ranks at 118,698.
Statistics Summary for optiboard.com

OptiBoard.com is ranked #118,698 in the world according to the three-month Alexa traffic rankings. The site has been online since 1997. Compared with all internet users, the site appeals more to users who are over the age of 35; its visitors also tend to consist of women earning over $60,000 who have more children and browse from work. Visitors to this site view an average of 4.3 unique pages per day. Visitors to http://Optiboard.com spend approximately four minutes per visit to the site and 48 seconds per page view.

You can check over 800 optical sites at ----------> http://optochemicals.com/web_listing.htm

[peyes]

Do it myself eyeworldvision.com. Drives in 3 to 5 new patients a month but many current patients order their contacts at site

[mattc-ait]

First, is your site business to business, business to consumer? or both?

Next, It really depends on what you want out of the website. $10 an hour is not going to get you a site that is search engine optimized in most cases. What is more important is the content you have on your site, and the amount and types of sites that have inbound links to your site. Having content that is relevant to common keywords searched for on the internet, for instance, your name, location, and the different types of product and services you offer should all be mentioned on your site frequently and more importantly naturally. It is important to get yourself listed on industry directories. It also wouldn't hurt to spend some advertising dollars on various industry website as their inbound links will help with organic search. The more reasons you can give people to go to your website the higher your traffic will be. For instance, allow your customers to reorder product via your site, start doing some email marketing to drive people to your site ect.... Find a number that your are comfortable spending on a website and see what that will get you, you will end up being much happier than trying to get your site done as cheaply as possible.

P.S. Take Alexa scores with a grain of salt, alexa tracks traffic via an opt in toolbar that is installed on a VERY small subset of computers worldwide(less than 2 million I believe), they extrapolate their numbers similar to Nielson but their data is flawed by the fact that the software is usually installed with crapware unintentionally by the user. The demographics they end up tracking are users who are much less tech savvy than average.

[MakeOptics]

P.S. Take Alexa scores with a grain of salt, alexa tracks traffic via an opt in toolbar that is installed on a VERY small subset of computers worldwide(less than 2 million I believe), they extrapolate their numbers similar to Nielson but their data is flawed by the fact that the software is usually installed with crapware unintentionally by the user. The demographics they end up tracking are users who are much less tech savvy than average.

The site he points too is full of reciprocated links to shady websites and he's proud of it. I have seen his website on the internet archive and it was at one point professionally done for him and then a billion updates later you see what he has created.

It's down now, was up for several years as CDOptical. The new one will be up in a bit at $12.00 hour and so far looks pretty good, just needs new photos and some editing.

That's OK I could look it up in the internet archive if you provide a link.

To the original poster, get a few quotes from legitimate firms and give them an idea of what you are looking for or as John has suggested do it yourself using a website template and hosting company.

[MikeAurelius]

I will add that there are some open-source shopping cart programs out there (open source usually means free). I just redid the Aura site using NopCommerce: www.auralens.net

Most of the time was spent keying in inventory.

[mattc-ait]

The site he points too is full of reciprocated links to shady websites and he's proud of it. I have seen his website on the internet archive and it was at one point professionally done for him and then a billion updates later you see what he has created.



That's OK I could look it up in the internet archive if you provide a link.

To the original poster, get a few quotes from legitimate firms and give them an idea of what you are looking for or as John has suggested do it yourself using a website template and hosting company.

Who were you referring to?

[MikeAurelius]

Who were you referring to?

Chris Ryser

[MakeOptics]

Who were you referring to?

Sorry I was not clear Chris Ryser, the website does contain some good info but it gets drowned out by the noise. It is really a great example of what not to do with a website.

[MikeAurelius]

Sorry I was not clear Chris Ryser, the website does contain some good info but it gets drowned out by the noise. It is really a great example of what not to do with a website.

Some of my friends call those types of websites "link pimps". The only thing they are good for is driving up hits in order to make your site "look" better in the stats, where what really matters is the quality of the hits and the number of sales you get from them. At the end of the day, to me, that's the only thing that matters: how many purchases did my visitors actually make. Everything else is just noise.

[Chris Ryser]

Some of my friends call those types of websites "link pimps". The only thing they are good for is driving up hits in order to make your site "look" better in the stats, where what really matters is the quality of the hits and the number of sales you get from them. At the end of the day, to me, that's the only thing that matters: how many purchases did my visitors actually make. Everything else is just noise.

Whatever the means, the Chris Ryser website is not a selling website but an informative one, and is without a shopping cart.

It is an informative site and recognized as such by Google and hundredsof others, and ranks right on top with them. Whatever counts most are theinbound links by good and well ranking websites and not the design or how theylook. Search engines shy away from too many pictures as they can not read andunderstand them, their knowdlege is on understandable text.

Obviously you guys making the belittling comments above, have not discovered that most of the larger search engine companies send out weekly or monthly newsletters with all the latest advise how to handle your website successfully. Allthis you can even get for free and just for the asking.

I have followed these newsletters advise for years and the results arethere, some of my products developed for the optical industry have made it intothe car industry as well as the electro and electronic industries as bulk users.

There is also the law of average,and the law of numbers:

• Belief that a sample's average must equal its expected value. For example, if one flips a fair coin 100 times, there is only an 8% chance that there will be exactly 50 heads.

• Belief that a rare occurrence will happen given enough time. For example, "If I send my résumé to enough places, the law of averages says that someone will eventually hire me." This may actually be true assuming nonzero probabilities and that the number of trials is really large enough; the law of averages is then simply the Law of large numbers. (Wikipedia)

Knowing that you will realize that you need many visitorsto your site until you make a serious contact that could develop into some realbusiness. It is like advertising in magazines and newspapers thousands will seeit periodically and only a very few willrespond. However the way of the internet advertising is that it is always therebut you have to find it.

Therefore if you are listed on page 100 of a search engine the one looking for a product will be tired before he get to that page.So the ultimate position is to be on top of the list, right at the beginning ofa search answer. My site has reached that goal in every way and I am proud to say that the investment in time tolearn has paid off.

The highest ranking websites in the optical supply fieldare the ones from Luxottica and Zeiss,which have many more outgoing and incoming links.

Here are some of today's samples:

Statistics Summary for optiboard.com

OptiBoard.com is ranked #119,409 in the world according to the three-month Alexa traffic rankings. While approximately 30% ofthe site's visitors are in the US,where it is ranked #77,728, it is also popular in the Philippines,where it is ranked #12,535. This site has been online since 1997. Visitors tothis site spend approximately four minutes per visit to the site and 48 seconds per pageview. Roughly 11% of visits to Optiboard.com are referred by search engines

Rank 119,409 sites linking in 527


Statistics Summary for optochemicals.com

Optochemicals.com has a three-month global Alexa traffic rank of 511,688. The site can be found in the “Industrial” category ofinternet sites. This site is located in Canada. Visitors to Optochemicals.com spend about 31 seconds on each pageview and a total of 47seconds on the site during each visit. This site has been online for at leastfourteen years

Rank 511,688 sites linking in 422


Statistics Summary for auralens.net

There are 15,433,897 sites with a bettert hree-month global Alexa traffic rank than Auralens.net. It is in the “Sportand Safety Eyewear” category. The site has been online since 2000. It islocated in the US.
There are 15,433,897 sites with a better three-month global Alexa traffic rank than Auralens.net. Itis in the “Sport and Safety Eyewear” category. The site has been online since 2000.

Rank 15,433,898 sites linking in 44

[MikeAurelius]

Statistics Summary for auralens.net

There are 15,433,897 sites with a bettert hree-month global Alexa traffic rank than Auralens.net. It is in the “Sportand Safety Eyewear” category. The site has been online since 2000. It islocated in the US.
There are 15,433,897 sites with a better three-month global Alexa traffic rank than Auralens.net. Itis in the “Sport and Safety Eyewear” category. The site has been online since 2000.

Rank 15,433,898 sites linking in 44

Thank you, Chris, for proving my point.

It shows that you never bothered to even go to my website to see what I actually sell. If you had, you would have known that I don't sell "Sport and Safety Eyewear". You see, relying on noise for information will get you nothing but noise in return.

Those stats you quoted are absolutely meaningless and worthless. I don't shoot for #1, I don't even care what my ranking is. All I care about are the average daily visitors that look at my products: around 125, and the number that actually make a purchase: average of 3 per day.

Again, if you had BOTHERED to look at what I sell, you would see that I sell very specialized items to a very small niche market.

All you did was waste a couple of minutes of your time which you will never get back again to show off your immense knowledge of meaningless information that practically anyone could find with a modicum of google experience.

[Chris Ryser]

Again, if you had BOTHERED to look at what I sell, you would see that I sell very specialized items to a very small niche market.

All you did was waste a couple of minutes of your time which you will never get back again to show off your immense knowledge of meaningless information that practically anyone could find with a modicum of google experience.

Yes Mike i did loose a few minutes that I will never get back, by looking what you have to sell. I also realize that you are happy with what you got and what you get out of it, so please just look the other way next time,when I show off with my immense knowledge of useless information.

[normuck]

pay someone to make a landing page, actual website's are pretty much going the way of the dino's. Use multimedia to drive your online presence. Facebook, Yelp, Google etc.... and for goodness sakes make sure that your webpages can be viewed on mobile devices. I dont know about the rest of you guys, but when Im trying to look up a place on line, Im doing it on my cell phone and if I cant view your page easily I push the back button and select the next one listed :).

[Johns]

Chris, Phi, Matt, Mark, & everyone else that knows a ton more about this than I do: Once the website is set up, how do I (is the term "optimize"?) get it so that I am listed on as many search engines as possible? I just received something from a company called getlisted.org , but it looks like something I should be able to do myself.

What is the fastest, most economical, and efficient way to do this?

[Chris Ryser]

What is the fastest, most economical, and efficient way to do this?

1) Do it yourself. I still love my old Microsoft Front Page 2003. Easy and fast. I had my site professionally done and then getting no good update service took over myself and we copied it on Front page and I did all myself for the last 12 years.

2) Ask Google for free seach engine listings. You will get a load of answers. Is a little time consuming as you have to register one by one, but you can do it at your leisure. The more you do, the better for your rankings. Suscribe to the free weekly newsletters offered by the many search engines and follow their advise.

3) Do some update every day on your website. If it is only the date, done manually (not automatic) is a change. When the search spiders come checking periodically they have to detect recent changes to make it interesting for them. The more changes the better and the faster the spiders will come back. See the effect on Google with OptiBoard, some posts appear within minutes after posting.

4) The more reciprocal links (they have to be reciprocal), preferably with a better ranking site, but be not to choosy at bginning, the better the long term ranking. If you just mark a link like "Zeiss" without it coming back to you, only helps promoting another site and it will do nothing for your own site. This will take some time but is really worth it. It is a long range project and might take a few minutes a day or per week.

5) Web spiders can not read and understand pictures. As nice and entertaining they might be, spiders will ignore them, They love text and can understand it, so keep text as your main communication and keep pictures to a bare minimum or give each picture the full text explaining it.

6) Check your site's ranking every day on http://alexa.com and post the result on your site. As it changes on a daily basis it again makes another change which is beneficial for your site.

To sum it up, above recommendations are basic, but they work. The most beautiful designed expensive websites go nowhere if you do not follow the basic rules, and others that seem to look like nothing to look at, attract lots of viewers because they get to the top of search engine listings.

( I hope not all of you are going to believe my recommendations, as I do not want to loose or reduce my own rankings, I am not really worried it took a while to get there)

[Johns]

Thanks Chris. Looks time consuming enough that it would be worth the $10 per month fee to have a service help out with it.

[Chris Ryser]

Thanks Chris. Looks time consuming enough that it would be worth the $10 per month fee to have a service help out with it.

Johns..............I expected such an answer and here is my expierience:

When we started my website in 1997 to 2000 I paid the $ 50.00 a month for regular up keep and changes. They where never done on time and many month the site not even touched once, and I had new products that were not included for 3-4 month often enough.

What are you really expecting 12 years later for a $ 10.00 month ????????????????????????????????????????????

[Wes]

I did some amateur web design a few years ago but got out of it. Now if I want something done, I get my girlfriend's kid to do it. I passed my dreamweaver and frontpage programs on to him. Johns mentioned to me at the summit how easy it is anymore, and since the next degree I plan to work on is in IT, I better get to relearning.

[MikeAurelius]

I did some amateur web design a few years ago but got out of it. Now if I want something done, I get my girlfriend's kid to do it. I passed my dreamweaver and frontpage programs on to him. Johns mentioned to me at the summit how easy it is anymore, and since the next degree I plan to work on is in IT, I better get to relearning.

Be prepared for a long haul. Hand coding websites with HTML is pretty much blase. You are going to need to learn .NET technology as well as C#. The good news is that Microsoft gives the tools away for free. The initial learning curve is pretty steep, especially relearning how vital the simple .CSS files are going to be.