Written by Christina Klinge & Will Sartin

Now more than ever, a website is an essential tool for building and maintaining a successful business. Your website needs to be attractive AND functional. It should consistently be available for visitors. This is why it's extremely important to have a quality web hosting service. In my last blog, we talked about how "you get what you pay for" when it comes to choosing a website design and development company. This statement holds true for website hosting as well.

There is only one "Pro" to free or cheap web hosting--it's free and/or cheap. The "Cons" list, on the other hand, is much more extensive. There are companies out there that offer extremely cheap or even free web hosting. If you decide to go that route, you will get what you pay for.

7 DANGERS OF CHEAP OR FREE WEB HOSTING:

1. A Tacky or Unprofessional URL Address.

Having the right URL is very important. For example, if the owner of a pet shop named "Awesome Pet Shop" wants a website, they would likely want their shop's name as the URL. But cheap/free hosts do not let users have a lot of control when it comes to their URL. They might end up with "awesomepetshop.freedomain.com." This may not seem that bad, but it negatively affects the SEO, or how people find the site. It also does not look very professional on a business card. You want your business to look successful, right? How successful is a business that can't or won't put money towards their online presence?

2. Unwanted ads on your website.

These cheap/free web hosts often make money by placing ads on your website. The main problem with this is that the ads will most likely have nothing to do with your site, and worse, there might even be competitors' ads that pop up! Awesome Pet Shop doesn't need to have ads sending customers to a competing pet shop.

3. Loss in profits if your website crashes.

Cheap/free web hosts can have very unreliable servers. This means a server can crash at any moment, resulting in a major profit loss for businesses that sell products through their site. Hours or days could go by before your site is fixed, depending on the size of their support team and how many clients are sharing that server.

4. If your website grows, so does the price.

Hosting prices are determined based on the bandwidth of your website, meaning the size of your site and how many visitors you have on a regular basis. You may start with a small site, but as your business grows, so will your website. You may need or want to add additional pages, content, photos, video..this additional data will draw more visitors to your website, which is a GOOD thing! However, a cheap/free web host will punish you for your success by increasing your rates dramatically and sometimes without warning.

5. Limited design options.

Some cheap/free web hosts require that your site be designed using only their templates or generic designs. This means your site will end up looking the same as many others. The look and feel of your site is your FIRST chance to make a good impression on your audience. This impression will basically confirm in their minds whether they have come to the right place or not. For this reason, your website should have its OWN attractive design. At Blue Compass Interactive, all of our sites are "custom," meaning we start from scratch on every design. Your site will uniquely reflect your company's brand.  

6. Little or no protection against hackers.

Cheap/free web hosts often have very little security over the sites they host. Imagine putting months of hard work into your website and then having it hacked into and destroyed. Or worse...what if Awesome Pet Shop is hacked and the hacker rewrites the content so it includes slanderous statements about how the shop operates? This could cause a major drop in future sales, and possibly put the shop out of business.

7. POOF! Your website may disappear entirely.

All the hard work you put into your website can easily be taken away. The "terms and conditions" agreement with cheap/free web hosts is often very limiting. They don't have to offer support in a timely fashion. They can also drop your site for any reason, at any time, and may or may not give you your data.

At Blue Compass Interactive, we offer websites hosted on some of the most secure and reliable servers available.  Blue Compass sites see an average 99.999% uptime and our clients can have peace of mind knowing our servers are monitored 24/7. Backups of our websites are made on a daily scheduling, meaning that no matter what happens, you won't lose your website content. As we have recently noted, our sites also enjoy a faster load time than nearly all the traditional web hosting companies offer. Finally, Blue Compass hosting allows us to access all our clients' websites extremely quickly and efficiently if any issues were to occur or if any updates or new functionality is needed.

If you're trying to cut costs, web hosting is simply NOT the place to do it. Your website is fundamentally crucial to the success of your business. That's why it needs to be attractive, functional, and constantly up and running for your visitors. If you want your business to grow, or your blog to become more popular, the best thing you can do is pay for a reliable hosting service. Remember, you get what you pay for.

We are proud to announce that through the application of our strategic online design and development expertise, we were able to help Iowa Health - Des Moines earn a 2011 eHealthcare Leadership Award for their innovative online maternity campaign. Our joint efforts earned a Gold level award in the category of "Best Integrated Marketing Campaign."

The eHealthcare Leadership Awards is a prestigious national program that recognizes only the best-of-the-best websites and online efforts of healthcare organizations, online health companies, pharmaceutical/medical equipment firms, suppliers, and business improvement initiatives. The purpose of the eHealthcare Leadership Awards is to highlight the important role of the internet in achieving an organization's business objectives, and to distinguish the creativity and hard work that goes into creating exceptional health websites.

Award winners were chosen by a panel of over 100 healthcare and internet experts from around the country. Each website or online effort was rated on a set standard of internet excellence, and how they measured up against other organizations within their category.

In an effort to promote the Iowa Health - Des Moines maternity clinics, we designed and developed an integrated campaign that used print, radio, online and social strategies to penetrate a difficult healthcare market. We designed the online marketing mediums to include a strong call-to-action prompting social media engagement with Iowa Heath - Des Moines' maternity clinics. Going outside traditional campaign methods, we developed a social media campaign, called Diaper-a-Day, that extended from the internet into the local community. For every Facebook "Like" and Twitter "Follow" that was received, Iowa Health - Des Moines donated a diaper to the DMARC food pantry network, which serves families in the greater Des Moines area. The campaign was so successful that a Diaper Dash contest was created out of its momentum and was held at 2011 Iowa State Fair.

The Diaper-a-Day campaign ran for three months and Iowa Health - Des Moines was able to donate more than 10,000 to DMARC.  Our efforts increased traffic to the Maternity section of their website by 119 percent. The Maternity Facebook page gained over 500 new followers.

We are very proud of this award, but the real pride comes from knowing that we served our client well, and were able to help out struggling families in our community.

This blog is the first in a series called "You Get What You Pay For."

What do you do when you first hear about a new company or service of interest? Do you look it up in the phone book? Do you go there in person and check it out? Or do you look it up using the Internet?

If you're like most modern people these days, the first thing you will likely do is "Google it" so you can check out their website for more information. That means you are getting your first impression of the company or service from their website.

Now, let's say you are a business owner. How important is it to you to make a good first impression on your customers? Knowing your website is most likely the first thing your customers will see, how much are you willing to invest in this tool? 

It's simply part of our culture to want the lowest possible price for the products and services that we buy. Sometimes we'll even take a gamble on a product or service's quality in order to save a couple bucks. Yet time and time again, we find that we get what we pay for. Often we end up spending more money in the long run replacing or fixing a product than it would have cost to buy a better product in the first place.

It's like the time I tried to highlight my hair at home. I was tired of paying $70 or more at the salon, so I bought an $8 box of hair color advertised to provide "salon results."  Needless to say, the cheaper hair coloring option failed to meet my expectations. I ended up with spots instead of streaks. Instead of blonde, it was orange. I made an emergency appointment at the salon and spent nearly $120 fixing the problem. By trying to save money, I ended up spending $128 instead of $70. Plus, I walked away with really damaged hair.

I ruined my hair because I expected an $8 at-home kit to provide the same results as a $70 professional salon service. I was trying to save money, and well, I guess I got what I paid for.

I'm not saying that expensive is always better, or that cheaper is always worse. I'm simply saying....you get what you pay for.

Please don't make the same mistake as me. Messing up your hair by trying to save money is one thing, but messing up your website in an effort to save money is a whole different issue. Before hiring ANY website design company for your web project, make sure you do your research by asking the right questions. Whether they are considered an inexpensive website design company or the highest priced website design company; you need to find out what's BEHIND the price.

 
Let's say you've received a number of proposals (aka bids) from different website companies and you've finally narrowed it down to two. There happens to be a significant price difference. You like both of their ideas equally, so you plan to go with the lower bid so you can save some money. Please, stop right there! Before you sign an agreement, make sure you look BEHIND the price to see if the company possesses the following attributes:

• Proven Website Designing Skills-Ask to see their portfolio. A legitimate web designer will be able to provide examples of their work, including the URLs of websites they've designed as well as client testimonials. Notice the range of their portfolio. Are some sites more attractive than others? Take a hard look at their best sites, and then their worst. Realize that your site will likely fall somewhere in the middle.
  
  
• Reliable Website Updates-Is your web company providing an easy way for you to update your site? A solid content management system (CMS) will allow you and your staff full control over the content on your site. This enables you to update and manage the site without having to constantly go back to your web company - saving you time and money. Make sure your content management solution allows instant and easy updates, allows you to expand and grow the site by adding pages, and lets you assign user roles to restrict updating of certain sections to the staff members you choose. Sometimes a free or cheap CMS seems like a great deal, but they are often very limiting when it comes to adding new functionality and expanding the site in the future.
  
  
• Strong SEO Skills-Your website may have a fabulous graphic design, but it is ONLY successful if people are able to find it. This is where search engine optimization (SEO) comes in to play. Many companies make big SEO claims. The truth is, search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing always have the final say in your website's page rank. That means you need a REAL web expert who knows how to influence the search engines by optimizing your website structure, content, and more. SEO is not a simple task.
  
  
• Long Term Compatibility-Can you see yourself working with this person or company for at least the next few years? If you're getting a "static" site, chances are you will have to interact with them each time you want to make a change or add new information to your site. Hourly rates vary, so be sure to find out what they are. You may come to the conclusion that a "dynamic" site-though a bit more expensive up front-is actually more economical in the long run.
  

So back to my hair color story....the truth is, I knew I was taking a risk. My common sense told me that. But, like many other penny-pinching consumers, I ignored my common sense and hoped for the best. After all, the box said "salon results." Apparently it was referring to a really awful salon.

In conclusion, make sure you are always being a savvy shopper. Don't ignore your common sense, and don't just buy the cheapest product or service. Keep this in mind when looking for a new website design and development company. The company you choose should encompass all of the attributes mentioned in this article. Realize that you WILL get what you pay for, and the lowest bid may not always be the most economical choice.

Next time, I will talk about the "Dangers of Free or Cheap Web Hosting." Once again, you get what you pay for.

Christina Klinge is the Business Solutions Manager at Blue Compass Interactive. For more information, or to receive a bid on your next web project, please contact Christina at (515) 868-0010 or cklinge@bluecompass.com.

Blue Compass Interactive is an award-winning web design, development, & marketing company based in Des Moines, Iowa, serving clients nationwide. For more information, visit www.bluecompass.com.

We are often asked about the importance of a mobile version of a website. Will a mobile website increase overall website traffic? Can a mobile version website bring in more smartphone and tablet users? Will it make them stay on the site longer? Is a mobile site really necessary?

We constantly follow the performance and stats of numerous mobile sites, and have seen some interesting results which lead us to suggest these top five reasons that a mobile website is essential to your online presence:

1. A Mobile Version of Your Website Improves Your Visitor's experience

Websites aren't designed for the small screen and touch controls of a mobile device. A mobile site allows visitors to have a smooth browsing experience specifically designed for the device they are using. In addition, a mobile site can highlight information that is most beneficial for on-the-go visitors, such as contact information, directions, geo-location, QR codes, etc. This makes finding information much easier than searching through page after page of a full website. In our experience, every website that launches a mobile version of the site sees a dramatic increase in mobile traffic, and overall website traffic within a few months - usually over 50%. The above graphic shows one such example.

2. A Mobile Website Improves your Search/SEO Performance

Stats show that a mobile version of a website will generally improve the site's rankings. Search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo clearly recognize the growing mobile market and want to improve the user's experience, therefore mobile sites are looked more favorably upon.

3. A Mobile Site Loads Faster

Mobile visitors typically have a slower connection that website visitors, making a fast loading site essential. Mobile websites contain less and optimized information, making load times faster. In addition, Google looks more favorably upon fast loading sites.

4. A Mobile Site Boosts the Perception of Your Brand

Potential customers judge your business based on your website. A mobile site that looks attractive and is easy to navigate on a smartphone gives off a much more positive impression that a large, difficult to read, full website. It also shows that you value the growing mobile market and portrays your brand as modern and updated.

5. A Mobile Site is More Flexible Than an App  

Apps are great but an App is no substitute for a mobile website. An App requires the user to enter an App store, find it, and download/install it before it can be used, whereas a mobile site can be more quickly pulled up by anyone. Also, Apps must be developed separately for different platforms (iPhone, Android, Blackberry) and must be submitted and approved by the appropriate App store - as opposed to mobile sites, which work on every mobile device. In addition, mobile sites are typically quite a bit more cost-effective than Apps. Again, Apps are wonderful, but even if you have the best App in the world, someone is trying to access your website on their phone.

Are you considering a mobile version of your website? You can find out more about mobile sites here. Specific questions? Don't hesitate to contact us!

The Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines is a donor-driven public foundation whose purpose is to improve the quality of life in Greater Des Moines by connecting donors with their passions, fostering links between community organizations and convening local leaders to promote the common good.

Blue Compass delivered a high-end design for the new Community Foundation's site which incorporated the overall look and feel of the Community Foundation's branding.  The site features a fresh new style, open design with intuitive navigation that communicates giving back, becoming connected and building a better community.

In addition to the fresh new design, Blue Compass created several custom applications to help provide opportunities for community members to connect with nonprofit organizations and learn more about giving opportunities and community initiatives:

• Custom homepage animation that is updateable by the client through the Content Management System
• Our enhanced content management system was incorporated to allow the client to easily update each are of the site
• A new and exciting Giving Card system to encourage giving in the community.  A Giving Card works very much like a retail gift card, but in this case the Giving Card will benefit any 501(c)(3) charitable organization. 
• A custom designed donation system to enable donors to donate to a fund at the Community Foundation to improve quality of life.
• Form tool that allows the Community Foundation to create forms with ease whenever desired
• A unique fund management search application with intelligent search options that allows site visitors to easily find the fund types and names available. 

"At the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines, it was important for us to have strong graphic design to represent our organization and the technology behind it to handle complex transactions.  Blue Compass Interactive delivered on both fronts and created custom applications to meet our needs and the needs of our website users. They listened to our needs, offered creative solutions and were extremely dedicated to the successful launch of our website. Blue Compass Interactive is a highly professional and talented team. Their work is exemplary and we look forward to our continued relationship with them."

Jessica Brown-Director of Marketing & Communications, Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines

Thanks to our friends from the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines and Share Marketing for a wonderful partnership!  Take a look at the new Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines and find ways you can give back, get connected and build a better community.