Rambo Designs, LLC

In today’s age of advanced technology and instant information, an online presence can put your company in front of thousands of potential customers 7 days-a-week, 24-hours-a-day.  With a website designed around your unique products and services, you can provide information about your business to your local market as well as expand to include national or international markets, if you choose.

Your website allows you to let people know you exist and to present your business the way you want others to see you.  By making a good first impression online, you have a better opportunity to convert the “window shoppers” to active customers.  This may be the first and only chance you have at building credibility and making a good impression on a potential customer.

A good website is not only pleasing to the eyes, but it is an effective, functional tool that provides good information that is helpful and appropriate for your target audience.  It is user friendly, easy to navigate and provides content that makes visitors want to return and continue doing business with you.

A website is a group of related web pages that have been published to the Internet and are accessed from a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) via a “home” page.  Each page has a combination of text, images, videos or other digital media through which a user navigates to get more information or go more deeply into the site.  All publicly accessible websites collectively make up the World Wide Web.

From the definition in the Wikipedia: "The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that interchange data by packet switching using the standardized Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP)."

The Web, on the other hand, is defined in W3C's Architecture of the World Wide Web, Volume I as follows: "The World Wide Web (WWW, or simply Web) is an information space in which the items of interest, referred to as resources, are identified by global identifiers called Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI)."

A web page is basically a document that can be displayed on a website because it is written in a special code or language that has been established for the Internet, such as, HTML (Hypertext Markup Language).  By using web browsing software (Internet Explorer, Fire Fox, etc.), the page content is displayed according to instructions given through the HTML code.  This makes the page readable and navigable to the user’s desktop computer, laptop, PDA or cell phone.

The World Wide Web (www) is a collection of web pages hosted on computer systems known as “servers” that utilize a common Uniform Resource Locator (URL).  A URL is the unique address for a file accessible on the Internet.  It can point to a page, a document, image, video, etc.  A URL generally consists of the website domain name and root path.  A servers uses a domain name as a type of “address” to identify your website.  For example, in the URL “http://www.rambodesigns.net/index.htm,” the “http” specifies the use of a web browser application with the domain name “www.rambodesigns.net” and the home page “index.htm.”

Static HTML web pages are generally “fixed” in content.  The user has no say in how the page or content is presented.  This type of website usually displays the same information to all visitors and any changes or updates to the site are done manually.

A dynamic website is one that changes or customizes itself automatically within pre-defined parameters.  With a dynamic website, the user may have some control over which content appears on the site based on their preferences.  A dynamically-generated web page may pull information from a database and display it according to what the user is looking for.  An example of this would be a retail site which allows a user to specify which products to show.  The main purpose of a dynamic website is automation. It can operate more effectively, be built more efficiently and is easier to maintain, update and expand. It is much simpler to build a template and a database than to build hundreds or thousands of individual, static web pages.

The ideal online strategy blends the static (a formal website) with the dynamic (social networks, landing pages, etc.).

• It can set you apart from your competition - especially if they don’t have a website.
• You can reach more people online than you could through print advertising, which reduces printing and mailing costs.
• It expands your marketing capabilities by serving as “home base” for online advertising, e-mail campaigns, blogs or integrating social media.  Once you’ve captured a potential buyer with an ad, send them to your website for more information or opportunities.  It also allows others to link to your site, thus increasing visibility
• Make yourself visible to a growing population that no longer uses printed phone books or Yellow Pages but relies mainly on the Internet for information.
• Demonstrate your company’s expertise and establish yourself as an authority within your industry.  Not having a website can be a red flag to potential customers who may wonder why you either don’t want to be found or why you aren’t keeping up with the times.
• Your website helps you leverage local search results from search engines.  Without a website, search engines will have a harder time finding you.  And, if they do find you in a free listing, you have no control over the data that is presented.  It may be old and incorrect, which could cost you customers.
• Keep folks up-to-date with what’s going on in your world.  Do you have an important announcement or news release, a new product, a special sale? Get the word out quickly on your website and other online sources. 
• With the proper tools, you can easily analyze the impact your website is having on your business and make adjustments accordingly.  For example, where are your visitors coming from?  What keywords are they using to find you?  Which pages are most popular or least popular?  What search engines are being used?