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Let me preface this by saying that Preferred Network Solutions doesn't build websites. That is to say, we don't build commercial websites. Well, we did, but we don't now...
Let me explain.
 Preferred Network Solutions (aka "The Preferred Network") was a full service web design company started in '04 that specialized in... nothing really. Like many web development companies, we did a little bit of everything - ecommerce, community sites, professional portals, and lots and lots of blogs. a couple years ago, we began to focus our energies on what we did best: organic search marketing . Making websites highly visible and very popular was a niche that few companies could fill, and we had a very novel way of accomplishing that.
Long story short, we chose to retire our commercial web design services to pursue our greater interests of providing Indianapolis Search Engine Marketing services. However, in removing ourselves from the highly competitive arena of Indianapolis Web Design , we were able to partner with numerous design and development companies. Getting to peek behind the curtain of firms that used to be formidable opponents provided some valuable insight on the industry.
During our transition from web design to internet marketing we were approached by more than a few businesses and professionals seeking our prior services. While we chose to stay our course, we were able to offer some valuable information that seemed to really help the prospective clients make well-informed decisions. While nothing earth-shattering, we thought it might be worth sharing.
- ANYBODY can build a website.
With popular content management systems like Wordpress , Drupal , Expression Engine and similar "blog" platforms, anybody can build a decent website with very little knowledge or technical skills. What's more, custom built sites are often (but not always) unnecessary, as the majority of websites only need a few pages, a contact form, maybe a slide show or a movie gallery... nothing out of the ordinary. Joomla, for example, is such a popular and well-developed CMS that there is almost nothing you can do with a website that you can't do with Joomla. You can spend $30,000 building an interactive community site, or just install a couple free plug-ins to a Joomla site and have your own MySpace. Better yet sign up with Ning and have a multimedia social networking platform up in an hour. We have come a long way from individually built web pages that required hand-coding html. The value of a web site is no longer the site itself, but what can be accomplished with it. Remember: your site is a tool to be used in building your business. What it does is not as important as what is done with it. Good web designers know this, and will understand that your website is meant to be much more than a pretty page.
Part II Coming Soon: Why websites are a waste of money
Aaron Douglas is formally president of Preferred Network Solutions, and currently president of Deep Ripples Inc, an Indianapolis Search Engine Marketing company. Deep Ripples specializes in Organic Search Marketing, a strategic means of creating client visibility, authority and brand reputation.
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