What are Web Services?
The goal of this blog is to help you determine the types of work that you’ll need to do on your website to make it successful. At the end of this article, we hope that you’ll be able to identify the type of website that might be right for your business and the type of work you’ll expect to do in order to make it a successful website. Once the type of work is understood, you’ll be better informed as to whether your business is set up to take care of this type of work in-house or choose to outsource this job function to a company that specializes in web services, such as Liquid.
The web technology works…
Websites aren’t static. The misconception from the early time of the internet has been that you build something and its done. According to this logic, it made sense for a customer to pay a large sum of money to a web developer in order to have them build a website. Well, the problem is that technology changes all the time. Websites can quickly start to look out of date, break or not function as well as a competitor’s website.
The fix…
Ongoing marketing and technology service on a website helps ensure that a website does its job well, the job of driving customers into your store.
What does a website require?
The answer to this question depends on the type of website you have set up for your store. If your website is strictly informational, it will have different requirements than if you are planning to sell and process orders online.
Typical Web Services for Informational Websites
Here are some common functions of the web services person for your organization.
SEO. Building your visibility in search engine results, like Google.
Blogging. Writing helpful articles for your customers.
Style Changes. Customizing looks, colors and appearance of specific pages.
Content. Gathering, organizing and arranging content for your website. This includes videos, images, product details, online circulars, banner ads, customer feedback.
Graphic Design. Creating new ads for your website.
Analytics & Reporting. Tying into the proper reporting and cultivating and reacting to that information on ongoing basis.
Integration Management. Making sure that the links and integrations on your website are fixed as technology changes occur.
Ecommerce Services & Administration
If your website is an ecommerce website, it will require many of the services outlined for an informational website above. Ecommerce services will also include a lot of specific additional tasks.
Data Entry. Building a product catalog. Including appropriately sized images, descriptions, pricing, quantities.
Order Management. Processing and organizing inbound orders to ensure they are fulfilled and customers receive appropriate notifications and information.
Payment Processing. Charging customer credit cards, running chargebacks, establishing appropriate payment methods.
Discount Code Management. Running and promoting onsite discounts.