Every company wants, and needs, a professional looking and optimized web site to help generate more business. But, many business owners don’t have the time to learn what it takes to be an expert web developer or designer. Often, out of a sense of desperation or by default, someone like a cousin, who might have studied computer science, or someone who builds web sites as a side job, is used.  Frequently, these individuals do not have enough experience or talent to build and optimize a professional web site.

Frankenstein is a horror classic in which an obsessed scientist assembles a living being from parts of exhumed corpses. The goal being to create a beautiful new life… instead a hideous monster was the result. Frankensite, refers to web sites that are assembled by copying and pasting coded sections from other web sites… but sold to unsuspecting clients as ‘new’ custom built sites.

One may ponder what is wrong with the ‘Frankenstein’ approach to building a site, after all the pieces came from other sites that were attractive and apparently functioning well. As with the Frankenstein experiment there are inherent defects with that site building approach.

Such defects can include: the other site pieces used are not optimized for your site, company or industry; multiple web pages have the same descriptions; your keywords are not put into page titles, page descriptions, or content.

A Frankensite can have:

  1. An increased Bounce rate – Frankensites with the wrong keywords in place and with multiple same descriptions and titles won’t allow search engines or customers find what they are looking for… therefore potential customers leave your site before browsing, acting, inquiring and/or purchasing. These ‘bounces’ are sales opportunities leaving your site and going to your competitors or other sites.
  2. Decreased visibility on the web due to bad internal Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Frankensites being improperly internally optimized can’t deliver relevant results which search engines and, ultimately, customers seek. That lack of desired results causes decreased web visibility.
  3. A low number of inquiries or responses from visitors – The search of a Frankensite can’t deliver the relevant results potential customers are after… therefore visitors can’t, or won’t, have many if any inquiries or give you positive responses which will hurt or limit your credibility.
  4. Increased advertising costs – Effective web advertising drives leads to relevant and cohesive web sites… which a Frankensite is not. When that vital connection between an effective ad and an effective, optimized site does not take place both Google and Bing search engines penalize you by decreasing your ad ‘quality’ score. Decreased or low ‘quality’ scores raise your Pay-Per-Click advertising costs.

Be wary of companies and individuals who claim to be web designers and developers but perform mostly graphic design and work in print or photographic media. Being able to use proprietary web creation software does not make a web designer. A good web site builder, at the very least, should be able to help with web design and development, web content, graphics creation, database creation, Social Media account set-up and content generation, site maintenance, and Internet marketing and promotion.

Sufficient referrals, research and interviewing will help to see that you are truly making an ‘Apples to Apples’ comparison when looking for the right web site builder… such actions will help safeguard that your site web site build project will not result in an unorthodox experiment… a Frankensite!

Look for my companion blog in October in which I share, ‘Things to look for when shopping for web developer services’.

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