Redesigning your web site? Good for you! Changing the web address? Bad idea!

With the web now so crucial to marketing a wedding business, many wedding professionals are investing in regular major updates and even complete redesigns of their web sites every couple of years. Since having a current, well-functioning, and professionally designed site is essential to maximizing the revenue potential of your wedding business -- and essential to the performance of all your other marketing efforts -- I couldn't be more supportive.

Unfortunately, though, many companies are simultaneously undermining these web redesign investments by launching new sites on new URLs instead of simply changing their existing site.

For example, a reception location called "The Tranquility Garden" might have an existing site at www.thetranquilitygarden.com and create a new one at www.tranquilitygarden.com or wwww.thetranquilitygarden.net, instead of simply changing the site that appears at that address they already have.

Why is this such a bad idea? Four big reasons:

(1) Getting indexed by search engines takes time. If your existing site has been online for a year or more, you've likely already indexed in Google, Yahoo!, etc. -- meaning that you can be found when someone searches for your company by name. The process of indexing can take six months to a year, sometimes even more -- so, if you launch your redesigned site at a new web address, your new site might not be found by brides for a year or more.

(2) Search engines penalize similar sites. If your new site contains similar verbiage to your old site and a similar name, the search engines may view it as a "duplicate" and penalize both of your sites in the rankings. Why? Because some "black hat" web companies developed a tactic of creating multiple similar sites and linking them together as a way to try to goose their web result rankings. Consequently, search engines now penalize any sites that seem very similar -- potentially even removed from search indexes altogether! (And remember, it doesn't matter if the images are different -- search engines can't "see" the pictures, they evaluate your site by the text.) Worse, this risk increases if you link your old site to your new in an effort to redirect people to the new site.

(3) Existing links lose their value. If you're a qualified wedding professional that other pros like to work with, chances are you've accumulated referral links from other companies. If you change your web site address, these links from other vendors won't direct brides to your current site. Same is true for associations that offer you a link as part of membership. Sure, you can contact these companies and ask them to change the link -- but, it can take months to contact everyone, and you have no control over whether the links ever get updated. And that means lost web site visits from brides who could have become clients.

(4) Print, bridal show, and other offline marketing efforts have distributed your old web address. If you've published print ads, attended a recent bridal show, or offered your cards or brochures to brides (via your own contacts with them or through other vendors' referrals), your "old" web address is in circulation. What's more, because brides typically hang on to wedding planning materials for a year or more -- and then often pass them on to other brides -- your old URL will be promoted almost indefinitely. Because investing in print advertising, bridal shows, and marketing collateral is so costly, this is probably the most expensive consequence of opting for a new web address instead of simply updating your existing site.

Are you changing your web address because you're afraid you'll lose the information contained in your old design? Not to worry -- you can do this even if you launch your new site on your current address. A web site is really just a collection of files -- each page is just a document, really. The files from your old site can be backed up, or downloaded to your own computer, so that you can get information from them whenever you like (or even revert to the old site if you want).

Or, are you concerned because you don't have access to the server your site is hosted on? This is sometimes an issue when you work with a new designer, but the hosting company should be able to help you out if you provide proper identification of your identity and ownership of the company. Alternatively, you can work with the registrar you used to register your domain originally to point your web address to the location of your new site -- so that brides automatically arrive at your new web site.

Click Fraud and Your Online Marketing Investments

Many wedding vendors are focusing more and more of their marketing dollars on online advertising; however, thanks in large part to click fraud, that advertising is likely much costlier than it appears.

Click fraud refers to clicks that are purposefully generated by people who aren't valid prospects -- most likely competitors. Competitors click on your links for reasons that can be very sinister (to run up your click bill, or use up your click budget) or somewhat less so (wanting to check out your site and not considering that you're paying for click that got them there).

Some experts estimate that as many as 50% of paid clicks could be fraudulent -- meaning that half the clicks you pay for are useless to you. Add to this repeat visits from the same user, accidental clicks by people unsure what they're looking for, and curious browsers, and it's likely that only 25-35% of the clicks you've paid for are actual shoppers for your service. And that means that the actual cost per valid click you're paying could be 3-4 times the CPC you've contracted.

This article from today's New York Times provides an interesting look at how some of the biggest advertisers in the world are coping with this problem (as well as how it is impacting Google, Yahoo! and others who sell cost-per-click advertising as their main revenue source).

I also discussed this issue in my recent white paper on the risks of "online only" marketing programs for wedding professionals.

One Decision I'll Never Regret

About three years ago, a trusted colleague told me about a business solution that had been invaluable to his business. This product allowed his company to obtain premium services at a fraction of their normal cost. The affordable price allowed my colleague to use critical services he otherwise would have foregone -- at great cost to his business.

It took me another year to finally listen. I finally purchased this excellent business solution 20 months ago -- and I only wish I'd done it sooner! Now for an incredibly affordable monthly fee (just $40 in my case), I have access to a service that has helped me collect thousands of dollars of bad debt, evaluate and improve my contracts to better ensure compliance, understand complicated employee tax issues (without finding/hiring a separate tax lawyer), and even evaluate an office lease I was considering signing. And, these services that I used are just a subset of what is available to me for the single monthly fee.

This wonderful business service? Pre-Paid Legal Services. It gives me ready access to qualified attorneys I could never justify paying as a regular client. It protects my business against legal issues I might never have foreseen. It has helped me recover lost revenues that by themselves have repaid my fees 10 times over.

I've been so incredibly pleased with this service -- in fact, I feel lucky to have access to it! -- that I absolutely recommend Pre-Paid Legal Services for every professional in the wedding industry. Here are some of the specific reasons why:

Contracts. Every wedding professional uses them -- but how many get them regularly evaluated by a contract lawyer? (Are you sure your contracts are legally binding under current law?)

Changing laws. Laws change. If you're unaware, your operations may not be compliant with the latest legislation. (Are you unknowingly risking a law suit that could crush your business?)

Trademark issues. Unscrupulous wedding vendors often copy successful vendors' trademarked logos, names, taglines. (Can you afford the thousands of dollars it could cost to hire a trademark attorney to defend your marks?)

Litigious brides. Sadly, we live in lawsuit-happy society. The wedding industry is no exception. In fact, the huge expenses associated with a wedding (and the temptation for many to overspend the budget) may make a frivolous lawsuit even more tempting. (If an unthinkable, frivolous lawsuit happens, will you be forced to settle -- paying out of your pocket -- because you couldn't afford to fight?)

Depending on the size of your business, your needs may be covered by a Pre-Paid Legal Plan that costs as little as $40/month. If you already consult a lawyer once a year, you may be paying more than that in legal fees -- and, undoubtedly, avoiding using lawyers when you know you should, just to save money. Don't you owe it to your business (and yourself!) to check Pre-Paid Legal Services out?

For more information, visit my Pre-Paid Legal site at:

prepaidlegal.com/hub/laurie70