G. W.

Solutions LLC Online Presence Remodeling

Proposal
Brandon Buchanan, Matthew Desantis, Collin Heck, Gary Maes, Katie Tyrrell

Wayne State University

English 3050 Proposal

April 27, 2017

Executive Summary

The Saginaw, Michigan-based grant writing company G. W. Solutions, LLC is looking to

increase the effectiveness of their online presence, which is comprised of a website and a
Facebook page. In order to accomplish this, an in-depth analysis was done of the current
issues with their online presence, and based on these problems, specific objectives, solutions,
and a budget have been proposed.

The problems with the current web presence are centered on accessibility, content, and
professionalism issues. The website contains several barriers to discoverability, including low
search engine ratings, slow page-loading times, firewall issues, and lack of mobile optimization.
The content of both the website and the Facebook fails to provide biographical information
about the company and relevant information about their main products and services. Overall,
aesthetic and content-related factors contribute to a less than professional feel to the web
presence which, according to a survey, negatively impacts peoples perception of the business.

Changes made to the website and Facebook page should be done with specific objectives in
mind, including the following: increasing web traffic; increasing sales of seminars and
workbooks, which are the companys two main sources of revenue; improving customer
retention; and improving consumer trust. Traffic can be increased through increasing
accessibility of the web pages. Sales can be increased by refocusing the content of the website
and Facebook to emphasize seminars and workbooks. Consumer retention can be boosted by
providing better, simplified information about the business. Consumer trust can be improved by
increasing the professionalism of the web site and Facebook page.

The proposed solutions to achieve these objectives fall under the categories of changes to the
website, changes to the Facebook page, search engine optimization, and changes to the
companys graphics. G. W. Solutions should change website-hosting platforms from Webs.com
to either Wix or Weebly; the website content needs to be reorganized, and specific
professionalism issues must be addressed. The Facebook page should be updated to include
better biographical information and to provide more frequent updates about seminars and
workbooks. Search engine optimization can be improved through keyword seeding, mobile
optimization, and improved hyperlinks. Changes to graphics should include designing a new
logo, having professional photographs taken, and purchasing licenses for stock images.

The budget for this project is $1000 dollars. Using this money, the company can hire a designer
to rebuild their website, hire a photographer to take professional photos, pay for stock image
licenses, and hire a graphic designer to design a new logo, while saving money by continuing to
use a free website-hosting platform and running the Facebook page in-house.
Table of Contents

1. I
ntroduction-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4
2. Prob
lem Definition---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6
Accessibility Issues-------------------------------------------------------------------- 6
Content Issues-------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8
Professionalism Issues--------------------------------------------------------------- 9
3. Objecti
ves---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11
Increasing Accessibility-------------------------------------------------------------- 11
Refocusing Content------------------------------------------------------------------- 12
Providing Better Information-------------------------------------------------------- 12
Increasing Professionalism--------------------------------------------------------- 12
4. S
olutions------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 13
Website Changes---------------------------------------------------------------------- 13
Social Media Changes--------------------------------------------------------------- 16
5. Costs-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---- 18
6. Conclusion-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- 20
7. References-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---- 21
8. Appendix
A-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22
9. Appendix
B-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 23
10. Appendix
C-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 28
 1

Introduction

Our five-member team was tasked with assessing the online presence of the company G. W.
Solutions, LLC to determine how effective it currently is at promoting the business to a broad
online consumer base, and to propose changes that will increase the effectiveness. This report
details the problems we discovered with the current website and Facebook page, establishes
objectives for alterations to those platforms, proposes specific solutions in order to achieve the
objectives, and discusses the costs associated with those solutions.

G. W. Solutions, LLC is a small grant-writing business based in Saginaw, Michigan. They work
to aid small business owners and nonprofit directors in finding and applying for funding. Their
consumer base is made up mostly local businesses and organizations. The companys main
source of revenue is hosting seminars where attendees receive instructions on how to apply for
grants themselves. They also sell two instructional workbooks to provide grant writing
instruction. Historically, the company has also been hired to locate and apply for grants for an
outside organization; however, this source of revenue is much less efficient than the seminars
and workbooks, and the company is looking to move away from this area of business.

Our team conducted both primary and secondary research to better understand the current
state of the companys online presence. An interview was conducted with the companys owner,
Mrs. Felicia Buchanan, to gain insight into how G. W. Solutions, LLC operates and what their
goals as a business are; the transcript of this interview can be found in Appendix A. Additionally,
a survey of small business owners and business professionals was conducted to gather
information about current perceptions of the companys website, www.G. W.-solutions-
llc.webs.com. This survey was conducted using a convenience sample and is not intended to
be used as a representation of a population; rather, the survey is meant to lend preliminary
insight to the opinions of professionals upon first interacting with the website. The results of this
survey can be found in Appendix B.

The problems discovered with the current website and Facebook page are divided into
accessibility issues, content issues, and professionalism issues. Based on these problems, the
objectives for making changes to the companys web presence focus on increasing accessibility,
refocusing content, providing better information, and increasing professionalism. The specific
proposed solutions to the companys online problems are broken down into changes to be made
to the website, changes to be made to the Facebook page, search engine optimization, and
graphics. The remainder of this report describes each of these sections in greater detail.
 2

Problem Definition

Currently, the web presence of G. W. Solutions, LLCspecifically, the companys website and
Facebook pagehas several issues which prevent it from successfully representing the
business to current or prospective customers. Our team has identified several specific issues,
which can be divided into three main categories: accessibility issues, content issues, and
professionalism issues. While the specific effects of these problems vary, all of these issues
negatively affect the companys ability to attract and retain a customer base.

Accessibility Issues

One of the foremost issues with the companys web presence is the inaccessibility of the
website. The website is difficult to locate using a search engine, the page loading times are
slow, the site will not load at all on some secured internet connections, and the mobile website
is not user-friendly. Each of these issues is discussed in more detail in the following sections.

Lack of Search Engine Accessibility

At present, the website www.G. W.-solutions-llc.webs.com is difficult to find using popular

search engines. According to the SERPs Keyword Rank Checker, if the keywords G. W.
Solutions LLC are used, the website is the 12th result on Google and the 18th result on
Yahoo. Using the search query G. W. Solutions, the website does not appear at all on
Google, and is the 30th result on Yahoo. Research suggests that search positions play a
significant role in website traffic; according to a study by Chitika Insights, 92% of web traffic
from Google searches goes to results on the first page (2013).

Furthermore, the name of the company is not the heading listed when the website does
appear in search engine results. Instead, the website is listed under the heading Grants
Scholarships 150% Guarantee!: Home. Not only does this heading contribute to an overall
lack of professionalism, it also makes it nearly impossible for someone without knowledge of
the URL to find the website. In fact, the only effective way to currently reach the companys
website is through the link on their Facebook page, which limits traffic to the website to only
consumers who have and use Facebook accounts.

Slow Page Loading Times

The G. W. Solutions, LLC website loads abnormally slow. An individual analysis of www.G.
W.-solutions-llc.webs.com was performed using the Pingdom website speed test, a tool
used to test the load time of that page, analyze it and find bottlenecks. This analysis
repeatedly showed that the individual company website loads slower than 97% of other
websites (2017).
 3

Research suggests that slow loading times have a significant negative impact on website
traffic and online business. According to a study done by the Aberdeen Group, "A 1-second
delay in page load time equals 11% fewer page views, a 16% decrease in customer
satisfaction, and 7% loss in conversions (Dooley, 2012). Slow page loading times at the G.
W. Solutions, LLC website are likely to turn potential customers away from using the
website, resulting in lost business for the company.

In addition to affecting business, slow page loading times also affect the websites search
engine rankings. Page speed is one of the factors Google uses to rank pages, and websites
with slower loading times generally appear further down in search results. Slow loading
times also affect the ability of search engines to crawl through or discover multiple website
pages (MOZ, 2016). Therefore, the page loading times of the website are contributing to its
low ranking in search engine results.

Complete Website Blockage

On certain secured internet connections, the website will not load at all. This occurs on
certain school or university networks, and also on certain large company networks. Though
the specific cause of this inaccessibility is unknown, the most likely explanation is that the
website is being blocked by certain firewalls. Blocked access to the website on certain
servers decreases the size of the customer base who can use the website, and resultantly
could be limiting online business. Additionally, a website that is blocked or inaccessible
lowers consumer trust in the website, negatively affecting their perception of the business as
a whole.

Mobile Website Shortcomings

The mobile website is functionally not usable when compared to the desktop website. Page
loading for the mobile site is even worse than for the desktop site; Googles PageSpeed
Insights tool, which is used to identify ways to make your site faster and more mobile-
friendly, gives the mobile site a failing grade of 57/100, with multiple code-red level issues
(Google Developers, 2017). Additionally, only the Home page of the website is actually set
up for mobile use; attempts to access other pages on mobile are redirected to a Site not
found error message.

Mobile e-commerce currently occupies over 40% of the global market share, and is
expected to grow 70% by the end of 2017 (Smith, 2016). An unusable mobile site alienates
this growing consumer demographic and hinders the companys ability to do business going
forward. Additionally, lack of a mobile-friendly site puts G. W. Solutions, LLC at a
competitive disadvantage. According to a study done by Clutch consulting, only 17% of
small business websites are not mobile friendly, causing those companies to miss a huge
opportunity to tap into the quickly growing millennial and Gen Z markets that consider
mobile browsing a part of everyday life (Peacock, 2017).
 4

Content Issues

The current arrangement of content on the G. W. Solutions, LLC website and Facebook page
fails to effectively provide consumers with relevant information about the company. Specifically,
their online presence provides inaccurate emphasis on their business priorities and fails to
provide general location and contact information.

To assess current perceptions of the websites content, a brief survey of small business owners
was conducted. The full survey and responses can be found in Appendix B. This survey was
conducted using a relatively small convenience sample and is therefore not intended to be
interpreted as representative data. However, the responses to this survey offer good
preliminary insight into how professionals view the current website.

Business Priorities

According to our interview with the companys owner, their preferred avenues of business
are methods of training customers to successfully write their own grant applicationsgrant-
writing seminars and instructional books. However, the current emphasis of the website is on
the company providing grant and scholarship matches for consumers. This inaccurate
emphasis begins with the websites heading: Grants Scholarships 150% Guarantee and
the first message on the Home page, which discusses ordering individual scholarship
matches. A screenshot of the homepage is shown in Figure 1c in Appendix C.

In response to one of the survey questions, several survey respondents articulated

confusion surrounding the products and services offered. Multiple people responded that
the product descriptions, which can only be accessed by clicking on a specific product, do
not clearly explain what is being purchased (Appendix B). The lack of clarity mars the only
place that seminars and workbooks are listed on the website, and further detracts focus
from these services.

The updates to the Facebook page also fail to properly direct consumer attention to
seminars and workbooks. Although the Facebook page is updated regularly, most of the
updates name individual scholarships or grants. In the past six months, only one post was
made regarding a seminar, and no posts were made regarding the available workbooks.
These updates do not serve to draw more consumers to the companys main sources of
revenue.

Information About the Company

Another key issue remarked upon by several survey respondents was the website fails to
clearly provide information about who works at the company, where they operate, and who
they serve (Appendix B). Currently, the website contains no information regarding the
location of the business. The About us page names their target consumer base as
individuals, for profit small businesses, non-profit organizations, and everyone in between,
 5

but does not establish any geographic criteria to determine whether they serve anyone in
the world or just regional customers. The extent of the information on the About us page
can be seen in Figure 3c (Appendix C).

The website also lacks contact information for the company. Despite an encouragement to
[sic] CONTACT US AT ANY TIME AND GET ANSWERS! on the Home page, as shown in
Figure 1c, the only means of contact provided is a generic contact form, shown in Figure 3c
(Appendix C). There is no telephone number or company email. This lack of provision for
communication proved troubling to survey participants; none of the respondents said they
would feel comfortable contacting the company. This lack of trust in communication
decreases the overall reputability of the business and turns away potential customers.

The Facebook page provides two things absent from the website: the location of the
business in Saginaw, Michigan and the opportunity to send a message to the company
through Facebook Messenger. However, the Facebook page lacks even a rudimentary
description of what the company does, and does not provide enough supplementary
information to make up for the information shortcomings of the website.

Professionalism Issues

The G. W. Solutions, LLC website contains multiple glaring issues of lacking professionalism. In
the same survey used to assess content issues with the website, respondents detailed specific
aspects of the website which caused them to view the website overall as unprofessional and/or
untrustworthy:

The websites title/banner saying Grants Scholarships 150% Guarantee!

Grammar errors and incomplete sentences in product descriptions
$100 bills background image on the Home page, as seen in Figure 2c
Vague testimonials that cannot be verified as legitimate, as seen in Figure 5c
Excessive use of writing in all caps
The lack of intra-website hyperlinks

Some of the other issues with the website, including the slow page loading times, the poor
mobile format, and the lack of contact information also contribute to a sense of
unprofessionalism. This can have a direct impact on the business; in the survey, multiple
respondents named professionalism-related issues as the reason they would not take their
business to G. W. Solutions, LLC based on their experience with the website (Appendix B).

Unlicensed Image Usage

Further professionalism issues arise from the use of stock photos on the G. W. Solutions,
LLC website. All the photos on the website, including all the product thumbnails, appear to
be generic stock images, which fail to provide any specific information about the company or
products and contribute to an overall sense of aesthetic unprofessionalism. In addition,
based on conversations with the companys owner, the license to use these images was
 6

never paid for, and therefore the use of them on the website is actually illegal. Even royalty-
free stock images require the payment of a license fee for use (Struck, 2016).
 7

Objectives

A sophisticated web presence is very important for running a business. It allows a company to
be represented at all hours of the day, provides contact information, and gives information on
the services offered. Currently, the web presence of G. W. Solutions, LLC does not maximize
the companys ability to properly represent itself to a broad consumer base. Our suggested
changes to the website and Facebook page aim to achieve the following specific objectives:

Increasing traffic through greater web accessibility

Increasing seminar and workbook sales through refocused web content
Improving customer retention through the provision of better information
Improving consumer trust through increased professionalism

Increasing Accessibility

One of the key benefits of having a website for small businesses is that a website is able to
reach a wider potential consumer base than traditional marketing strategies. Even for local
businesses, online searches have mostly replaced word-of-mouth recommendations as the
number one way customers discover new businesses (Peacock, 2017). In order to maximize a
websites ability to reach out to new customers, that website should be as accessible as
possible. Addressing the accessibility issues of the current G. W. Solutions, LLC website will
increase the number of people who can use the website, and will resultantly expose greater
numbers of people to the business.

Specifically, making the website mobile-friendly has the potential to drastically increase website
traffic. Mobile users now make up over 40% of e-commerce transactions; resultantly, mobile-
friendly websites generally experience greater digital sales than their non mobile-friendly
counterparts (Smith, 2016).

Mobile optimization also affects a websites search engine optimization (SEO)the collection of
factors that determine a websites ranking in search engine results. Google automatically ranks
websites that are not mobile-friendly lower in their results (Google, 2017). Making the
companys website mobile-friendly, as well as addressing other SEO-related issues, will have a
drastic effect on increasing web traffic. According to a study done by Chitika Insights, websites
on the first page of Google search results receive 92% of search-based traffic, and results in the
top five receive 76% of traffic (Chitika Insights, 2013).

Refocusing Content

The most efficient way for G. W. Solutions, LLC to generate revenue is through providing grant
writing seminars and selling instructional workbooks. According to our interview with the
company owner, information about the seminars is spread by word-of-mouth, and most book
sales occur in person (Appendix A). This limits the number of customers who know about these
 8

options. Reorganizing the websites content to emphasize the seminars and workbooks will
expose more people to these products and services and will increase opportunities for sales.

The companys Facebook page can also be used to increase customer awareness of the
seminars and workbooks. Some of the main benefits of company social media accounts include
increased marketing effectiveness and decreased marketing costs (Chung, 2016). These
benefits make the Facebook page an ideal place to expose new customers to information about
the seminars and workbooks.

Providing Better Information

With ever-increasing online opportunities for consumers to find and choose competitors
services, one of the main objectives of a companys website is to retain customers from their
initial contact with the website all the way to the purchase of a product or service. According to
a study done by the Harvard Business Review, the most important factor in customer retention
is the ease with which consumers can gather trustworthy information about a product
(Spenner, 2012). For the G. W. Solutions, LLC website, this means that adding clear, easy-to-
find information about the company, their location, and what each product entails will likely
increase the quantity of online sales.

Providing more specific information will also help alleviate some of the concerns expressed in
our survey of small business owners and business professionals. In this survey, which was
based on a convenience sample and serves as a preliminary insight into current views of the
website, multiple respondents indicated that the lack of biographical information about the
company and the incomplete product descriptions currently found on the website would make
them hesitant to contact or do business with G. W. Solutions, LLC (Appendix B). Improved
information would address these concerns and inspire better customer retention.

Increasing Professionalism

According to Changchit & Klaus, a websites look can affect the personal and financial trust a
person instils in a company (2012). Currently, the lack of a professional website for G. W.
Solutions LLC weakens consumer confidence in the services provided and calls their legitimacy
as a business into question. A professional website increases consumer confidence and
provides better representation of the company to a broad online consumer base.

One of the main factors currently impacting the websites professionalism are the testimonials.
Research at the Universidad de Talca in Chile concluded that with increased testimonials,
consumer trust in entering credit card information is increased (Spillinger 2011). Currently, the
testimonials do not give any specific information about the people or companies writing them,
decreasing the legitimacy of the testimonials. The addition of more personal testimonials to the
website will increase the likelihood that customers feel confident enough in the company to
follow through with a purchase.
 9

Other professionalism issues with the websiteincluding inaccessible contact information, the
150% Guarantee stated in the website header, and the overuse of stock photoscurrently
contribute to negative visitor perceptions. By addressing and remedying these issues, G. W.
Solutions, LLC can affect a generally more positive perception from their customer base.
 10

Solutions

To address the specific problems identified with both the website and Facebook page of G. W.
Solutions, LLC, our team recommends specific solutions in the following four categories:
changes to the website, changes to the Facebook page, search engine optimization, and
company graphics.

Website Changes

In order to better meet the objectives set forth earlier in this report, drastic changes must be
made to the companys website. These changes include switching website-hosting platforms,
restructuring the information available on the website, and addressing individual professionalism
concerns from the current website. Each of these changes is elaborated upon in the following
sections.

Change in Platforms

Firstly, the team highly recommends that G. W. Solutions, LLC switch platforms for hosting
its website away from Webs.com and to either Wix or Weebly. This recommendation is
based upon the following issues with Webs.com as a platform:

Slow loading times: Page load times for Webs.com are noticeably slower than other platforms.
According to Amazons Alexa website traffic statistics, Webs.com is slower than 52% of other
websites. For comparison, Wix is slower than only 37% of other websites, and Weebly 45%.

Firewall issues: The entire Webs.com site, including all the websites it hosts, cannot be
accessed on the Wayne State University secured wifi network. Other platforms, including Wix,
Weebly, and Squarespace, do not experience this issue. Although we have been unable to
directly identify the root of this problem, it can be assumed that other private, secured networks,
such as other college networks or company networks, could experience similar issues.

Not mobile friendly: Mobile websites hosted through Webs.com are very limited without paying
for extra features. Limited color schemes result in the G. W. Solutions, LLC mobile website
being aesthetically unrelated to the desktop site. Furthermore, when using the free level of
Webs.com, mobile sites are bookended by unprofessional-looking top and bottom banner ads.
While Wix and Weebly feature self-promotion on their free mobile sites, these ads are located at
the bottom of the page and are formatted as footer content rather than banner ads.

Additionally, according to Googles Mobile-Friendly Test Tool, which shows how a website is
seen by Google Search, the entire www.G. W.-solutions-llc.webs.com mobile website cannot be
accessed by Googles search code because it is blocked by robots.txt (Google, 2017). This
means that Google automatically deems the site to be not mobile friendly. The same result was
obtained testing multiple Webs.com-hosted sites using the same tool, strongly suggesting that
 11

the issue is based on the platform.

These issues can only be subverted by switching to a different website-building platform.

When deciding which platform would be the best alternative, the following criteria were
considered, in order from most to least important:

1. Availability of a free plan: G. W. Solutions, LLC does not currently have the budget to sustain
a paid-level premium website, and a free option was deemed non-negotiable.
2. E-Commerce compatibility: In order to meet the companys needs, the website must be able
to support paid registration for seminars and book sales.
3. Search engine optimization (SEO): In order to increase web visibility and discoverability, the
website must be constructed through a platform that increases search engine-friendliness.

Using the Website Building Experts comparison chart, we determined that Wix is the best
platform to use based on these criteria, and Weebly is the second-best option (Wong, J.,
2017).

Reorganization of Information

In addition to switching platforms, the information available on the site must be restructured
to better reflect the priorities of the company. Specifically, the content of the website should
be restructured to highlight the following information:

About us: Information clearly stating what the business does, where they are located, and
how to contact them for more information should be plainly displayed upon first arriving at the
site.

Currently, the About us section is accessible by navigating to a separate page; however, the
information contained on this site is neither clearly nor concisely written, and poorly outlines
exactly what services are offered by the company. Furthermore, there is no information to
indicate where they are located and who they serve geographically.

Specifically, we suggest the addition of a more descriptive tagline to either the website header,
sidebar, or home pagesomething to the effect of Helping Michigans small business owners
find and apply for the funding they need to succeed. This provides quick access to basic who,
what, where, and why questions, while more in-depth information can still be found on the
About us page.

Seminars: One of the companys main sources of revenue is hosting grant-application

seminars/workshops in the Saginaw, MI area. However, the only information about these
seminars available on the website is a Training option under the Products section, which
briefly describes a four-hour training session, and individual events on the calendar entitled only
SAVE THE DATE, which do not give times or locations.

Because seminars are a major component of the companys business, the website should
 12

dedicate an entire page to describing them, and this page should be accessible from one of the
main menu tabs. This page should contain:

In depth information about the seminar content

Details about dates, times, and locations
What attendees can expect from the seminar: what to bring, what they will do, and what they will
come away with
Pricing information
A link to the calendar of events
A Register for a seminar now portal

From this page, a customer should be able to register and pay for a reserved place at
any given seminar.

Books: G. W. Solutions, LLC offers two instructional books for business and financial planning.
Book sales are an area of business that the company is looking to increase; however, the books
can only be found on the website under the Products section, and only limited descriptions of
the books are offered.

Similarly to the seminars, the website should devote an entire menu tab to the books in order to
increase visibility and promote sales. Additionally, the books should be listed separately, with
images and detailed descriptions of both. This page should also include a link from which
customers can directly purchase the workbooks.

By updating what information is readily accessible on their website, the company can help
direct visitors attention to the most important points: basic information about what the
company does and the main two revenue generators for the business. Other information,
including the services the company offers for personalized grant searches and applications,
can be shifted to a more secondary position. For example, these services could be
mentioned at the bottom of the About us section, in a form such as:

G. W. Solutions, LLC also offers personalized assistance searching and applying for
grants. For more information about these services, please contact

The scaling-back of this service helps direct visitors to the more preferred services without
closing the door on individual grant searches entirely.

To complete the restructuring of the websites business, our team recommends considering
the complete removal of the products page. While this would decrease sales of grant writing
contracts and other services from the website, our interview with the company owner
suggests that these sales do not represent the most important part of the companys
business, and furthermore, sales of this type generally occur through in-person
communication, rather than through the website (Appendix A). Restructuring the websites
e-commerce in this way would simplify the process for consumers to purchase products and
 13

services, resultantly increasing the likelihood of customers following through and deciding to
take their business to G. W. Solutions, LLC (Spenner, 2012).

Professionalism

When redesigning the company's website, it is important that all of the professionalism
issues present in the current website are addressed. Current issues and their respective
solutions include:

Website header: Currently, the websites header reads Grants Scholarships 150% Guarantee,
which immediately calls into question the websites authenticity. Furthermore, this header
appears as the linked title of the website in search engine results. The website header should
instead simply contain the name of the company, G. W. Solutions, LLC, in plain text. Although
the name of the company is currently present in the logo, it is important that the name also
appear in plain text so that it can be read by search engines (Google).

Grammatical errors and capitalization: Multiple sections of the website currently include
grammatical errors, particularly in the product descriptions. These errors do not inspire
confidence that the company will be able to successfully help customers apply for grant money.
All the written content on the website should be proofread in order to avoid spelling and
grammar mistakes. Additionally, no website content should be written in all caps.

Contact information: The only means of communication currently offered on the website is a
generic fill-in-the-blank contact form, which is inflexible for consumer use and does not give off
an impression of professionalism. This form should either be supplemented or replaced by a
company email address and a phone number with business hours listed.

Testimonials: The testimonials currently given on the website, while complimentary, are not
specific enough to inspire confidence in website visitors, as evidenced by multiple survey
responses (see Appendix B). Future testimonials should include the full names of the people
writing them, as well as the name of the company or organization that they represent.

Hyperlinks: Currently, several places on the website include text that is contextually implied to
be a hyperlink, but does not actually link anywherefor example, on the Home page, where it
encourages visitors to find out more about individual solutions, organizational solutions, and
small business solutions, as seen in Figure 1c. Pages within the website should be hyperlinked
to each other as often as is contextually appropriate without detracting from an individual pages
content. This will both increase ease of navigation for visitors to the website and increase the
ease with which search engines can crawl through multiple website pages.

Social Media Changes

Although the Facebook page of G. W. Solutions, LLC does not contain as many glaring issues
as the website, this social media account comes up short in two key areas: providing
biographical information about the company, and updating with content relevant to the business
 14

priorities of hosting seminars and selling workbooks. Changes in the information provided on
the Facebook page will improve the organization's credibility and increase consumer awareness
of the products and services that G. W. Solutions, LLC provides.

Biographical information

The About section of the Facebook page normally acts as a means of communication
between the potential client and the business, and as a connection to other social media or
websites belonging to the organization. However, the About section of the companys
Facebook page is sparse, and lacks detail that would otherwise engage customers to reach
out to the business. The following changes should be made to provide better information:

Location information: Currently, the location information available in this section is fallible.
While a map is present, the location pinned on the map merely represents the center of the city
of Saginaw, Michigan. This is not helpful to prospective customers attempting to find where in
Saginaw the business is located or where seminars are held. This section should be updated to
include either a street address for the business or statement explaining where seminars are
held.

Clarified mission statement: The Facebook About section also provides an ambiguous
Mission Statement, Giving Your Vision Life Through Financial Resources and Support. While
information regarding the true aim of the company is given in the Story, the mission statement
remains too vague to clearly articulate what the business does. Simplifying and outlining this
Story to form the mission statement would improve the reputability of the company. Additionally,
a one-sentence summary of what the company does should be made visible on the about
section when the page is first opened.

Contact information: Currently, the only contact information available on the Facebook page is
a link to the website and a link to contact the company through Facebook Messenger, which is
not professional enough to be the sole avenue of communication. Both a phone number and
email address should be added.

Updates with Relevant Content

The schedule for posting on the Facebook page is erratic, and may lead to a lack of
reputability towards the company. While Q4 2016 held a large number of posts for
scholarship or grant offers, the page last posted 29 days prior to the writing of this paper,
which may concern individuals attempting to do business with the company. While the
general quality of the posts is sufficient, posting weekly is necessary to maintain user
engagement, and periods of inactivity can decrease the viewership a page gets.

In addition, the content of the posts largely deviates from what is specifically stated on their
website. Posts by the page usually mention upcoming grants and events, but usually links to
a separate blog, rather than providing further information on what G. W. Solutions is offering.
 15

Therefore, the recommended solution would be to update the page weekly, even to simply
state what events are upcoming or what scholarships or grants are available. If one is
unable to follow this regimen, Facebook allows for posts to be scheduled in advance,
allowing for a queue to be set up in advance. If one is to retain their active user base, they
must provide regular, informative updates. The prescribed result for G. W. Solutions would
be to post more frequently, and in doing so, advertise the seminars and services provided.

Search Engine Optimization

The term search engine optimization refers to configuring a website to best meet criteria set
forth by search engines in order to appear at a higher ranking in search results. Because a
websites position in search results plays a major role in how much traffic that website receives,
search engine optimization, or SEO, is one of the main ways to increase the number of people
who visit the G. W. Solutions, LLC website.

The changes that should be made to increase the companys SEO include seeding keywords,
changing to a mobile-friendly design, and increasing external and internal hyperlinks.

Keyword Seeding

Search engines determine a websites relevance to a search by crawling through the

websites text to locate keywords from the search. Increased presence of these keywords
increase the perceived relevance and increase a websites ranking. However, keywords
should be integrated as organically as possible, because search engines can identify when
a page is spammed with keywords to the point of no longer being useful to a visitor.

The most important change regarding keyword seeding is the inclusion of the companys
name in plain text. Currently, G. W. Solutions, LLC appears in only two places on the
entire website: in three product descriptions and in the testimonials. While the company
name is also in the logo, search engine bots cannot extract text from images (Google,
2017). To address this, the header should be replaced with G. W. Solutions, LLC, and the
company name should appear in text on every single website page.

Other keywords should be identified based on what potential customers might search to find
a business like G. W. Solutions, LLC. For example, a potential client in the area might
search for Grant writing Saginaw. To appear more relevant to this search, the website
should make frequent mention of both grant writing and Saginaw.

Mobile Optimization

As of 2015, Google prioritizes websites that it recognizes as mobile-friendly in its search

results. Currently, Googles search bots cannot access the mobile website at all, damaging
its SEO. Switching to a different website-hosting platform will hopefully alleviate this issue;
 16

however, when a new website is created, this should be verified using Googles free tool to
check how the mobile website is seen by the search engine (Google, 2017).

Hyperlinks

Hyperlinks are the main way that search engine bots crawl through the internet: from one
page to any pages that it links to. Search engines use the number of external pages that
link to a given website to approximate its popularity and relevance. There are two main
ways to increase external links to the G. W. Solutions, LLC website. Firstly, online
directories for grant-writing instruction or Michigan small businesses can be contacted and
asked to list the website. Secondly, the companys Facebook page can be leveraged to
create more external links by frequently making posts that include links to the website.

In addition to external links, internal links also help to improve SEO. Because search engine
bots navigate using links, increased linkage between the different pages of the website aids
search engines in accessing different parts of the website. Furthermore, search engines
interpret websites with better internal connectivity as more user-friendly, and often award
them better rankings. Pages within the website should therefore be linked to one another as
often as is contextually appropriate.

Graphics

The graphics present on the Facebook page and website for G. W. Solutions LLC do increase
the visibility of the company, but contain problems that must be addressed in order to maintain
its positive image. Specifically, the company logo, the tiled background of the websites Home
page, and the use of stock photos should be evaluated.

The logo for the company is derived from online clipart, with the name of the company and the
first line of its mission statement superimposed over a graphic of a tree, as seen on the
websites Home page in Figure 1c. The original source of the graphic appears to be from a 2001
Wikispaces page about recycling, leaving the legality of its use dubious. The image also has
little to do with grant writing or consulting, and does not fit the company. A more relevant logo
could easily be obtained through the use of an online logo maker, or through contracting a
graphic designer.

The current usage of a tiled $100 bill wallpaper on the website is distracting, and the overuse of
stock images on the website is depersonalizing and illegal. The tiled background image should
be retired entirely; a plain white background will increase aesthetic professionalism. As many
stock photos as possible should be replaced with professional photographs, including photos of
the workbooks and photos of the seminars. The licenses for all the remaining stock photos
should be purchased.
 17

Costs

There are different costs associated with different components of updating G. W. Solutions,
LLCs online presence. The actual hosting of the website should remain free through the
continued use of free website-hosting platforms; however, updating the design and content of
the website will carry either a significant time commitment if done in-house or the monetary cost
of hiring a designer. Social media can be properly sustained at no cost for the time being. The
other main cost for this project will be the cost of graphicsphotography, stock image licenses,
and a new logo.

This section outlines approximate cost ranges for each component of the project. Based on the
companys strict $1000 budget, our team recommends a balanced plan that will most efficiently
address the current problems with the companys web presence.

Website Costs

The costs of redesigning the website are mostly related to the time required to accomplish a full
redesign. If the suggestion to switch to a different platform is heeded, the new website will
essentially need to be entirely rebuilt. The time commitment for doing this would be around
three to four hours per day over the course of around a week. However, this estimate includes
only the time to actually construct the website, and does not include the time necessary for
preparatory work, such as that discussed under the Graphics Costs section.

Alternatively, if either the time commitment or the magnitude of the necessary changes is
overwhelming or not compatible with the companys schedule, a freelance designer could be
hired to recreate content and branding. The cost of hiring a designer generally ranges from
$500 to $2000. Hiring a designer is generally less expensive when using a platform like Wix or
Weebly because the designers do not need to have coding knowledge (Wong, C., 2017). Wix
provides access to a large directory of designers who are well-versed in using the Wix platform.
This directory allows users to find a designer who can best meet their goals and budget (Wix
Arena, 2017).

Social Media Costs

At present, the G. W. Solutions, LLC Facebook page can be maintained for no monetary cost
and minimal time commitment by the company owner. Changing the content of social media
updates to better reflect the priorities of the business should not substantially affect this
commitment. Looking to the future, if the company grows to a point where it is no longer
feasible for the owner to manage social media, hiring someone to run social media part-time
would cost around $250 per month (Horovitch, 2012).
 18

Graphics Costs

The cost of graphics changes for the companys web presence includes the cost of professional
photography, the cost of purchasing stock image licenses, and the cost of an optional logo
redesign. However, if a designer is hired to rebuild the website, the costs of stock images and a
logo design could be included as part of the cost of hiring the designer.

Professional photography: In order to provide more personalized graphics and

increase the companys online professionalism, we recommend having professional
photos taken of both the seminars and workbooks. The cost of hiring a professional
photographer for a one-hour shoot ranges from $75 to $250 (Sillars, 2016).

Stock image licenses: For the remaining stock images on the website and Facebook
page that are not replaced with photographs, royalty-free licenses must be paid in order
to use these images legally. This cost of these licenses is comparatively low; individual
images can cost between $1 and $15, or less if purchased as part of a package (Struck,
2016). If a designer is hired for the website, the purchase of any stock images should be
done in consultation with them, in order to make sure the selected images fit the design.

Logo redesign: A professional redesign of the companys logo would increase

professionalism and improve the companys branding. A simple logo design carries an
estimated cost of $200 (Deluxe, 2016).

Overall Cost Summary

In order to maximize the companys budget and effectively complete all the proposed solutions
within the companys $1000 budget, our team makes the following recommendations for
spending, which are summarized in Table 1:

Hire a web designer: Because G. W. Solutions, LLC lacks the in-house manpower to
commit time to a website redesign without taking away from the rest of the business, a
web designer should be hired. A designer can be found through the Wix Arena, and
should be responsible for creating content and a design that align with the changes
proposed in the Solutions section of this report. The company should look for a designer
who will work with a budget of approximately $600.

Keep social media management in-house: The recommended changes to social

media updates can be accomplished without much change in time commitment from
how things are run currently. This keeps the cost at running the Facebook page $0.

Hire a professional photographer: In order to take the necessary photographs, a

photographer should be hired to come do a shoot on the day of a seminar. This shoot
should take approximately two hours and should resultantly cost approximately $150.
 19

Purchase a stock image package: Most stock image vendors offer packages of related
stock images that can be purchased at a lower price than individual images. A package
of between five and ten related images should provide enough images for the companys
purposes for around $50.

Hire a graphic designer to create a new logo: A new logo can be used on both the
website and the Facebook page, and will provide a valuable increase in professionalism
and branding for approximately $200.

Table 1: Breakdown of recommended budget

Approximate Cost Notes

Should include both website design and the
Web Designer $600
creation of content
Social Media $0 Can be managed in-house
A two-hour shoot to obtain photos of a seminar
Photography $150
and the workbooks
A package of assorted business/consulting-
Stock Images $50
related images
Full logo redesign to be used on both the website
Logo Design $200
and the Facebook
Total $1000
 20

Conclusion

The current problems with the web presence of G. W. Solutions, LLC, which are comprised of
issues with accessibility, content, and professionalism, include an inability to connect to
computers on secure networks, a lack of pertinent information regarding the services offered,
and the unprofessional layout of the website.

These issues can be remedied by following the solutions outlined earlier in this report. These
solutions include switching to a different website-hosting platform, reorganizing the information
found on both the website and the Facebook page, increasing search engine optimization, and
making changes to the graphics used on these web pages. Switching to a more professional
website host, such as Weebly or Wix would address many of the websites current issues, which
can be linked back to the current platform, Webs.com. Other issues relating to content and
professionalism can be addressed as the web pages are rebuilt on a new platform. These
positive changes can be reinforced by implementing similar content changes on the Facebook
page.

In order to affect all of these changes while operating within a budget of $1000, it is
recommended that G. W. Solutions, LLC uses that budget to pay for the assistance of
professionals, as well as stock image licenses. Hiring a designer to rebuild the website will help
ensure that all the proposed solutions are addressed without taking away valuable time from the
company owner. Additionally, hiring a photographer and graphic designer will help lend the
companys online brand professionalism and authenticity.

By making these changes, the company will be able to address the specific objectives laid out
earlier in this report, including increasing traffic, increasing sales, improving customer retention,
and improving consumer trust. Meeting these objectives will help maximize the effectiveness of
the companys online presence.
 21

References

Changchit, C., & Klaus, T. (01/01/2015). Journal of electronic commerce in organizations: An

exploratory study on small business website creation and usage Idea Group Publishing.
doi:10.4018/jeco.2015010101

Chitika Insights. (2013, June 7). The Value of Google Result Positioning. Retrieved from
https://chitika.com/google-positioning-value

Chung, A.Q.H., Andreev, P., Benyoucef, M., Duane, A., & OReilly, P. (2016, 26 October).
Managing an organisations social media presence: An empirical stages of growth model.
International Journal of Information Management, 37(1a), 1405-1417.
doi:10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2016.10.003

Deluxe Small Business Resource Center. (2016, October 25). How Much Should a Professional
Logo Design Cost? Retrieved April 13, 2017, from https://www.deluxe.com/blog/much-
professional-logo-design-cost/

Dooley, R. (2012, December 4). Dont Let a Slow Website Kill Your Bottom Line. Retrieved from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/rogerdooley/2012/12/04/fast-sites/#6aaa812853cf

Google. (2017). Make sure your sites ready for mobile-friendly Google search results. Retrieved
from https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/6196932?hl=en

Google Developers. (2017). PageSpeed Tools. Retrieved from

https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/?hl=en-
US&utm_source=PSI&utm_medium=incoming-link&utm_campaign=PSI

Horovitch, D. (2012, August 16). How Much Should You Plan To Pay Your Social Media
Community Manager? Retrieved April 21, 2017, from
http://www.business2community.com/social-media/how-much-should-you-plan-to-pay-
your-social-media-community-manager-0252850#GSXLO0wTeVv6S3S1.97

MOZ. (2016). Page Speed. Retrieved from https://moz.com/learn/seo/page-speed

Peacock, A. (2017, March 17). Small Business Websites in 2017: Survey. Retrieved April 11,
2017, from https://clutch.co/web-designers/resources/small-business-2017-website-
survey

Pingdom AB. (2017). Pingdom Website Speed Test. Retrieved from

https://tools.pingdom.com/#!/cS2vfg/http://www.G. W.-solutions-llc.webs.com
 22

Sillars, R. (2016, February 26). How Much Should Photographers Charge In 2016? Retrieved
April 21, 2017, from https://petapixel.com/2016/02/26/much-photographers-charge-2016/

Smith, J. (2016, October 28). Mobile eCommerce Stats in 2016 and the Future. Retrieved from
http://www.outerboxdesign.com/web-design-articles/mobile-ecommerce-statistics

Spenner, P. & Freeman, K. (2012, May). To Keep Your Customers, Keep It Simple. Retrieved
from https://hbr.org/2012/05/to-keep-your-customers-keep-it-simple

Spillinger, A., & Parush, A. (2011, June 01). The Impact of Testimonials on Purchase Intentions
in a Mock E-commerce Web Site. Retrieved April 10, 2017, from
http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0718-18762012000100005

Struck, A. (2016, June 16). What are Royalty Free Images? Full Comprehensive Guide.
Retrieved from https://www.stockphotoguides.com/use/royalty-free/what-are-royalty-free-
images

Wix Arena. (2017). About the Wix Arena. Retrieved April 21, 2017, from
http://arena.wix.com/pages/about

Wong, C. (2017, April 02). How Much Should a Website Cost You? A Definitive Pricing Guide
For You. Retrieved April 13, 2017, from
http://www.websitebuilderexpert.com/how-much-should-a-website-cost/

Wong, J. (2017, March 5). Website Builders Comparison Chart for 2017. Retrieved from
http://www.websitebuilderexpert.com/website-builders-comparison-chart/
 23

Appendix A: Interview with Company Owner Felicia Buchanan

Q: What are the problems you want us to look into?

A: I want to add a search function to my website, and to be able to charge people for each
search.

Q: How do do you make money?

A: I make money by writing people grants for a fee. However, I want to make money by having
people attend a grant writing seminar.

Q: Why do you not want to write grants?

A: It takes the most time out of my options to make money, and businesses might not always
get the grant.

Q: What is this seminar?

A: It is a seminar where people pay to attend to learn how to optimize grant writing. If I can get
around 10 people to attend per session, it makes me the most money within the smallest
window of time.

Q: How do you spread the word of your seminar?

A: I mostly have people tell each other, or I go to businesses I know personally.

Q: Do you use your Facebook for marketing your business?

A: I do, but I do not have a lot of followers.

Q: I saw on your website you had a book. How do you mostly sell that book?
A: Most copies of the book are sold in person

Q: How do you find grants?

A: I find them myself, no online database, I go to [asked specifically not to state] to find them.

Q: Would you mind if we looked at you getting a new website?

A: I would not mind you looking for a new website. However, I am under a strict, less than
$1,000 budget.

Q: Can you make your own database if you make a search engine?
A: Yes I can, I can do it personally.
 24

Appendix B: Survey results

Figure 1b: Survey question one and responses

 25

Figure 2b: Survey question two and responses

 26

Figure 3b: Survey question three and responses

 27

Figure 4b: Survey question four and responses

 28

Figure 5b: Survey question five and responses

 29

Appendix C: Website screenshots

Figure 1c: Website Home page screenshot

 30

Figure 2c: Website Home page with money background screenshot

 31

Figure 3c: Website About us screenshot

 32

Figure 4c: Website Contact Us screenshot

 33

Figure 5c: Website Testimonials screenshot