The following is a translation of the given Polish text into English:
**What Is an Online Page?**
For one, it’s an online page, also known as a business card that everyone should have – because everyone has one and doesn’t care how it looks or what content it contains, like the main page, contact, offer, etc. But does such an online page meet the expectations of modern customers who are increasingly searching for information online?
Not really.
**What is an Internet Service?**
DEFINITION OF INTERNET SERVICE:
An internet service is a group of interconnected pages (subpages) that aim to increase functionality, which potential clients are often looking for. In some cases, if a website has too little content, the client enters and finds no interesting information, so they leave – time is money, and navigation convenience, or reaching relevant information, is also not insignificant.
An internet service should create an ecosystem centered around our product/service; the more abundant in content the site is, the more time potential clients spend there and the greater the chance of any interaction with them, hence the acquisition.
**Designing Internet Services**
is a significant challenge. We build websites containing up to 100-150 subpages; online stores have even more – dozens or hundreds of thousands of subpages – not just blog pages but company service pages describing the specifics of the company, its offer, with newsletters and integrated e-commerce platforms, etc., as well as informational services dealing with topics that interest clients.
A professional internet service is one that meets all potential client needs; online sales are only possible when a client can easily access the product/service they’re interested in. We need to put ourselves in their shoes and, based on questions they might ask, build the basic structure of the website and fill it with necessary content and functionalities.
Designing internet services is not the domain of companies like Allegro or price comparison websites; such firms specialize in “tweaking” standard templates – if one treats customers seriously, one should offer them top-notch quality. An internet service is a one-time expense that needs to be treated as a long-term investment; online services grow over time, building their prestige on search engines, which are the most important source of Internet traffic – we need to make sure such a site doesn’t close off further development opportunities and is maximally flexible and adaptable.
Many clients I’ve encountered have spent 1-2 thousand zlotys on an internet service, only to significantly expand their activities over time and then face the problem of developing this service with new functionalities; it usually turns out that rebuilding such a site is completely non-cost-effective because the amount of work required to adapt it to the new reality exceeds the cost of building a brand-new flexible professional website.
**Projects from Many Companies Involve**
putting clients into what we might call a “trap” – they offer so-called “dedicated solutions” (custom-made) that are actually designed to keep clients dependent on their services. How do they do it?
By making them dependent on their own services. And how do they do this?
By offering custom-made solutions (also called “author’s solutions”) – websites built from scratch, which have the main functionality of all standard solutions based on a specific platform (e.g., WordPress) but cannot be easily modified.
What does that mean?
That such a custom-made solution is not only very expensive (costs often exceed 30 thousand zlotys) but also forces clients to use the same company’s services, which are usually much more expensive than market prices – websites of this type pose a significant and costly problem.
Unfortunately, taking such a site for modification by an outside firm is often impossible because custom-made solutions do not allow modifications by other firms (copyright law); it’s the perfect example of a “dead-end trap” – sometimes these types of solutions are sold at prices similar to those of standard ones (we’re talking about the engine) so that later, the company can charge for further development. Often, maintenance contracts are signed where we pay monthly several thousand zlotys for ongoing software development and support; in cases involving large companies or very complex services, these sums can be much higher.
**Building an Internet Service**
with such a firm is therefore not economically justified. The ideal solution is to build a website based on a standard platform – e.g., WordPress, which is currently used by over 20% of all websites online – this speaks for itself.
The benefits of such services include:
* lower construction costs (compared to custom-made solutions)
* relatively low cost of expansion – because WordPress is a global standard and there are many specialists in it; however, if we build an internet service based on an author’s engine, we become dependent on the company that created the site for us and can be dictated any terms by them, while transferring to something else may not be cost-effective.
* high security standards – WordPress is developed by a massive community; no other website platform can boast such a huge testing group, which means that all bugs and security vulnerabilities are quickly identified and fixed; in today’s world of cybercrime (it’s already the present, not the future), site security is non-negotiable, especially when we’re investing in advertising – we cannot afford downtime or crashes related to security issues because they harm our reputation.
**Designing Internet Services**
should be entrusted to a company that builds its solutions based on standard platforms that are continuously developed (free of charge) and are secure, flexible, and relatively affordable (possible development by any firm operating in the market services).
