Consulting Websites - need good examples of the best sites

Question

I am working on revamping our consulting website. We have a small shop with 12 developers aimed at custom desktop and internet development with a focus on Microsoft technologies.

I'm looking for some sites to use as examples - not to copy, but to see how they present services, size of company, and portfolios.

I have seen many sites that are 5-10 pages of USELESS information... useless for clients, useless for search engines, really weak.

I would like to make something a little unique - something that can stand out above the rest in terms of content. I am not really interested in blogging (there are enough software bloggers out there).

Answer 1

I'm tempted to say ignore what everyone else has done and simply ask your customers what information they need or have found useful on your existing site. I think you can probably get some good design ideas elsewhere, but they don't necessarily have to be from consulting web sites. Check out Smashing Magazine and A List Apart's Design Section for ideas. Also, you may want to consider having separate public and customer sites, with the customer site providing a means to communicate with your customer -- maybe with a wiki, bug reporting/tracking, etc.

Things that I would find useful:

• Contact information -- a single one for public, personalized for internal
• Rates
• Sample project descriptions
• Technology/methodology descriptions
• Information about the company and employees (history, background, skills)