OK, every other business out there has a website and you need
one too to help your business, and communicate what your business
does to your customers, but what should you really think about
before having your website built?
Have a read below - it might help shape your thinking about
your site...
Sizing Up your Competition
This simple important step will help you to determine the main
purpose of your site. It will give you an idea of what specific
online features you want to offer your potential clients. It will
give you an idea on how you want to approach your visitors, and
ideas on what you want your site to look like.
The first thing you should do when thinking about starting a
web site business is to search for businesses that have web sites
in the same field as yours. See what online services they offer.
What are they charging for a similar product? What features are
on their site?
Try and list 5 sites below that offer similar products or
services to yours. Pick sites that have features you might like on
your site, have similar product/services as yours, or look similar
to the way you want your site to look.
Do you offer anything different from your competitors which
will make your website stand out – if so, what are they?
Determine the Purpose of your Web Site
There are many reasons to start a web site. Your next step is
to figure out what exactly you want your web site to do for your
business. Is your purpose to sell your products directly over the
Internet? Or maybe you just want to advertise your “brick and
mortar” business to increase brand awareness.
It is very important that you have a clear understanding of
what your web site’s purpose is. It will help you decide how many
pages your web site should have, which features you need to
accomplish your goals, and how you want to interact with your
visitors.
Having all of this in mind when designing your site can also
help to make your purpose clear to your visitors as well. For
example: If your purpose is to collect names, e-mails, and
addresses so you can ‘market’ your product/service to your
visitors, then you may want to offer a free newsletter to them.
You can have them sign up for a newsletter about your field of
business, and in return you get their contact info. You now know
that the subscribers are interested in your type of
product/service and have given you permission to ‘market’ to them
in your newsletter.
Name Your Pages
Now you should decide how many pages your web site needs. What
will those pages should be called, and what information you want
on them?
Some common page titles for the average site are:
- Home
- Contact
- About your company
- Services / Products
- Order / Pricing
- Portfolio
- Links
Determine the “Look and Feel” of Your Site
Your web site will be representing your business. It is (or
should be) more than just an online flyer or advertisement. You
should make your visitors feel comfortable, and welcome. Your page
should be organised, well written, and attractive.
The colours in your site should be appealing and easy on the eyes.
Try to pick colours that compliment each other.
The basic layout of your pages is pretty much up to your
preferences. Do you want a “fun” site or a “no nonsense” site? Or
maybe you just want a “comfortable feel” for your visitors to
enjoy. Just keep your navigation simple, keep your pages neat (too
many bells and whistles can run people off of your site), and be
consistent.
Custom Graphics
Unfortunately custom designed graphics and photography can be
expensive – so have a thin about what you really need for your
site – do you need a logo or do you have an existing logo that
reflects your business well?
List some of your ideas for custom logos, images you might
need.
Choosing a Domain Name
A good domain name plays a crucial part in the listings you can
achieve in some of the top search engines. Try and think of a name
that describes your business – i.e. Interiors or Restaurant in the
title will help search engines to find your site.
Submitting Your Site to the Search Engines
Getting a top position in the search engines is a very tricky
thing to do. There are so many directories out there. Many of them
want different info, presented in a different format. Some require
payment, some don’t. Some are spidered by robots and some are
review by humans. Some want you to submit weekly and some will ban
your site if you submit more than once a month.
Here is what you can do. You can create specific pages tailored
for each search engine’s criteria (called Doorway Pages). You can
place little tags called meta tags in the html of your web site to
help the robot spiders read and list your pages properly. You can
also make sure that you have a nice informative site with easy
navigation for the directories that are reviewed by humans. If you
choose to do this yourself, it can be very time consuming, and
tedious. But it must be done!
You can also help your site’s position by using Pay per Click
Ad words with search engines such as Google. You decide on the key
search words that people are most likely to use to try and find
your business on-line – Google will then create an ad on the right
hand side in the Sponsored Links section for your business and
will charge you an amount each time a visitor clicks on your ad to
your website. You can put a cap on the amount you spend a day. You
can also pay as much as you want for the ad – the more you spend
for popular search terms the higher the ad will appear in the
sponsored listings.
Promote, Promote, Promote…and then Promote Some More!
Here is a small list of ways to promote your site. Some may
work for you and some may not. Only by trial and error,
documenting your results, and modifying your techniques based on
those results, will you finally find the best marketing strategies
for your site.
1. Publish a Monthly Newsletter. A successful newsletter will
usually have some sort of free advice related to your product or
service. When a surfer subscribes to your newsletter for this
free info, they are telling you two things. One, that they have
a genuine interest in your product/service. And two, that you
have permission to send your “advertising message” directly to
them! It’s a “no-brainier”! Do it!
2. Cruise message boards where people are asking advice about
topics related to your product/service. Offer your advice freely
to these people. This will help to brand you and your company as
an “expert”. You should only post the link to your web site
discretely near the bottom of the message (if allowed). People
don’t mind that you get in a little plug for your free advice,
but they don’t want to read messages that are only a glorified
ad for your product
3. Submit an ad to as many free classified sites as you can.
You will never get a bunch of traffic from them, but you never
know where your next customer will come from!
4. Don’t forget to advertise OUTSIDE of the Internet!
Business cards, flyers, yellow pages, and the newspapers can all
bring traffic to your site!
