Web Site Guide
Seven Steps to Building a Successful Site
1. Submit Your Business to Search Engines
Add your business to Search Engines' Local Business Listings. By adding your business to local business listings on search engines, your business has access to customer reviews and local business searches in your area.
→ Add My Business to Google Free to be listed.
→ Add My Business to Bing Free to be listed.
→ Add My Business to Yahoo $299 to be listed. Yahoo?! - not exactly.
2. Web Site Goals
What are you looking to accomplish with a web site? Are you selling goods online? Are you offering services online? How can your web site emulate your business and help you accomplish your tasks more efficiently? How can it help increase your profits?
3. Initial Budget Considerations
Make a list of your web site requirements. Is the photo gallery most important? Do you need to sell your products? Do you have a google or paypal payment system already setup you could capitalize on? Or do you simply want a brochure site to help sell your services?
Based on your needs, wants and budget, a good web developer will help you decide where your dollars should be spent for the most impact.
4. Domain Name or URL
The old, www.mycompany.com, .net, .org, or .us. A good one should be short and easy to remember when thinking of your company. Interestingly, almost every 3 to 5 letter combination of the Roman alphabet has been purchased by domain resellers. So finding a short and memorable .com, .net, or .org for you, can be a challenging process.
Start with whois.net and begin by typing in your most obvious .com ideas. Sometimes it's surprising what still is available out there, but most likely you'll have to get a little creative.
5. Hosting Services
In general, I recommend hostmonster.com for most web site needs. Customer support, web site load speed, and flexible options make this one of the best hosts for the money I've found:
6. A Web Developer
You have to feel comfortable and able to exchange ideas freely with your chosen developer(s). As always, it's more enjoyable and more efficient to work with someone you enjoy.
Once you've chosen a designer or developer, make sure to provide detailed input along the way so you end up with something you like. Take the time to scrutinize everything as it's being developed, or chances are at later stages will be more difficult (AKA more expensive) to modify things.
As with most things in life, the more you give, the more you get. Meaning, if you give insightful and critical responses to each step in the process, you will get closer to what you want in the end.
7. Site Maintenance Plan
Once you buy a web site, like a car, you should maintain it to keep it running well. Keeping your inventory up to date and your site current for your visitors will encourage return visits and faith in your company.
I install google analytics on almost every site I do so you can track and analyze visitor statistics to see what is working and what isn't.
I usually encourage business owners to delve into basic Search Engine Optimization based on their own knowledge and expertise. Content is King for most users searching the web out there and nobody knows your business better than you.
Works ←
