Plan Your Website
Building a Successful Site for Your Business
Business Goals
Define how you plan on converting website visitors into paying customers.
This can be a phone call or contact form submission allowing you to further explain your service and next steps to get started. Or, if you are selling products on your site, it's about how to convert that visitor into a credit card wielding maniac, getting them to purchase your goods and feel safe doing it.
Define your top 3 ideal actions a visitor may take, for example:
- Product Purchase
- Phone Call or Contact Form Submission
- Email Sign Up for Newsletter
These primary goals then help define what's important and allow you to focus your time and effort on profit generating activities rather than updates that have no benefit for your organization.
Budget
$1500 to $5000 is the most common range for a custom website. Based on your business's needs and options, Warren Z Design can generate a complimentary estimate for you.
Complete websites start at $499 with the Brochure Website Package where you'd find a pre-built template online, 4templates.com has been my clients favorite to date.
A custom web site design is best for your company's brand and will be the best quality. But this is also another area we can save big if we need to. Please compare a few of the differences between using a Template Site Design and a Custom Site Design.
What You Need to Do
Content is King; it sells your services and is how search engines find you.
This means we need text and images for your site to help tell customers about your services and products.
The 2 options at this point are to 1. write it yourself, or 2. hire a professional copy writer
If you choose to write the content for your website yourself, we'll want at least a few paragraphs about your:
- Services or Product(s)
- Company; Staff, Mission, Founding Story, History
- Contact information, including facebook and twitter links
Once you have a draft, finding images to complement your information helps to add interest, canstockphoto.com and istockphoto.com are both good stock photo sites.
Your own photography of your business or hiring a professional photographer to get shots of your business and products is best, but much more costly.
And if you choose to hire a copy writer, check out our amazing 2012 website special for content creation.
Your Site's Domain Name - the .com, .net, .org
Your domain name is often how you will advertise yourself. 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 hostmonster.com 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.
Your Hosting - the computer your site is on
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:
If you sign up for hosting via this link above, Warren Z Design will be compensated for the referral. Thank You!
Update Your Site to Help Your Customers
Once you purchase a web site, like a car, you should maintain it to keep it running well. Keeping your content current for your visitors will encourage return visits and faith in your company.
Installing google analytics on your site is quick and allows us to track and analyze visitor statistics to see what is working and what isn't based on your business' goals.
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