Use The Internet To Improve Your Business
Use The Internet To Improve Your Business
Entering the world of web can be a daunting experience for any business; but there are some questions that once answered, will help you to avoid the risks and give you the confidence to get your business up and running on the web.
What is the purpose of the website?
What do you need to have on your website?
What questions should you ask a web designer or design agency?
Which agency should you choose to work with?
Are you comparing like for like quotations?
What do you need from your website?
A website should be a useful source of information, add value to your business and give a professional impression which will make potential customers want to contact you. The content should always be kept up to date and as your business grows your website will grow with it.
Your website will need to be easily found by potential customers, easy to use and navigate and all content and contact information must be clearly displayed.
If you're serious about making the right impression and using a website to bring in more business, then you need to employ the professionals. You may have seen advertisements for self-made' websites, which may seem cheaper and easier to do, but these will not fill your customers with confidence about your approach to business. Your website needs to reflect your business image, this is your customer's first impression, and we all know that first impressions count!
Research
Researching you competitors websites is important because it will help you to decide what you like and what you don't like. Have a look and see if there's anything missing from their websites that you could incorporate into yours.
Choose the best domain name
There are various websites on the internet that you can use to search for domain names. First of find out if your business name is available. If it has already been taken by another company try and choose a name that is a close as possible to your business name and something memorable.
If you can, try and avoid domain names with hyphens and dots, as these can easily been forgotten or misread, meaning you could lose out on business. The most commonly used domain name extensions in the UK are .co.uk or .com.
All professional web design agencies should be able to assist you in selecting the best domain name for your business, and arrange the setup for you. Always request that your domain name is registered in your business name to avoid any issues when renewing.
Website Hosting and Email
A website advertises your business 24 hrs a day, 365 days a year, so your website needs to be available at all times. If a potential customer clicks onto your website and it is not available it is highly unlikely they will return.
There are numerous hosting companies to choose from and some can be found at very low prices, although sometimes it is advisable to pay a little more to get a better service.
Always ask where your website will be hosted, is it in the UK or the US? Find out if the data from website is stored securely and backed up. Also ask how the server is managed and make sure you have the correct level of security and support for your business.
Once you have purchased you domain name and arranged your website hosting, you can set up your businesses email addresses.
The Design
There is an important strategy behind all good web design, usability studies have shown that using the correct navigation, images and copy will keep your audience interested for longer, therefore making it more likely they will purchase from you or make contact with you.
You should make sure the design of your home page is appealing and your company logo and branding is clearly visible to give instant recognition.
The text or copy on your website should be clearly aligned and set in a font that is consistent throughout, space on the site should be used efficiently avoiding garish colours and over cluttering.
Writing Your Website Content
When writing the content for your website you should always ensure that it is written with your target audience and search engines in mind.
Your homepage should have your phone number clearly shown, the services or products you offer and links to the other pages you would most like your audience to view.
Your target audience is always your top priority, capturing your audience with shorter keyworded statements that are quick and easy to read will not only keep your prospective customer interested, but also get your point across effectively.
Images are an excellent way to show off your products or services; however these should be limited so as not to clutter the page and increase the time your page takes to load.
Functionality
Have a think about what functionality you want on your site.
There's various functionality that can be included in your website, such as Recommend a Friend, RSS Feeds and Share. Remember that the more functionality you have the higher the cost will be.
If you find that you don't have enough in your budget to incorporate all of the functionality you would like, why not start off with the basics and add the rest later?
If the web site is built right first time the functionality can be easily added as your web presence grows.
Search Engine Optimisation
Search Engine Optimisation during your website build will prepare the meta-tags placed in the code of your site pages to help the search engines collect search results. SEO work along with keywords in your content and linking between other websites will all contribute to improving your positioning on the search results pages.
Ongoing Support and Hosting
Other things to consider when deciding a website are how often will you need to change the content of your site? How important is your website to your business, is it the main source of income?
If you have content that will change often it is advisable to have the site built with a content management system, this allows you to easily update your content without having to pay ongoing charges to your web agency.
Ensuring you get the right support and web hosting are the ongoing costs you need to consider at the start.
Always look for an agency who is genuinely interested in your business needs, and are able to make valid suggestions. A good web design agency will be able to advise you on what is possible and what isn't; rather than just providing a website and taking your annual hosting, they should be on hand to advise you throughout the whole process.
Monitoring Your Website
Monthly statistics such as those produced by Google Analytics are excellent for showing detailed information such as; how many people visited your site, where they were from, what they typed into the search engine to find you, as well as the most popular pages to the best site referrals.
By optimising the content on the most popular pages you can see which advertising or promotion has increased your visitors.
Ask your web design agency if they can offer a service to review the site statistics with you on a monthly basis.
Once you have some idea of the type of website you want, you are ready to choose your web designer.
Choosing Your Web Site Designer
Make contact with several web design agencies that you think present themselves well online, and arrange to meet at least two of them face to face.
At the meeting discuss what you are looking to achieve from your website and ask what ideas they suggest. Ask if they are just website designers, or if they offer additional services such as Search Engine Optimisation and copywriting to help you develop and build your business online?
Ask if you can see examples of their previous work and testimonials, talk to previous customers and view their websites. A good web design company would not object to any of this!
Comparing Quotations
We all know that with anything in life you get what you pay for. With this in mind try to think long term, it's no good getting a cheap and cheerful start up site that can't be developed in the future.
Websites built from a template can be less expensive but they can also be inflexible and leave you tied to one company. Very often updates are made via a central CMS owned by the web company.
Bespoke sites can cost a little more (but not always) but are easy to develop and can be hosted anywhere. A bespoke CMS can be incorporated meaning you can do the site updates yourself and added functionality can be added as and when you need it.
When you request a quotation always ask for a breakdown so that you can really compare like for like. Ideally the quotation should break down into the following areas :-
Design and development, copy (if required), images, CMS, hosting, email, SEO, statistics and ongoing support.
If one website quote seems much lower or higher than you expected then you may be in danger of a nasty surprise at the end. Remember the saying "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is".
Of course we would love for you to choose CQ Designs to design and develop your website but, whichever web designer you choose, we hope that this article has given you an insight into what factors are important when considering a website for your business.
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