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Web design for small business
Where to start for business on the web?
So you have the premises, product, staff and enthusiasm…but what
about the web? Being one of the first places your potential clients will see
your business it’s certainly worth serious consideration.
What do you really need on your website?
What should you ask a web agency and which agency should you work with!
How do you spot the hidden costs?
Are you comparing like with like?
These are just some of the questions that armed with the right answers will
allow you to see through the many offerings available, avoid the pit falls and
confidently take your company online.
What do you really need?
A website should be useful and add value to your business, give the right impression
and make potential customers want to contact you. The content should always
be current and as your business grows your website grows with it.
You need your site to be easily found by potential customers, simple to use
and navigate and clear in content and contact information.
If you’re serious about making the right impression employ the professionals.
Self made sites won’t fill your customers with confidence about your approach
to business. For business you need a robust, secure and professional site.
Before you start - Research
Review your competitor’s sites, what do you like? What do you dislike
about them? What do you think is missing that your customers might need? Knowing
your online competition is essential.
The right domain name
If your exact business name has already been taken select something close and
memorable. Avoid using dots and dashes in the name as these are easily forgotten.
Ideally you should use the .co.uk or .com for business in the UK.
All good web agencies will set this up for you and help you select the right
name.
Business hosting
Your site needs to be available 24/7; if a potential customer visits your site
and it is not available it is unlikely they will return. Hosting can now be
found at very low prices but consider if it really is a saving? Ask where your
site will be hosted, if data is backed up and how the security and upkeep of
your server is managed.
Email
Once you have your company domain you can also set up your email. Again take
note from the hosting section and pay for right support and security levels
suitable for business.
Design
There is a strategy behind all good web design, usability studies have clearly
shown that using the right navigation, images and copy will retain your audience
for longer so therefore more likely to purchase or contact you.
Your home page should allow your customers to instantly recognise your company,
use your company branding ie logo and colours to form a template and style.
Clearly presented text, aligned and set in a font and format that runs consistently
through the site will effectively use all available space and make using the
site easy.
Functionality
What do you really need on the site? The more functionality you have the higher
the cost. Start with the basics and add the rest later. If you get the site
built right the first time you should easily add functions as you grow.
Content
All web content should be written with both your audience and the search engines
in mind. Your audience should always be priority, capture your audience with
short bulleted statements that are quick and easy to read. Use of images should
be limited so as not to clutter the page and increase the time your page takes
to appear.
Prioritise your content – your homepage should have your phone number
clearly shown, the services you offer and links to the other pages you would
most like your audience to view. Your most lucrative offers should be the first
to be seen!
Professional copy can make a real difference to a site and assist your position
in search results.
Support for the future
How often will you need to change the content of your site? How important is
your site to your business? Getting the right support and hosting are the ongoing
costs you need to understand at the start.
If you have content that will change often have the site built with a content
management system, this will allow you to easily update your content without
ongoing charges.
Using technology can really help your business develop, look for the agency
that is interested in your business and who will make suggestions to you….rather
than provide a website and taking your annual hosting. They should be the experts
who know what is possible and bring the suggestions to you.
How do you know if its working?
Review monthly statistics showing detailed information from how many people
visited your site, the most popular pages to the best referrals. Prioritise
content based on the most popular pages and see which advertising or promotion
increased visitors so you can repeat the best and review the rest. Select an
agency that will work with you to review the stats and develop your website.
SEO
Search Engine Optimisation
Optimisation 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.
Use it!
Don’t have your website as an extra that nobody mentions. Us it on everything
that a potential customer might see, be it your answer machine, letterhead,
order form, business card or local advert.
Make sure you check emails that come from your website; a response the same
working day is expected.
Do I need to spend money on a professional site when my friend’s son can
build one?
Keep your business head on when asking this question! Can they really design
a site that will put you above your competitors? Will they be around to support
the site if errors appear? What if you want secure ecommerce added can you be
sure they know how to handle the data? It can seem like a saving but it could
have serious consequences to your business.
How do I select a designer?
Contact several that you think present themselves well online and arrange to
meet at least two face to face. Discuss what you are looking to achieve and
ask what ideas they suggest, do they just design websites or will they help
you develop and build your business online?
Ask the agency what their experience is, if they are self taught and focused
on the technical side of development they may not develop a site to the requirements
of your audience. Having the latest flashing spinning features is a great showcase
for their new ideas but is it really what your business needs?
Ask if you can talk to previous customers, view their websites and read testimonials.
Costs and comparing quotes
As with anything in life you get what you pay for! Think long term, its no
good getting a cheap start up site that can’t be developed.
Template sites can be less expensive but also inflexible and leave you tied
to one company as often updates are via a central CMS. Bespoke sites can cost
a little more (not always) but are easy to develop and can be hosted anywhere.
Ask for a breakdown of all quotes so you can really compare like for like.
Break a quote down to the following areas - Design and development, copy, images,
CMS, hosting, email, SEO, stats and ongoing support.
Glossary
Domain – the name used to identify your website ie greenwoodsolutions.co.uk
SEO Search Engine Optimisation – setting your website code to work with
the search engine spiders.
URL – Universal resource locator, the correct term for the full address
of your website ie www.greenwoodsolutions.co.uk
Hosting - Space on a server where your website resides
CMS - Content management system – allows you to update your website content
using a non technical online interface.
Susie Greenwood
Greenwood Solutions
01256 843513
www.greenwoodsolutions.co.uk
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that would help new business start ups, we will
happily add them to the site and include a credit/link
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Simply send to articles@syob.co.uk
together with the URL for the link.
We would be grateful for your help - thank you
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