How To Start A Website for Your Business

How do you start a website for your business?  Finding success for your business is no longer limited to a physical location.  Businesses face new challenges when it comes to gaining customers and growing their brand. How you start the website for your business can have long lasting ramifications.

The creation of a business website should be your highest priority.

The problem facing business owners is no longer a matter of your business in general.  Business owners in this economy not only have to provide a great product or service they need to either have a good deal of knowledge about web design, graphic creation, website structure, search engine optimization and how to connect these factors together or find a good trusted web design company to help with these factors.

In the “old days” a customer would gain their opinion about your business after being introduced to your product or service through samples or face to face meetings.  There is no doubt that this method made your job a little easier.  Buying a product is, and always has been, about the perception of the consumer about your product and your business.

People buy products they need or want to resolve a problem or create a better perceived life.  It really boils down to those two things.  Once the need and want is established the issue of trust is the final road block.  Placing a product in their hands that can be seen, felt, heard and even tasted is a definite help.

Buying methods have not changed but how you find and present your product to those potential customers has.

Google receives over 2,000,000 search queries every minute of the day.  Your customers are online looking for your product.  That’s great until you understand that there are over 600 million websites on the net and 571 new sites are created every 60 seconds.

Without a great website that is designed to work for you; your customers may never find your product.

Step one in starting a website: Understanding what it is you wish to accomplish.

Not every website or platform is created for the same purpose.  You may not be using the website to sell your products.  Perhaps you are looking for a blended website that can inform but also sell.  This first step in defining what type of user experience will happen during a visit to your site is important to clear up before you create the first page.

Like the foundation of any good building, your website needs to be built to handle the goals of your business.  The first conversation with a new client is exploratory for our staff.  Much like a first date.  Our staff asks questions about the business, the product or service, the existing presence, if any and what goals are being targeted for the website.  This first “date” often brings up questions that otherwise wouldn’t have been explored but would have meant the difference between success and failure.  The more tools you have to work with before you launch your website, the better chance of success you’ll have with it. 

Now would be a great time to pick up the phone and talk with us.  Complete Web Solutions is located in Colorado and our team is experts in web design, optimization and search engine marketing.  Call now 719 302 5029.

Maybe you haven’t decided if you will be hiring a design company or you’ll be giving it a try yourself.

There are times that a DYI website could work for your goals.  If you are not looking to rank high for your page and are just looking to have your own little plot of virtual land to express your thoughts and show off your cooking skills or family pictures, then you should be okay by grabbing a DYI website template and enjoying the rest of your day.

If, however you are not looking for a personal site and your revenue will be generated because of this website then the choice to DYI will be the worst choice you made for your business.  Investing in your business website with a skilled designer is really not the question.  The question is how to choose a web design company.   For great information regarding this topic read "Free Websites for Businesses".

How to Start a Website

Selecting a Domain Name
 
Each website has a domain name.  There are a few tips you should consider when choosing the domain for your site.

There are only 63 characters allowed in a domain name.  I don’t suggest you try to use them all.  The longer the name, the better chances of someone typing the wrong key in the search and never finding your page.

The use of numbers can be tricky.  If people are trying to find you but they can’t remember if you used the numbers “33” or you spelled them out “thirty three” you risk that they will simply give up and move on to something else.

Names like Riduloussallyyams create a number of problems.  First, people don’t tend to spell well these days (I blame spell check), so take this into consideration when using a word that could be easily misspelled.  Also names that end with the same letter that the next word starts with.  This is an area that can cause the search to come up with no results.  Think about your name and how it would come across verbally when you are giving it out over the phone.  How many parts of your name will you need to repeat and explain? 

There are choices now in the extensions.  You are not stuck with just .com, you can pick from a variety like .net, .co, .info, .org etc.  It may not be a bad idea to take them all but people are used to .com.  Unless you own the .com version of your name it is likely that people will default to Yourbusiness.com and may never make it to your website.

This choosing of the name is not as easy as following the rules above.  My suggestion is to pull up a site like “Go Daddy” and do a domain search before you invest days finding the perfect name.   It may not be available and that can be very frustrating.

Now that you’ve decided what the goal of your website is and you have your perfect domain name; where are you going to live?

Not all hosting companies are created equal.  Does your hosting company have a contact number for those times you need to make a panic call?  Do they support the platform you built your site on?  Will your site be on a server that’s shared with dozens of other sites?  This is important for the spam factor.  You could find that your IP address is black listed before you ever send out one email.  This happens when you are sharing a server with a company that plays the spam game.  Be sure to find out how much bandwidth your host company allows.  Will they shut you down if you exceed it?  How much to upgrade?

Your hosting is a big part of your website business.  If the server is slow or down much of the time, your customers can’t access your site.

Starting your website is the first of many steps.

Once you have your website choices made its time to add your content.  Here is where you will be focused on the optimization of your website.  Rule of thumb is to build for your customers first and the search engines second.  Google is constantly changing its algorithm to provide users with a better experience.  You will be wise to establish your business as an authority site as quickly as possible.

Are you ready to embark on your adventure?  Complete Web Solutions is here to help.  Our office is located in the United States.  Quality work done in a timely manner and priced lower than you may expect.  Call today and let’s create your online empire!  719 302 5029