Why a website?
So you want to have a website for your business. If you are like many small business owners you have decided you definitely need a site to generate some traffic for your product or service. That is a smart thing to consider. A website can help people find you and get information about you, perhaps contact you or even buy from you when you are not open. A website is s natural way to attract new customers for both an online and a brick and mortar existence. Without a website you limit your exposure to your community and must rely on word of mouth, print media, radio, and drive by presence. Most of us cannot afford television ads, but even it we could did we capture the attention of the person that needs our service or our product in that 30 seconds we bought? Maybe we did, maybe we didn’t, same thing goes for the radio spot. If our target audience is like most of us, he threw away the ad or direct mail piece with out even noticing we were trying to gain his attention. That is where the website is so different. With a website we have information that our target customer needs 24/7 365 days a year. Hopefully it tells them exactly what they need to know and most importantly want to know. And the best part about it, they came looking for us in a search engine or through social media. With the web site you still have word of mouth, advertisement, and if our signage is large enough drive by presence in order to visit us later. I can help you with all of your website needs.
Great, you have decided you need and want a web site. Now what? How do I get my site out there? That is what I will attempt to tell you. I want to give you exactly what you need to know to go about getting your site up and viewable. If you want to do this yourself as opposed to hiring a professional (like me; wink) I want you to know what you are in for. You should have a complete understanding of the amount of time and effort it will take to produce your website, and launch it from beginning to end. I do this to encourage you, and to let you know why you should seek the help of a professional. I also want to help you understand the amount of effort that any professional places in your site should you elect to hire a web designer. This should also help you know what to ask, look for, expect, and receive from a professional. Web design is not voodoo, black magic or elusive, but it does take time and knowledge.
30,000 Foot level Let’s start at the 30,000 foot level. What you need for a site is:
- Domain name, called a URL
- Registrar of that Domain name,
- Web Host or Web Server where your website will reside
- Website complete with content
- FTP process either within a Web site creation application or stand alone
- Social Media the ability to expand your presence to a wider audience in a more up to date way
Tasks you will have will be:
- Choosing your Domain name
- Registering your Domain name
- choosing your web host and understanding their interfaces
- Building your website
- Launching your site to your web host
Sounds simple, but lets examine each one in turn a little further.