Whether you're planning to build your first website or revise a current one, follow these tips to make the process easier:
. Decide its purpose. Before you build a new website or modify your existing one, decide what role it will play in your marketing mix. Websites should be designed to achieve one of these three goals: To inform, to promote or to sell products and services. For example:
- Auto manufacturers don't expect you to buy a car online. It's too big a purchase to be made sight unseen, so automobile retailers use websites to inform prospective buyers about their products.
- Movie producers design their websites to promote their latest flick by profiling actors, presenting story descriptions and adding downloadable video trailers.
3. Traders flock to eBay.com to actually sell or buy products online.
. Set a production schedule. A website is like a resume. you just keep adding things to it and making little adjustments. Therefore, it's very easy to spend way too much time building your website to get it "perfect."
- Unlike a brochure or flyer, your website can be changed at any time. Decide what you want your website to achieve, what will go on it and how quickly you want it to go up. It's better to have a functioning website that isn't completely finished in your mind than no site at all. Get it done on time and schedule regular updates.
. Work with a pro. Interview three qualified website developers or designers and ask for references. You'll want to hire a firm with experience in building sites like the one you envision. Be sure there's a personality fit as well.
Ask the developer to prepare a Production Schedule outlining 1.e how he or she will construct your site between the project start date and your launch deadline.
Add a blog. Blogs are the hottest thing on the Internet today. A blog is your very own easy-to-use mini-website, where you can easily post thoughts, information and interact with people.
Your visitors can read the latest items. Your visitors can comment on what you've posted, link to it or email you. Visitors may sign up to receive your daily blog posts.
Small business owners use their blogs for different purposes. You can create a blog to share advice, post news or link to your customers' websites. Blogs can link to your website and help you build online traffic.
Find out more about blogging at www.blogger.com, www.wordpress.org, www.typepad.com or www.blogware.com
Help people to find it. A website is like a retail store - some people will stumble upon it, others need help finding it. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) wires your website into the world's top search engines, Google, Yahoo and MSN, so surfers can find your products or services.
With billions of websites fighting for customer attention, an SEO expert could become one of the most important members of your small business team. An SEO expert understands the complicated world of meta tags, programming code, search strings and website rankings.
Test your site. Smart restaurant owners hold a "soft" opening a week before their official opening to work out any operational kinks. The same principle applies to your website launch. Launching your brand new website just before a major marketing campaign can lead to disasters such as customers not being able to place orders, page crashes or dumped shopping carts. Hold off on any major marketing that draws attention to your new site until you know it is working flawlessly.
Source : http://www.visa.ca/smallbusiness/articles/article.cfm?article=295&category=60
