Website Setup -7 Checks For Business Website Owners
Many small business website owners fall into the trap of getting a website designed and uploaded to the web and think that the job is done. The reality is that it is just the start.
There are several things that need to be considered to ensure that the site functions well and does what you intended.
Here a 7 things you need to consider.
Email Addresses
Are you using the email addresses that come with your domain name? Many website owners continue to use a Gmail or Yahoo email address as the main contact address and not their own email addresses that can be configured as part of the domain name.
These addresses need to be configured on the email server and then you need to configure your email client to access them. If your Web host supports IMAP4 mailboxes then use these as the preferred access method and not POP3.
See -Website Hosting and Email
Contact Forms and Contact Details
- Is your contact information (telephone, fax, mobile, email) clearly displayed and/or accessible.
- Have you tested your contact forms.
Tracking and Monitoring
You cannot build a website or have it built and then simply forget it. You will need to monitor it's performance and to carry out periodic maintenance.
Among other things it is very important to :
- Monitor Your Search Engine Rankings
- Understand How your visitors interact with your website
- Locate any broken links
- Identify and fix problem Pages e.g. no title or description
- Verify that site forms work
- Update pages
- Add New Pages
- Add/Remove links
- Perform Backups
- etc
The level of effort required depends on the site complexity and the number of pages but for typical small business sites <25 that have only occasional updates then an hour or 2 every month/2 months is all that is normally required once the site is reasonably established (1 year old).
You do not need to buy expensive software or tools to do the job as Google supplies all you need for free with the Google Webmaster tools and Google Analytics.
Your first job is to register your site to use Google Webmaster tools and for Google Analytics. To do that you will need a Google account which is free and is linked to your email address.
I would recommend using an email address that you don't publicly use (if you have one as it is more secure.
You can also use a Google Gmail account and again I would create an account that I would only use with webmaster tools and analytics, Adwords or Adsense.
See Running your website for more details.
Optimisation
Have you optimised your web pages. Most importantly have you optimised your home page. In particular:
- Title meta tag
- Description meta tag
- Opening Headline
- Page Content
See A Beginners Guide to SEO For Small Business Websites
Search Engine Submission
Have you submitted your site to the search engines? You only need to do this for Google, Yahoo and MSN. Forget the adverts offering to submit you site to hundreds on search engines!
The best and most efficient way of doing this is by getting an incoming link, and the easiest one to get is from a directory.
If your site is local have you added it to the local directories. All three major search engines have local listings.
Navigation
Have you tested your website navigation to make sure that it works? Is it consistent across the site. Are all pages within 2 hops from the home page? If your site is large (>25 pages) you should consider creating a sitemap.
Web Design
Does your site look clean and professional. Is the text clear and readable? Make sure you aren't using clashing colours- black text on white background is popular for a very good reason.
Make sure you haven't overdone the graphics. Make sure the page loads within 5 seconds and check it in Internet Explorer (6 and 7), and Firefox.
If you pay attention to the above then you should be on your way to having a successful website.
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