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Starting a Business Website7 Step Guide to Building/Creating a Business WebsiteStarting a website for your business doesn't require that you to spend huge sums of money, but it does require that you spend some time researching and planning your site. The first thing you need to decide is.. Why do you want a website? It isn't sufficient to think that just because everyone else has one you need one as well! When you answer the why you also will probably answer, in part.. What will the site do for your business. An example would be. My business wants a website to:
It is important to have a general idea of what you will eventually do with the site as it can have a big impact on what type of host/design you choose. In order to illustrate the process we are going to go through a real life example in the form of a case study based around a wedding car business website. If you are wondering why I choose this it is because one of my newsletter readers requested it. The Steps are:
Step 1 Basic ResearchFirst step is to do a little snooping and look at the sites that currently rank well on Google. There are several things that you can learn such as
Video 1-Looking at the SERPsVideo 2 -Looking at the CompetitionStep 2-Deciding on How You Will Build the SiteAll websites start with a site/page template. You can :
The general approach is to get an existing template and then edit it to suit your need. Only professional designers build templates from scratch. The most common templates are html templates but php templates are also used. The big problem with using these type of templates is that you will need a web editing tool to edit the pages and you will need basic website building knowledge to build/edit the pages. If you go with this approach you will either have to learn about basic site building or pay/know someone who can do it for you. The other main method is to use a content management system like WordPress. The main advantage is that once setup they can be edited/updated by someone with very basic knowledge of the WordPress System. However they do require a certain skill level to setup properly. However WordPress is getting easier to set up and maintain and more functionality is being added via Plugins. Regardless of the method you will still need to gain a basic understanding of how websites are built. Recommendations This is a very difficult choice to make as both methods have advantages and problems However in general I would choose Wordpress as it is much easier to produce a professional looking site with WordPress even though it can seem to be a bit of an overkill for a small site. However do have a read of website building options for more background Step 3- Choosing a Domain NameDecide on your domain name. If you have an existing company then the name will normally be the company name but it doesn't have to be. If you look at the web results you will see a lot of different domain names like
There are several things to note:
A .co.uk or A .com name.co.uk names are for UK companies only and can be used if your company is UK Based. A .com domain name is more generic and can be used regardless of location. .uk domain names are cheaper and some companies choose them because of that but the price difference is so small that is is a very false economy. So the preferred option is always a .com name. However if the name is already taken then you can fall back to the .uk one. Note: if you live in Australia then you use the .au extension Germany .de etc. Keywords in Domain NameThere a two schools of thought here. The one says you should choose a short easily memorable name, and concentrate on name branding. A good example is Apple Computers Virgin ( trains,planes,music etc), and Google. The name Apple tells you nothing about the products, likewise with the names Virgin and Google. However these are huge companies and they have spent lots of money to get brand awareness. Therefore, as I'm assuming you are a small company, you should try and choose a name that conveys meaning, in which case you need to include the main keywords that describe your business. In this case they are- wedding car hire You don't need all three, however it is interesting to note that the top site on Google for the searches: Hire wedding car, wedding car hire, hire wedding cars has the domain name-www.hireweddingcar.co.uk Recommendations:
Don't register the domain name yet. Step 4-Choose a Hosting Provider and PlatformIn General the hosting provider should be located in the same country as your target audience. So if your target market is in the UK then the host should be as well. Most hosting providers provide a free domain name with the package which is why I recommend choosing the hosting provider before registering the domain name. I also recommend that you get the domain name from the hosting provider, even if it doesn't offer a free one as that way the setup is easier to manage. You should also choose Linux as a platform (mandatory if you are using WordPress). There are many hosting providers on the Internet but you may save yourself some time by taking a look at the ones below:
You Don't need to get your hosting space and register your domain at this stage.
Step 5- Deciding on the Main KeywordsImportant: This stage is often ignored, or only briefly addressed, even by professional web designers, but it is the most important part of building a successful website. The main way your potential customers will find your site is via the search engines. So for example if someone is about to have a wedding and they live in Birmingham they will go to Google (Yahoo or Bling) and type in a search phrase like:
There are many search phrases that they can use and your first job is to find the most popular ones. This you do in two stages:
Brainstorming give you the initial so called "seed keywords" and is really quite simple as you simply make a list of the words you yourself would use when looking for your type of business/service. If possible ask a few others for a similar list as we all use different words to describe the same thing for example: You might use the word hire and someone else would use rent. The next stage is to examine the seed keywords in more detail using online keyword research tools like Google external keywords. The objective being to find the ones that are used more often. i.e. do more people search for wedding car hire or wedding car rental. Step 6- Logo, Initial Pages and ContentThe website logo fits at the top of the page. The size is limited by your page width which is determined by your site template. Below shows a typical page structure 720px wide (old page size). I prefer to use 840-860 px but you will find many modern templates 960px wide. Although it is possible to hack a template and change the size it is an advanced procedure and not recommended for beginners (but see below). Therefore don't get your logo done until you know the template width.
I use the Cutline templates for WordPress the two column template uses 770px and the 3 column 970px. If you are interested I can also provide a modified style sheet for the cutline 1.4.3 2(two) column right theme which is 860px wide and moves the navigation to the left. Use the feedback form to request it. If you use my simple HTML/CSS template then you can change the width easily in the style sheet the default is set to 770px and here is the extract of how it is defined: .main You can see the template here and download it here Decide on the Initial Pages and Create Basic ContentMy html template has 4. I recommend you have at least three home, contact and about us. It is a good idea to create the basic content for these pages before you go live. It doesn't have to be final, you can edit it later. Home Page And Your MWR (Most Wanted Response)This is the most critical page of your site as it will, in general, be the page at which most visitors will enter. The Home page must tell new visitors what to expect from the website- what is in it for them! This it should accomplish within the first 2 -3 paragraphs. It serves as a guide to your visitors and so it should provide clear navigation to the rest of the site. From a search engine perspective it will also be the most important page, and should be well optimised. If you were to optimise only one page of a site then this is the one. It should contain the main keywords and variations but only if they make sense and never more than 3 times on the page. What is shouldn't be:
The Most wanted response (MWR) Your website has a purpose, maybe it has more than one, but it must have a main purpose! This is the Most wanted response (MWR)-What is it?
What ever it is then the home page will play a big part in getting it done. Contact PageThis should contain the phone, fax, email, postal addresses and other contact addresses/numbers that can be used to contact your business. Perhaps the most important one of these is a contact form. Contact information isn't limited to the contact page. It is normal to display contact phone numbers in the header or footer graphics. About UsThis is about your company and staff. I.E. Joe bloggs and Sons established in 1781 in Ironbridge by Joe as a widget maker. etc.... Most people put this information on the home page but it doesn't belong there.
Step 7 - Purchase Your Hosting Package, Domain Name and upload ContentNow we can't go much further without a real site and so it is time to purchase the hosting package, register the domain name and add the content to your site. If you are using WordPress you will also need to install and configure it before you can add the content. There are many hosting providers on the Internet but you may save yourself some time by taking a look at the ones below:
Once you have done this the site is live and can be reached by typing the URL into a web browser but it will not get any visitors unless you personally start giving out the url to friends or put it in an advertisement in the paper. To get visitors you will need to market the site and by far the most important source of traffic will come from the search engines. Questions/CommentsDo You Have any comments or questions? I have set up a blog page where you can comment on this case study and ask questions. Related Articles: |
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