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Friday, September 11, 2009
Getting your website started
When deciding to create (or recreate) a website for your small business there is no substitute for proper planning. Planning is essential to determine if you are equipped to build the site yourself or whether you need to hire someone to do the job for you. It helps you determine the scope of the project and what features are essential before you launch the site (and what can be added later).
Here are some of the things you need to think about when deciding to start a website:
Domain Name
Your company name and your domain name should match. Period. Sometimes companies that cannot get a domain name that matches their company name will add extra words to the name like "companyinfo.com." This is not a good idea. If you cannot get a domain name that matches your company mane you might want to consider changing your company name to one that has an available domain name. Otherwise, the time and money you spend marketing your company will be sending traffic to someone else's Web site!
Logo
Do you have one?
Is it any good?
Your Web site design should match your logo in color and style. If you don't have a logo yet, you need to get one. It is important for both your online and offline marketing efforts. When getting a logo you need to trade off the expense of a custom logo with the aesthetic appeal of simple one. A custom logo design can cost fro $300 to $15,000 which is money many entrepreneurs do not have. If you decide to design your logo yourself (or get a friend to do it) you want to avoid using clip art for your logo because it will look cheap. There are a few of online tools that can help you with your logo design: logoyes.com or logoworks.com (easy, inexpensive logos!) or flamingtext.com which helps you create (free banners/buttons).
Design
Generally it is good to avoid a home-grown site design if you're not a Web designer. Home-grown designs often look less professional and thus do little to enhance your credibility online. If you decide not to go with a home grown design you face a decision. You can either use a design template or you can get a custom design.
The biggest advantage of design templates is obviously the price. Many design templates can be purchased for less than $100. Some are terrible but some are fantastic and when you purchase a design template you get to see exactly what you're getting up front. Custom designs can be expensive and time consuming but they do allow you to control the look of your site and the image you portray.
Structure
Once you have settled on a basic design you need to come up with the structure for your site.
Content
Content refers to your site's text and images. It is the meat and potatoes of all websites. It does not matter how beautiful your website looks or how many gadgets you put on it. If your content is lacking people will stop coming.
Most small business owners write copy for their websites themselves. After all you are the ones that know your products and/or services the best. When writing copy for the web, it is important to remember to use half the words (or less) than you would in traditional print materials. You also need to organize the content for easy scanning by using headings, links and bulleted lists in place of paragraphs.
When creating the content for your website don't forget the images. Images create the mood and can more quickly convey the purpose of the site than text alone. When choosing images remember most images online are copyrighted so you will want to either take your images yourself, hire a photographer or buy the images from one of the many photo/image sites available online. I personally like istockphoto for inexpensive royalty free photos.
Site Marketing
You will want to think about site marketing as a part of your original site design. You should think of thing like:
You also want to identify the pages on your site that are "Call's to Action". That is, you need to identify the pages that will get users to contact you for more information, sign up for a newsletter, watch a video or buy your product. These are the most important pages on your site and you will want to make sure they actually encourage people to do something with your company.
Summary
That should be enough to get you started with your website creation process. Check back for my next posting which will cover building and deploying your site.
Here are some of the things you need to think about when deciding to start a website:
Domain Name
Your company name and your domain name should match. Period. Sometimes companies that cannot get a domain name that matches their company name will add extra words to the name like "companyinfo.com." This is not a good idea. If you cannot get a domain name that matches your company mane you might want to consider changing your company name to one that has an available domain name. Otherwise, the time and money you spend marketing your company will be sending traffic to someone else's Web site!
Logo
Do you have one?
Is it any good?
Your Web site design should match your logo in color and style. If you don't have a logo yet, you need to get one. It is important for both your online and offline marketing efforts. When getting a logo you need to trade off the expense of a custom logo with the aesthetic appeal of simple one. A custom logo design can cost fro $300 to $15,000 which is money many entrepreneurs do not have. If you decide to design your logo yourself (or get a friend to do it) you want to avoid using clip art for your logo because it will look cheap. There are a few of online tools that can help you with your logo design: logoyes.com or logoworks.com (easy, inexpensive logos!) or flamingtext.com which helps you create (free banners/buttons).
Design
Generally it is good to avoid a home-grown site design if you're not a Web designer. Home-grown designs often look less professional and thus do little to enhance your credibility online. If you decide not to go with a home grown design you face a decision. You can either use a design template or you can get a custom design.
The biggest advantage of design templates is obviously the price. Many design templates can be purchased for less than $100. Some are terrible but some are fantastic and when you purchase a design template you get to see exactly what you're getting up front. Custom designs can be expensive and time consuming but they do allow you to control the look of your site and the image you portray.
Structure
Once you have settled on a basic design you need to come up with the structure for your site.
- What pages do you need?
- How will they be organized and linked together?
Content
Content refers to your site's text and images. It is the meat and potatoes of all websites. It does not matter how beautiful your website looks or how many gadgets you put on it. If your content is lacking people will stop coming.
Most small business owners write copy for their websites themselves. After all you are the ones that know your products and/or services the best. When writing copy for the web, it is important to remember to use half the words (or less) than you would in traditional print materials. You also need to organize the content for easy scanning by using headings, links and bulleted lists in place of paragraphs.
When creating the content for your website don't forget the images. Images create the mood and can more quickly convey the purpose of the site than text alone. When choosing images remember most images online are copyrighted so you will want to either take your images yourself, hire a photographer or buy the images from one of the many photo/image sites available online. I personally like istockphoto for inexpensive royalty free photos.
Site Marketing
You will want to think about site marketing as a part of your original site design. You should think of thing like:
- How will people find your site?
- What keywords do you think they will use to search for your business?
You also want to identify the pages on your site that are "Call's to Action". That is, you need to identify the pages that will get users to contact you for more information, sign up for a newsletter, watch a video or buy your product. These are the most important pages on your site and you will want to make sure they actually encourage people to do something with your company.
Summary
That should be enough to get you started with your website creation process. Check back for my next posting which will cover building and deploying your site.
Labels: design, planning, website tips
