Where to Start With Web Design for Your Company?

So, you want a web presence? All your competitors have one. Your customers expect you to have one. Everyone else has one, don?t they? As most people know, a web site is a must have for any modern business, big or small ? but where do you start?

What Do You Want From Your Website?

Ask yourself first ? what do I want from my website?

It?s an obvious question ? so obvious, in fact, that it is often overlooked. What you want from your website will determine where you start, how you progress and how satisfied you are with the end product.

Do you want to use your website as a marketing tool, a means to drive new customers to your business? Perhaps you want to sell your product online. Maybe you are well known in your sector, but feel a web presence would be an efficient and professional way to let your clients know of new products or services you are offering.

Next, you need to examine your business. Are you a local or national concern? Do you have lots of competitors or are you in a specialised industry with few competitors? How will your website benefit your company?

Domain Names and Designers

Once you have thought about this, it?s time to get on with the practicalities. You need a domain name and hosting first and then you need to find someone to design and build your website.

Do not make the mistake of thinking you can make your own website. It is harder than it looks. Think of all those property programmes that are constantly on TV. The people who use the architect and the project manager for their build or conversion are always less frazzled, happier with the end product and on budget! Yes, you can get a free website with Google, but it will look like a free website from Google ? and not a particularly attractive, usable or original one at that.

Get recommendations of web designers. Look at their portfolios ? all designers have their own style ? see if it fits with yours. Bigger and more expensive does not necessarily mean better. A small web company, or even one man (or woman) band may be more suited to your needs ? especially if you are a start-up or very small company.

It is useful to have all your services coming from one place ? just one person to call if something goes wrong, one person who knows all about you and your business. Web companies will register your domain name and arrange hosting, ensuring you don?t have to panic that you have lost your passwords when the renewal reminder comes through in twoyears? time.

Talk with the web designer ? face to face, on the phone, via email, any way you want. They need to know what your objective is, what you like and (just as importantly) don?t like. If applicable, show them the sites of your competitors. Tell them of any websites you particularly like ? they don?t have to be from your line of business, they just need to give the designer an insight into your vision.

The Importance of SEO

Once you have your website, the job is still far from over. If you want to market your company through your website and get new customers they have to be able to find the website. This means getting a good ranking in the search engines ? specifically Google, the most used search engine by far. Your web designer may be able to get you a good ranking, or you may opt for a search engine optimisation company.

If you do employ an SEO, make sure you know what you are paying for. It is all very well being promised you will be top of the search engines, but it will be of no use whatsoever if you sell property in the Costa del Sol and are top of the search results for property in the Dordogne. Bear in mind, Google?s systems are fully automated and will index your site automatically if it has been designed and built well. You can wait for Google to index your site (which takes anything up to three months) and see where you come in the results, or you can pay Google so you get a higher ranking.

Of course, there are ways to help your site come near the top of the listings. If you are a local business and your customer base is very local, then your site needs to be on Google Places. These are the results that are towards the top of the page and also shown on a map of the area. If you are in a specialised industry with few competitors you will find yourself on the first page of results anyway. If you are in a business with lots of competitors nationwide, you may need to pay if you want to use your website as a major marketing tool.

Search engines crawl your site looking for phrases. These phrases can be in your meta tags (your site description and title), your domain name, the copy in your pages and the tags on your images, to name but a few. If your company name is Joe Smith and you sell harmonicas, you may want to register the domain names joesmith.co.uk for those who already know of your business, but also register harmonicas-for-sale.co.uk for those who have never heard of you.

If you only sell in Cambridge, register harmonicas-cambridge.co.uk for example. If you are a UK company, then just register the .co.uk domain name ? you don?t need that .com! It is far better to spend your money on a few descriptive .co.uk names than the .com version of your company name unless you are a huge multinational.

Those All Important Updates

At last, your website is up and running, looking very slick and topping the search engine results. Now you can sit back and let it take care of itself, right? Well, no. Take a look at your business again and the image you want to project ? this may change over time from your original vision, so make sure your website reflects this.

If you have a news page, keep it up to date with the very latest news. If you have links to other sites, check regularly that the sites you are linking to are still live. Check your Google ranking from time to time ? others are changing their sites and they may start to rank ahead of you in the results. Respond by tweaking your copy and meta tags to improve your ranking.

Your website can be so much more than an information brochure for your company, so use it to its full potential and it will be an asset to your business.

Author Bio:?Amy Harris?is a writer for Expert Market- which offers a free service to businesses, providing a sourcing tool for finding office equipment and business services (such as prices for UK franking machines). She enjoys helping assist businesses in sourcing products and services at an affordable rate.

Source: http://www.thebackuplist.com/start-web-design-company/

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