Tips for Setting up your First Business Website |
| Written by Administrator | |
An introduction to setting up your first business websiteIf you haven't set up a website before, the idea could be challenging. This brief article provides a few pointers to assist you with setting up:
Choosing a Domain Name for my business websiteYou can't use a domain name that someone else has already registered. Most web hosting companies have a page where you can type in a domain name to see if it already registered. If your preferred name is not already registered it is advisable to go and register it right away. Registration is not terribly costly and is lasts for two years, remember to renew it or it becomes available for someone else to utilise. Your name should say something about your type of business. Bear in mind: A .com domain implies a worldwide presence, a .co.za is for a business either in SA or the localised website of a global organisation and a .org website is mainly a non-profit making enterprise. The domain name should also be closely related to your business. In most cases this means the name of the website should contain the name of the company. In other cases the website may be named after a product of your business. In these cases the advantage is that your site is more likely to appear as the result of a web search because users are more likely to search for products and benefits than company names. What contents to include in my business website?The pages of your website needs textual information about your products or services and their benefits. Google uses this information to determine the subject matter of each page for relevant keywords of your subject matter. You are aiming to appear as close to the top of a Google search for your products or services. Remember that keywords need to be things that people will actually search for but remember also that keywords are competitive so attempt to find words that effectively target your specific business. Once you have your desired keywords use the on your website, especially in headings and don't use synonyms. Don't use links to expired or fictitious pages all this does is create a bad reflection. Keep your pages up to date and avoid the appearance of an incomplete looking site. What should my Home Page Look Like on my business website?Consider who will be visiting your site, what they would expect to find and how they will find it. What will a first time visitor see upon landing on your home page? Will they return? Ask a friend or a stranger to sit down and look at your site and give feed back and watch how they navigate your website. How do I go about attracting visitors to my business website?Apart from well chosen keywords, you will benefit from other people linking to your website. In the past, this led to the practice of link swapping. Such practices these days are likely to damage your ranking with Google. Include genuine links to others within your market sector, but do not adopt link swapping as a practice to sway the search engines. Provide useful information on your website to potential customers of your business and design your website so that it is easy to use. People will visit your website for the information and may return and buy from you later, particularly if they found the information useful. How Successful is business Website?Your web hosting company will make statistics available about your website including the number of visitors to your website each month, the number of pages viewed, the number of requests for each page, which search terms were used in search engines to find your pages, the pattern of requests over a 24 hour period etc. This information enables you to build up a profile of visitors to your site, which you should compare with your targeted customer profile. Summary Your website needs to:
Websites need to be actively maintained, as those that do not change for long periods are classified by visitors and search engines alike as being 'dead'.
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