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You or your boss has made the decision that you need or want a website.
The trouble is you're not a techie and haven't got a clue where to start.
The purpose of this guide is to guide you through the basics and help you make the right decisions about your online presence.
What do I need? For something that only exists as a series of '1's and '0's on a computer you'll probably never see it can be a bit confusing as to where to start so I'll break it down using jargon free language.
1.
PLAN - Why do you want a website and what is its purpose? Having a clear understanding of these two points will help you ask the right questions and make the right decisions.
Websites can be huge money pits and there are lots of designers and developers ready to take your money if you let them.
Any website provider worth their salt will go through your aims and targets and advise on the most cost-effective route to take.
Be wary of anyone who doesn't ask questions about your project.
2.
DOMAIN NAME - This is probably the first thing you think of when thinking about websites.
Your domain name is the text you type in to your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Chrome are examples of browsers).
This is your unique address on the web.
All domain names are unique and you can have almost anything you like as long as nobody else is using it.
You really need to spend some time thinking about this and it is something your website provider should help with advising you on.
3.
DESIGN - OK so now we need someone to bring our plan to virtual reality!! This is where the money can really start to mount up if you're not careful and it's why I think you need to have a plan for your website.
Really there are two aspects to design - the look and the code.
A designer will be able to provide a stylish look to your website and the developer will make it happen.
Unless you have a plan these two characters can get quite carried away, and trust me, they are well paid.
You need to know what you want and make sure they stick to the plan.
4.
HOST - A good way to think about hosting is to relate to more familiar objects.
Let's say we're just about to start a business and we want people to know all about us.
We need to advertise our services.
One way would be to run an advertisement in the local paper.
You would sit down and work out a marketing PLAN - think of a catchy business NAME - get a nice DESIGN for our advertisement - HOST in the local paper.
So it seems that running an advertisement is a lot like planning a website and our host is merely a provider of space on the Internet rather than the local newspaper.
We've got our website out on the Internet so we can sit back and enjoy a nice cup of tea and a biscuit and pat ourselves on the back? NO!! What do you mean no? 5.
MAINTAIN - You wouldn't just place one advert in the local paper now would you? You might want to place another advert the following week with a new offer or service you can provide.
Website maintenance is the last hurdle you need to clear.
Why would your customers come back to your website if there's never anything new on it? Maintenance is an essential part of your website strategy.
Not only do customers want to see you update your website but search engines (like Google and Bing) like fresh content and will rate you higher in their listings if you update regularly with fresh new relevant content.
Also regularly re-visiting your website will help you notice areas you may want to change or even spot spelling mistakes.
So is there anything else? Well to recap we now have a well thought out website that has been delivered to specification, on time and more importantly on budget.
We're regularly updating and maintaining our website and we've added website manager to our CV.
You could leave your online presence at that but you could add one more role to your rather impressive looking CV.
SOCIAL MEDIA You can't go five minutes without hearing Facebook this, Twitter that, YouTube the other! Do I need to do anymore? Well that's a big discussion for your website blog, you did specify this in your plan didn't you? The common factor that links all of the above Social Media outlets is communication.
Facebook and Twitter et al offer you another route to your customers.
Have you noticed how many advertisements on the television now have Facebook page addresses on the closing shot? Big business has decided that Social Media is important so why not utilise some of these FREE tools yourself and extend your reach.
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