New Business AVOID these First Website mistakes

If you are a new business who has finally decided you need an on-line presence well, congratulations! Now you have the opportunity to attract more customers, inform your current clients and of course, now you have another marketing medium. I suppose now you are wondering why you didn’t do this before. Well if you’re not regretting getting a website yet, you will soon. That is as long as you do it right.

The most important advice I can give you before you start looking for people to help you create your website is: DO YOUR HOMEWORK FIRST. There are a ton of website design companies and freelance website designers out there. First you must know if the designer you have hired, does web design full-time or as a hobby. Best thing to do is hire a professional. Don’t use your cousin’s friend Bob, it almost never works. I am not only saying this because I own a web design company. I am saying it because before I was a web designer, I did the exact same thing. OK it wasn’t my cousin’s friend Bob but it might as well have been.

Some of the first mistakes I find people make are not knowing what they want. If you want a website, cruise the net to see what type of website you would like, what you want it to do, list some websites that you liked that you saw on the net. When you go to a web design company, you then can tell them what exactly you are looking for, show them by pointing out the other websites, they can then give you an accurate quote.

To choose a web design firm, compare prices, type of services and the quality of their work. You should also keep in mind that for you, this website is going to be another marketing medium for you and you will need someone or a company that can help you create one by either giving tips about how you writing on the web works, or at least a company who can maybe help you market your website on-line.

This is especially important for a small business who needs every advertising dollar to work for them. Maybe you could find a web design firm that would offer a marketing consultation after the website is live.

Another thing to know when getting your website is that right now SEO (search engine optimization) is really important to businesses. If your website does not get any SEO work done to it, it is virtually impossible to get your website up in the search engines. And.. You need to be found in the search engines to attract new customers. The best way to go with this in mind is get a web design firm that also provides SEO and when getting your website design make sure that they are designing your website with SEO in mind. Now SEO is not a one shot deal. It requires work almost all the time, I don’t mean you are going to have to hire someone to work on it 8 hours/day 5day/week. I mean that some companies provide a monthly package where they work on it, so many hours /month.

Content on your website, the best way to get a great website to sell your service or product is not only to have great graphics, or get deals but, to provide valuable free information. What people are looking for on the Internet is free information bottom line. For instance, if you are selling computers on your website, you should have a page that compares the computers so that your visitor has the opportunity to compare which computer is best for their needs. You could also provide how to’s for certain programs, or just general how to’s for the computer. Things like that are valuable to your customer. Having this type of content is important and will help you sell your product because it gives you an authority on the subject and they are then more inclined to purchase from you.

Now the last thing I am going to talk about today is color and layout of your website. Yes, they are important! Color is important because you have to provide a professional appearance. I am sure you have seen websites that were obviously ugly. Did you continue reading a website that was obviously repulsive in color? I don’t. Websites need to eye pleasing. Layout is another very important thing you need to think about, the information needs to be neatly organized and easy to read on your website. With white space, no small text and legible. Your navigation system needs to be thought out in advance. The links to other pages on your website should be the same on every page. If your visitor can’t find what they are looking for on your website they will simply go somewhere else to find it. Keep in mind that over time you will be adding pages to your website and plan for that in advance.

 

Author:
Alicia Harper
http://www.aliciaharper.com