***Building your Website

Having a web presence is an essential component of business. People expect to be able to check you out via your website. It becomes your online resume and credential builder. There are many options for websites available today. You can easily build your own or you can contract with a web designer to build one for you. It depends totally you’re your style and goals. I have done both and ended up managing my own sites. I find it easier in many ways because I can do the updates and corrections when I need them and I don’t have to wait for others. On the other hand, there are designers that are much more talented than I.

There are several steps to getting your web presence:

1. Decide if you are going to build it yourself or contract/outsource it. If you choose to build your own site, read reviews of different site builder tools. Some are great and some have many limitations. Again, it has to do with you and your goals. If you are contracting out, obtain references on the site designer. Review several sites that they have done. Look at sites of your competitors to determine what you want on your site and see if they are features that the site designer can do.
2. Choose your domain name. This is an opportunity to promote your business. Be particular in selecting your domain. There are different strategies. Many people choose their company name. Others pick keyword rich domains. When you use keywords then when people search those keywords, your site is likely to rank higher in the results. You can check out hostmonster.com for domain availability. Remember, you want your domain to be short, sweet and easily remembered. If the domain that you want is already taken you can often see if it is being used and if not offer the owner money for the domain.
3. The next important decision is your hosting company. Web hosts are vital because if they stop operating for a time that means your business is down. I have had this experience, where I put up a new sales page, the host went down and just after I sent out big promotional emails – the site is down!! Yikes! It looks unprofessional and is a detriment to your reputation and business. You want to look at the hosting companies server capabilities, that they have fast servers, a ton of space, unrestricted CGI access, SSH and FTP access, web-based administration, access to raw server logs, full email services, power and daily server backups, and no minimum contracts. Test their technical support by calling them at peak times and off peak times. I like to call late at night and see if I am still able to get support, but the most important time is when YOU are typically working. If you are not a night owl worker then night support is unimportant. You want to check out the type of system they use. I like to have hosting with a cpanel. I know how to use it and find it easier than learning something different. You also want to know if you have the ability to add on your own scripts. Maybe right now you have no idea what that even means but down the road you will want to be able to add on scripts...
4. Ad free hosting. You want your customers and prospects to have a good experience of your website. If they receive tons of pop up ads when they visit your site as a result of your hosting they won’t be back. It is worth shopping around for a different host and paying a bit more money. Slow connection speeds will also lose customers and cost you much money. Choose your web host with care as you don’t want to move your sites once you have set them up.

Building your web presence is an important step in your business operations. It gives people more information about you and your business. You can include testimonials and all sorts of relevant information on the site. It is your online brochure, build it with care.