Small Business Websites - Getting Started

To get your business online, you need four things:

• a web address (a domain name, e.g., mybusiness.com.au - visit www/netregistry.com.au to see if your preferred name is available)
• a website (a group of linked web pages)
• a web host (a secure, high-speed server to store your website files, so that others can view your site on the Web)
• a content management system for maintaining the content of your site

Domain names

Ideally, your domain name should be easy to remember and spell, clearly state what you do and protect your brand or company name. You can also have more than one domain name (e.g., mybusiness.com, mybusiness.com.au) or additional domainnamesthst can point to specific pages within your site to assist with directing traffic eg: this site uses www.smallbusinessmarketingideas.com.au as a secondary name as this is a common search term. E-mail accounts are also linked to your domain name so that you have professional addresses (e.g., service@mybusiness.com).

How do I prepare a website design brief?

Start the process with a basic site map - draw out the pages you believe you want and do some surfing to find examples of websites you like so that the designer we assign you can gain an insight into the styles that appeal to you. When we meet we will make suggestions and show you reference sites to help you put your needs into words. However, the more you can tell us about your business, your audience, your goals, your preferences and what you need from your website, the better we can develop a solution. You should also gather any images you have including your business logo.

Example of a simple map for a website with eight web pages:

How should I structure my website and its content?

Good website design is about more than just appearances. Your business website must be tailored to your audience and goals, be functional, easy to use and be flexible enough to keep pace with new technology and the growth of your business.The answers to these questions will help determine the design of your website:

• What does your business do?
• Who are your customers (and potential customers)?
• What type of information and services do your customers want?
• Could you deliver the information in a better way, or offer additional services?
• What do your competitors offer via their websites?

Some of the fuctions your website can offer include:

• provide a store locator so customers can find their local stockists
• present a portfolio of your projects, venue or products
• collect contact details for sales
• advertise events and promotions
• display ‘before’ and ‘after’ images for your services
• provide a searchable directory of services, properties or jobs
• operate as an online shop, complete with secure online payment

Your website visitors should be able to find the information that interests them easily and quickly. You need to break the information into smaller, clearly identified sections, with a hierarchy for headings and body text. Good website design and clearly structured content makes navigating through a site intuitive and efficient .

Can I update and edit my website content?

Keeping your business website up-to-date and improving the content is important for attracting website visitors and search engines (e.g., Google).

• How will you manage your site content?
• Who will be responsible for this?
• What is the quickest and most affordable way to manage your site content?
• Who will provide support?
• Will the software you plan to use allow you to add new features and functionality in the future as your business develops?

These are some of the questions to consider when designing a business website. Many companies can design a website for you, but do not provide you with any tools for managing or updating the site. That means you have to contact the design studio, wait until they are available and pay for changes to the site. Unlike a print campaign, a website runs every day of the year and the content can and should be updated and refined regularly, without delay.

How can I track the performance of my website?

To measure your business website's performance and gather information for its ongoing development, you need effective website traffic statistics. The wesbites we design include statistics, including reports on the number of visitors to your site, the pages they are viewing, the sites referring visitors to yours. Addtionally, we place Google Analytics tracking code into each page.

What makes my website search engine-friendly

There are a range of factors that affect a website's performance in the search engines (Google, Yahoo! Search, ninemsn Search, etc), which include

• the changing methods used by the search engines to rank web pages
• the willingness of your competitors to pay for online marketing and Search Engine Optimisation
• the number of relevant, popular and established websites that have links leading to yours
• the structure and text content of your website
• your website's age
• how often you update and refine your content

We can provide general advice and help you establish suitable page names and descriptions, meta tags, alt tags and other prootocals that will assist you in better page rankings and can also recommend a professional Search Engine Optimisation company to assist long term.

How much does website design cost?

We will work with you every step of the way to make getting your small business online easy - contact us for details.