1. Web Hosting

Deciding where you’re going to put your website doesn’t have to be your first step, but it should be on the top of your list. This location is called Web hosting and there are lots of options to choose from. If you’ve decided to hire a Web designer to work on your site, he or she might have a preference as to what host you should use. Talk to them to see if they have suggestions.

Choosing a domain name can be as important to your company as choosing the company name. In fact, in several cases, companies have changed their name to their website domain because people recognized it more readily than the company name. So finding a domain name can be very important. These tips should help you choose wisely.

Branding and Your Domain Name

Whether you are trying to sell paper clips or web design services, your website domain name will affect your brand. As I said above, some companies have even changed their company name to their website domain name. So, when you’re choosing a domain name it should be something that you could live with if it were your company name.

In fact, the best domains are your company name. Your current customers know your company name and they’re comfortable with it. Some of your customers may have already typed in your name with .com at the end to see if that’s your website. So if you can get a domain name that is your company name, you might have the perfect domain.

To do: Check to see if your company name is already taken. Go to your Web browser and type http://www.your company name.com/ into the URL box. If the result is a competitor or something you wouldn’t want to be associated with, you can try to buy the domain or you might want to consider changing your company name.

How Long Should Your Domain Name Be?

It depends upon your domain name registrar, but in general domain names can be anywhere from 26 to 67 characters long. But just because you can, doesn’t mean that you should have a domain name that is over 30 or 40 characters long. Remember:

·       Your customers need to type your domain in

·       Even if they’re clicking a link, that link needs to be typed in by someone

·       Longer domains are often harder to remember

·       I recommend sticking with domain names that are no longer than 20 characters or so.

To do: How long is your company name? Is it more than 20 characters including spaces? What about not including spaces?

Special Characters in Domain Names

There aren’t a lot of special characters allowed in domain names. For the most part you can use alphabetic and numeral characters as well as hyphen (-). Some domain registrars may allow other characters, but those are the most common ones allowed.

Camel Case or Dashes in Domain Names Camel case is when you see two words that are typically separated written as one word with the inner word capitalized. e.g. FedEx. Camel case is very popular for domains because even though the domain is registered in all lowercase, you can write it in camel case to differentiate the words. But you can also use hyphens or underscores to separate the words.

Dashes are considered preferable to camel case if you want search engines to recognize separate words in your domain name. However, search engines are getting better and better at reading the domains with or without dashes. The problem is that dashes are not as user friendly to customers. People are more likely to write your domain name without dashes, and then possibly even end up on your competitor’s site. So if you can avoid dashes in the domain name, that’s better.

To do: If you were planning on using a domain name with dashes in it, check the site with the dashes removed. Is it a competitor?

Bad Word Combinations in Domain Names

Once you think you have your domain name figured out, get someone else to look at it. Preferably someone who has no knowledge of your business or your company name. You don’t want to end up with a domain name that has a completely different meaning from the one you intended. I won’t print the worst examples(and don’t follow that link if you’re easily offended), but I’m speaking of something like www.ipanywhere.com. This domain might seem perfect for a company that provides IP services, but when read aloud, they seem to be advocating something better kept in the bathroom.

   2. Domain Name

A domain name is the address where your website will be found on the Web. The best domain name is one that uses the company’s name in the URL. But sometimes that can be hard to get, if you haven’t already registered it. If you can’t get your company name, then consider something catchy or memorable that your customers can associate with you. Remember that it should be something that you like and can live with for a long time, as there’s a possibility that people will start remembering your domain name before they remember your real company name.

  3. Plan, Design, and Build the Website

Don’t neglect the planning. Even if you’re going to hire a professional Web designer to build your site, you should have an idea of what you want on it and how it should look. And don’t be afraid to build it on your own. The key to doing it yourself is to start small. Build just a few pages at first, and then add to your site as you grow more comfortable building Web pages.

A site plan will help you create a business website that meets your needs and the needs of your customers. By taking the time at the beginning to draft a plan, you can avoid pitfalls and make sure you have the content needed to get your site off the ground.

Your site plan should include:

·        The Site Purpose What is the point of this website? And how is it going to fulfill that purpose better than any other site on the Web?

·        The Site Goals SMART goals can help you take a mediocre site and make it great. Once you know the goals of the site, you can plan around them.

·        The Customers Who is going to read this website? Try to be as specific as you can regarding your target audience. Include details like: age, hobbies, income, job title(s), and so on. You might envision different people coming to different parts of your site – that’s fine. But know who the audience is that you want to attract. And if your site is already live, you should include data on the audience that you currently have.

·        The Content What will be on the site? Will the content change regularly? Will you focus on selling products with product pages or focus on providing information through articles? Is your content going to be mostly text or images or multimedia? Do you have the content already created or do you still need to get it?

·        The Design What colors will your site be? Remember that design aesthetic varies across different demographics. So if you’re planning a website for cutting edge designers, it will have a different look than one designed for stay-at-home dads (except maybe those stay-at-home dads that are also cutting edge designers…). The design includes things like graphic elements, colors, fonts, and typography. The more you plan ahead of time, the easier the design phase will be.

·        The Timeline Once you have the rest of the pieces of the plan together, you should decide on a schedule. Don’t forget to include time for testing, revision, and user feedback.

Write Down Your Plan

I find that when I start planning a project, it can get very messy very quickly, so if you plan on having lots of ways to capture your ideas you’ll be in better shape. Planning sessions can quickly become brainstorming sessions as well. This is good, but don’t let the brainstorming get in the way of getting a solid plan in place for the site. If you find you still want to brainstorm more, then put that into the plan.

   4. Marketing and Promotion

Once you’ve built your site and it’s live, you want people to come visit it, but this can be the hardest part of the process. Marketing your site is almost more important than building it. You should plan on doing both passive marketing like search engine optimization (SEO) and active marketing like buying ads for your site.

  5. Metrics and Analytics

In order to know how well your site is doing you need to set up analytics to track the page views and visitors. Then, once you’ve started tracking them, you can see how they are changing over time, and track changes you make to your site or advertising campaigns you run to see how effective they are.

  6. Maintain Your Site.

The best sites on the Web change frequently and are kept up-to-date. If you’re planning a website for your business you should factor in the cost of having at least one person who adds new content at least weekly and fixes problems as they are found.

If you are interested in letting us help you out. Don’t hesitate to call or give us email.

WJM Web Design