How to expand your offline business to online territories
Why do you need a website for your business?
Once, when you had a business, you would hang something that represent your business on your doorpost, and people would know what it is you are doing. A shoemaker would have a shoe hung; a butcher would have a plastic chicken, and the guy that makes circumcisions… well…
The rules in today`s world have changed, to get recognized in the huge retail environment you must invest a massive amount of money in ads of all sorts.
One of today`s new rules says: if you`re not online, you probably don`t exist. Your REAL business card is your website. The first thing a person does when he want to check out a company is visit it`s web site, and if there is none, well… the company is a none…
Another important thing is that with the internet, your store can be open 24/7, 365, and selling all the time – with a very reasonable investment and after you set the site up, the costs will be amazingly low.
In just a decade opening a website for your business changed from a question of if to when, but as a result of this growth, visitors` expectation of websites rose dramatically. Today, cheap homemade sites are completely out of the question when average visit in a site takes less than 4 seconds. You must provide the visitors a professional, well formed site.
To do that, you must carefully consider the aspects of the site:
- The designer
- The host
- The billing method you`re going to use
- The name
- Who are going to be your visitors
Look at it a business site as an investment
You must understand that investing in your web site might be less expensive then most business expenses you`ve made in the past, but as in these investments you wouldn`t look for the cheapest or just the first option, but look for the best cost-efficient solution you can find.
First of all – there`s no rush. When looking for a web designer, you should wonder around the web and look for sites you like. Bookmark them, they can be helpful – many sites have the designer`s name and link on the bottom, and if not, just contact them, and if they are happy with the work he`s done, they`ll be happy to recommend him to you. Another method is to ask friends for recommendations. After you create a list of designers you like, review their past works, compare works, compare prices, and compare promises for deadlines. Some designers can provide content management solutions, which can be more costly, but give you control of the data on the site.
Choose your designer
You can choose between design firms, and independent programmers, the main difference between the two is price and finding one. Independent programmers are cheaper but harder to find, because they obviously invest less in advertising themselves. This does not mean the independent designer is less professional or will make a less quality job. You should make your decision based on their portfolio, price and services that they offer.Understand what you are paying for:
what comes bundled and what will cost you more. Will you be charged per transaction, if you wish to add a newsletter subscription, will it cost more? You`re probably going to be in charge of setting up for a merchant account, but if not, how much will it cost to open a merchant account – don`t just assume it`s taken care of, there`s nothing worse than getting your site online and discovering your clients can`t pay you via the site.
Optimize your site for search engine ranking
Another thing is that most designers do not optimize your site for search engine ranking, and it is recommended to hire both designer and SEO (Search Engine Optimization expert) at the same time and let them both work together on the layout of the site and the correct way to build the site (notice the article you are reading has a logical name in the address bar and not "articles.php?art=343", this, for an instance, is one thing your SEO will probably ask of the designer to take care of)Own your site
Understand who owns the source code - you or the designer. This is very important if you will decide to move your site to a different server, because if the code is the designer`s property this might trigger a law suitWork together with your designer:
After you decided on the right person or company, you will start with viewing a few options and choosing your favorite. Always ask for twitches and fixes when you feel something`s wrong.Be patient, these things take time, but keep the designer on schedule. Just like building a store, sometimes things take more time than planned, but you can`t afford too much delays, because every day the site is under construction, is a day the site is not up and selling.
Keep yourself involved
Keep records of every e-mail, take notes when you meet, everything you need for better supervision on the progress made so far.Take your time, do this right. Don`t do it in a hurry and have to redo it all over again