Things you need to know:
- How the internet works
- Search engine ranking
- Web stats
- Email accounts
- Beware the domain name sharks!
- Protect your copyright
- Advertising strategy
- Hosting
- Standards and Accessibility
If you want to know more, or have other questions you would like answers for...just get in touch.
Think of it this way…
Your website is a shop, it has a sign outside which describes what's inside, it is located in a huge shopping centre (the Internet)…how do you get people to your door ?????
Firstly…. You can tell people where you are in the shopping centre. This works very well for you if you are using the shop to back up your advertising, or as a glossy brochure to back up your quotes etc. Just make sure that your website is prominent on your other advertising literature….don't just tag a line onto the bottom of the sheet (see the advertising strategy link for more).
These people will already know your website address, so can go to it directly. They will know it because either you have included it on your other advertising or because you have told them as part of your sales or quotation process.
Secondly… you can try to get people guided to your site. This is where the science of the internet lies…and where you need to think about cost.
These people are looking for shop which sell what they are looking for, so they are looking for your product, rather than looking for you directly.
They will enter words into a search engine (such as Google or Yahoo) and the search engine will tell them about all of the shops which have this product. …… but will you be first on the list????
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Your website is a shop, it has a sign outside which describes what's inside, it is located in a huge shopping centre (the Internet)…how do you get people to your door ?????
Firstly…. You can tell people where you are in the shopping centre. This works very well for you if you are using the shop to back up your advertising, or as a glossy brochure to back up your quotes etc. Just make sure that your website is prominent on your other advertising literature….don't just tag a line onto the bottom of the sheet (see the advertising strategy link for more).
These people will already know your website address, so can go to it directly. They will know it because either you have included it on your other advertising or because you have told them as part of your sales or quotation process.
Secondly… you can try to get people guided to your site. This is where the science of the internet lies…and where you need to think about cost.
These people are looking for shop which sell what they are looking for, so they are looking for your product, rather than looking for you directly.
They will enter words into a search engine (such as Google or Yahoo) and the search engine will tell them about all of the shops which have this product. …… but will you be first on the list????
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Search Engine Ranking
Search Engines need to know where the shops are and what they are selling. In the shopping centre example, they employ guides who go around checking what's where. These guides are known as spyders, who crawl around the web looking for sites and ranking them.
The spyders can do two things…they can go around everywhere looking at the shop signs, and they can follow where all the shoppers are going.
If the shop sign gives a good description of what's in the store, then they give it a brownie point. In a website, the 'shop sign' is the list of meta words and descriptions included in the code.
If the shop has a lot of shoppers, it gets another brownie point. The number of shoppers is know as web traffic.
If the shop has links into other shops, and more importantly, it has other shops linking into it, then it gets another brownie point.
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Search Engine Ranking...contd
These are just some of the ways that points are scored, the more points, the higher up the first page will your site appear…but there's more…
Another way they increase ranking is if they are paid to do it - these are known as sponsored links. If you are prepared to pay, then you will appear nearer the top.
Search engine ranking - or Optimisation as it is called - is more art than science, and some companies employ teams of people to ensure they are the top search engine return..
But the bottom line is that if it's you who will be acting as the guide, then you don't need to worry too much about sponsored links etc. The site you get here will have meta words and descriptions etc and many of the other Optimisation tricks of the trade already built in.
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Web Stats.
Would you like to know how many people are using your site each week?
Would you like to know which areas of the country they live in?
Would you like to know how they came into your site, which page they left it from and where they went to?
All of these questions, and more, are included in an email sent to you directly each week.
This will help you to analyse how effective your other advertising or marketing strategies are.
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Email Accounts
Forget joesmith123@hotmail.com - it sounds so unprofessional !!!
You can have "Joe@JoeSmith.com" and "Sales@@JoeSmith.com", and "feedback@JoeSmith.com" and "accounts@JoeSmith.com" which can appear in relevant places in your site and advertising literature etc.
But the clever thing is that you can have them all redirected to one catch all email account which you can check on your own pc, or through logging into an internet connection anywhere in the world.
In addition, you can have a few extras like "TheWife@JoeSmith.com" or "The Hubby@JoeSmith.com" or even "thedog@JoeSmith.com" just to keep the family happy.
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Beware the domain name sharks!
Some website providers suggest you only register www.yoursite.com as your domain name. what happens if a rival sets up as www.yoursite.co.uk ?? they could benefit from your advertising simply because your customers enter the wrong domain name.
It is better to register at least .com and .co.uk but you can add more if you feel it's necessary.
It doesn't mean you have to have two websites….just redirect the .co.uk domain name to the .com website….easy!
What about the sharks??? These are less than scrupulous website providers who register your domain name in their name, then charge you if you want to leave to another supplier.
With me, as soon as you final payment is received, your domain names are transferred into your name, and the website becomes your property…but I'm happy to keep managing them for you…please! The issue is, you own it, you can transfer it away without charge…..lock stock and barrel.
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Protect your copyright
If you haven't already established copyright for such things as your company logo etc, we can help you do this, in a simple and costless way.
The website becomes your 'intellectual property' when you have made your final payment, as will your domain registration.
Sometimes web authors use different scripting to do fancy things in a site. These all have intellectual copyrights. Any used in your site will be what we call 'open licence' agreements, or if they are original scripts they are issued to you under an open licence which allows you to use it forever (subject simply to an acknowledgement - no cost!)
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Advertising Strategy
This is where you can score big time!
Keep using your advertisements and flyers, but use the website to back them up.
Your website can hold all of the glossy pictures and other information you would like to include in your advertisements and flyers etc, but you can't because of cost or space.
However!!!!! You must make sure that you give your website address sufficient priority.
If you are doing a leaflet drop….Say a little about what you do, add a contact name and number, then tell them about all of the other content in your website!
It's the same with magazine advertisements, don't just add in the domain name a small type in the bottom of the advert…flag it up!
Tell people to view it (the more it is viewed the better it is ranked in search engines).
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Hosting
The files and folders which make up your website need to be stored on a special computer which is directly linked into the internet...this is called a server.
Some less scrupulous service providers play a little trick....they have one big folder which holds many sites in internal 'sub-folders'.They do this to keep down the cost of renting server space, but they don't always pass these savings on to you.
The other downside to this is that search engines only look at the pages in the main folder, they don't dig deeper into the sub-folders.
This means that these sites will not be seen by the search engines so they will get a much lower ranking.
Your site will be hosted on dedicated servers which we rent from a specialist company.
This mean we both get the advantage of their dedicated service with multiple back up systems and minimal off-line periods.
this is the same server used for this site...such is our confidence!
Importantly...your site will be in it's own 'main folder' and not one shared with or by any other website...it's yours and yours alone so will be fully accessible to the search engines.
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The files and folders which make up your website need to be stored on a special computer which is directly linked into the internet...this is called a server.
Some less scrupulous service providers play a little trick....they have one big folder which holds many sites in internal 'sub-folders'.They do this to keep down the cost of renting server space, but they don't always pass these savings on to you.
The other downside to this is that search engines only look at the pages in the main folder, they don't dig deeper into the sub-folders.
This means that these sites will not be seen by the search engines so they will get a much lower ranking.
Your site will be hosted on dedicated servers which we rent from a specialist company.
This mean we both get the advantage of their dedicated service with multiple back up systems and minimal off-line periods.
this is the same server used for this site...such is our confidence!
Importantly...your site will be in it's own 'main folder' and not one shared with or by any other website...it's yours and yours alone so will be fully accessible to the search engines.
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Standards and Accessibility
Beware substandard work! At the very least, a web author should work to current web standards.
It won't often make much impact to you if they don't, it may even be classed as just being 'geeky', however...
Try to change something and it becomes a major task...and they charge you for it! Try to take your site to another supplier, and once they've stopped laughing at you, they'll tell you it should be rebuilt...and they'll charge you for it!
Your site will be built to w3c standards which means it's easier to make changes (yes we like to be efficient and to keep you within budget), and if you do decide to go elysewhere they'll be wondering why when the standrd of code is so good.
Importantly - your site will be checked for accessibility. This is to ensure that people who use tools such as screen readers etc can still understand your site. This is important because you may face legal action under the Disability Discrimination Act if they can't....how many other website providers tell you about this?
Finally, your site will be tested on different browsers, because not everyone uses Internet Explorer!
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New customers.....the more you try to help them, the greater the chance they'll take up your service.
Make your advertising stand out in the crowd!
Make your advertising stand out in the crowd!