» Back to the Basics: How do I get my Business Online?

Over the past few years, the Internet has finally become indispensable. People use the web to communicate, find information, and, of course, to shop. Whether you are a music collector searching for that rare Miles Davis album or a small business looking to streamline its accounting process, the Internet is rapidly taking its rightful place as the resource to find the best deals. Developing a website for your business can be an very effective way to increase sales and expand your market, but it must be done right.

Before you do anything else, you must clearly establish the purpose and goals of your new web project. Decide what your site should do (directly sell your product, provide information, entertain, etc.) and then take a good, honest look at how it will fit into your business plan. Companies that skip this step nearly always run into trouble and rarely find success on the web.

Once you have determined the purpose of your new website, the next step is to design your website. Depending on your needs, circumstances, and budget, you should probably hire a consultant or web design company. They will work with you to come up with a design that fits your needs, and will often save you quite a bit of headache. Be sure to take a good look at other sites that your potential designer has worked on. This will give you a good idea whether they will be likely to build the kind of site that you have in mind. Always be completely up front about your budget and goals with the designer.

Designing your own site is not impossible; however, it can be difficult to learn the necessary skills to create a professional website, since there are so many different aspects of web design. It is generally a good idea to hire a professional web designer if you are serious about creating a professional online presence. Learning to create your own site for the first time is fine if you are making a page for your bird house collection, but not for your company’s website. In the ultra-competitive world of the web, a design that looks anything less than professional will only serve to undermine customer confidence. In the long run, it is a much more efficient use of resources to let a professional handle your web design. The time saved combined with the much improved end product make this a very worthwhile investment.

While in the design phase, keep your original purpose in mind at all times, and always think of things from the perspective of your potential customer. Avoid mistakes such as overusing ‘gee-whiz’ flash and shockwave features, placing text on loud or complicated backgrounds, and filling your pages with a lot of large graphics. You can still have a sleek, ‘cool’ web design without committing these mistakes. Navigation through your site should be easy and operate on sensible principles. Web customers, as a general rule, have short attention spans, and will rarely make purchases on a confusing site.

With a good, solid website designed, it is time to find a place to put it. Choosing a web host can be confusing, but here some guidelines to help simplify things. There are really four factors that should go into your decision. The first of course is price, and is self-explanatory. The second is reliability, also referred to as ‘uptime’. Nearly every web host has a small amount of downtime – when the site is not accessible for maintenance reasons – but as a general rule of thumb, uptime should be at least 99.5%. Otherwise, you risk losing revenue due to inaccessible web pages.

The third factor in choosing a web host is secondary features. If you are selling something on the page, you will need a good shopping cart feature and a secure server to handle the purchases. If you want your employees to have email addresses that coincide with your web address (person@yourcompany.com), then you will need to be certain that the host offers enough email addresses. You also need to be sure that the host plan offers enough disk space and bandwidth to fill your needs. Most web space providers also offer domain registration as part of the overall package, but make sure you choose a URL that is available. Usually, the provider will allow you to check URL availability from their web page.

Last, but certainly not least, you must take a close look at the customer support offered by the web host. If you have a problem with your site at three in the morning, or on a Sunday afternoon, you want to be sure that help will be available at those times. Plenty of web hosts offer 24/7 customer support, so it should not be too difficult to find one within your budget that fits your needs.

With a good grasp of these four factors, you are ready to begin searching for a web space provider. I recommend using a directory such as Yahoo!, since the results will tend to be a little easier to browse than Google. Get around ten different plans from potential providers and do a thorough comparison based on your needs and your budget.

With your site now designed and hosted, the only thing left is to wait for the traffic and revenue to roll on in, right? Wrong. It is now up to you to come up with an effective marketing plan. Search engine optimization, link trading, and advertising are all good, solid strategies that can be incorporated.

When designing a website for your company, keep in mind that sound business principles must still be applied. To turn a profit, revenue must be greater than cost, even on the web. Spend the necessary time and effort to come up with realistic revenue and cost projections during your planning phase. This will dramatically increase the odds of designing a website that is a boost to your bottom line, instead of a drain on time, manpower, and money.

Alex Benson is a creative writing specialist and for MCP Media, Inc. MCP Media is a Phoenix Arizona based web design, web development, and internet business development firm.

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