A website is a
necessity for entrepreneurs, small businesses, home-based businesses, and
anybody selling products or services. Regardless of your other marketing
methods, enabling potential customers to either find you through a Google
search or learn more about you after they've seen your other marketing material
is key to creating and developing new customers.
If you're selling
online services or products, having a website is obvious. But even if you don't
sell anything directly online, the website can serve as an extension of your
business card, with information about you, your business, and services offered.
Most important, your website should detail your background, experience, and
other credentials to give you credibility and give potential customers more
confidence when deciding whether or not to deal with you.
Creating a website for your small business can be easier
than you think. You can do it yourself if you are so inclined or need to keep
costs down, you can get a friend to help, or you can hire a Web developer to do
it for you at a modest cost if you use available content management software
instead of having a website custom developed for you. Whether you do it
yourself or hire someone to do it for you, it will be easier if you understand
these steps, which are an important part of the process to create your small
business website.
1. Decide the
Purpose for Your Website
The first step is to decide what your website is going to do
for you. It may be fairly static (i.e., no new content added periodically) and
simply provide more information to potential clients about your services and
credentials if they want to check you out online. Or, you may want to use it
for information about your company and provide articles or information you've
written to provide useful information to clients and potential clients. You may
even choose to start a blog to interest and engage potential customers as part
of your overall social media strategy. Of course, you might also want to sell
products and services directly online.
Knowing what you
plan on doing with your website is an important first step because it will
guide you on how to develop it going forward. Keep in mind, it's not a static
thing and even if you start off without online sales, for instance, it can be
relatively easy to add that at a later date. Whether you write a blog initially
or not, you should consider how you will eventually use your website. At some
point you may decide that a blog will be a good way to generate interest and
attract visits who will then see your company’s services or product. It's also
a great tie-in to other social media techniques you use.
2. Choose Your Web Content Management Software
Based on what you
want to do with your website, you have several choices in software. Many of
them are even free (open source) with minimal costs for various add-ons. You
would probably be surprised at how many websites you visit use one of these
solutions, either stock or customized.
E-Commerce
If your primary
purpose is e-commerce, particularly for products, you should select software
which is specifically designed for e-commerce. However, if e-commerce is only a
small part of your website’s purpose, you can get free or low-cost add-ons that
work with the most popular free content management software discussed below,
Joomla! and WordPress. For examples of free e-commerce application, visit the
following solutions: VirtueMart Magento osCommerce OpenCart
Joomla!
Joomla! is
free content management software that gives you a great deal of flexibility;
however, as with all similar software, your website will be limited in how it's
structured. While to a pure Web developer, this is a constraint they may not
like, the templates available for Joomla that affect their visual appearance
and functionality are extensive and it is likely you will find one that meets
your needs. For live examples of Joomla websites, visit their Community
Showcase.
In addition to
templates, there are thousands of add-ons which give you a great deal of
functionality for your website with no programming and very little effort. In
some cases the free version doesn't have as many features as the paid version,
so be sure to carefully review the features available.
As a content
management system, the idea of Joomla is to avoid needing to code a website
from scratch. It also enables very easy changes and updates going forward,
something even you could do yourself, with a little assistance on occasion from
a Web developer. While it is possible and relatively easy to install and set up
Joomla yourself, it will be time consuming, particularly if this is the first
time you’ve done it. At the very least, consider finding a Web developer with
experience in Joomla who can do it for you.
WordPress
Similar to Joomla, WordPress is an
easy-to-use content management system. It also uses templates to give it
different looks and add-ins to provide you with additional functionality. A key
difference with WordPress is that its core design is as a blog. While you can
use it just like Joomla with regular webpages, its main homepage or even a
specific page you select can be set up as an easy-to-use blog with all the
typical features you see in the ones you might read today.
You can also get
many plugins for WordPress that add functionality, just like Joomla. That
includes e-commerce, social media, picture galleries, memberships, podcasts,
videos, newsletters, and much more. You can browse many of the WordPress
plugins at their Plugin
Directory or do a Google search for the functions you want. You
will probably be surprised at what is available.
As with Joomla, you
may want to consider hiring a Web developer to do the initial setup for you at
a minimum.
3. Choose a
Web Host
Once you decided on
your software, you need to choose a Web host, the remote location where your
website and related software will be held and made available to visitors. Your
choice of website host will depend in part on the software you choose but also
on the speed and number of visits you expect to receive. With some companies,
you can start off with less expensive but less powerful shared hosting services
and, if required, you can step up to faster and more powerful dedicated
hosting. This option is something you should consider when choosing a host,
even if you start with the least expensive option.
Another
consideration, particularly if you are setting up your website yourself, is
whether your host provides for automatic installation of your chosen content
management software. Most of the popular hosting services will enable you to do
this with the click of a button. And in most cases you can use the same host
from more than one website. If you are doing it yourself, the host’s support
services should be an important consideration. While few, if any, will support
the software, the hosting application and related issues can be complicated.
4. Choose a
Template and Plugins for Your Website
Once you've chosen
your software and decided on a host, you have to start thinking about other
features. The first one is the template. With many content management systems,
and in particular with Joomla and WordPress, you can pick from hundreds or even
thousands of different templates that give your website the look and feel you want.
Some templates are fairly generic while others are either themed to a
particular type of product or service (with background graphics and other
visual elements that reflect the product or service) or have built-in features
that may make it attractive for you.
For instance, if you
are a real estate agent, you would look for a template that is geared towards
selling real estate. This would include a template that might have a relevant
background and features that enable you to showcase your listings. Whether you
are a consultant, dog groomer, or roofer, you should be able to find a template
that meets your requirements.
While free templates
are readily available, don't be shy to spend a small amount for a premium
template that most closely matches your needs. In some cases, you can get a
template for as little as $25 or you may be required to join a “template club”
for $65 or so. Regardless, it's a cheap way to get a great template. For an
idea of what is available, visit these template sites below. For more, search
for “Joomla Templates” or “WordPress Themes” Free WordPress Templates Joomla Resource Directory (template providers).
Beyond templates,
you may require additional add-ons to provide functionality for your website
that makes it easier to use. Like templates, there are many free ones but
sometimes the ones you pay are much better, and are also quite reasonably
priced. You can go to both the Joomla and WordPress sites and sort through all
the add-ons/plugins that are available. Keep in mind that some of the paid
versions are listed on their sites. It's particularly useful to visit Joomla to
see what's available since they have a very good system of categorizing. Even
if you go with WordPress, at least you can see the kind of functionality that's
available and search for something similar for WordPress.
Whether you want to
add some easy e-commerce, provide social networking share buttons, incorporate
videos, start a podcast, require people to sign up to receive free material or
downloads, create a portfolio of your photographs, and even run surveys, polls,
or a newsletter, just about anything you can think of is available as an
add-on.
5. Organize
Your Website
At this stage, you
need to start thinking about what your website will look like and how it will
be used. This includes your logo and other visuals, the menu selections you
want to make available, and the kind of information you want to put on each of
those pages. With most e-commerce sites, you'll have choices within the
software itself to set up your storefront with different formats and styles. If
you choose to use Joomla or WordPress, you'll also need to decide what to
display on each page.
Templates for these
content management systems use a structured approach that enables you to add
traditional content and also add-ons with specific information and content that
you can position on the page, based on the structure of your your particular
template. In many cases, you can even change the visual appearance of the
different information so you can highlight certain things.
The starting point
is certainly your menu. There is always a home selection, but you get to choose
what the main menu selections are and chose submenus off each of those main
menu selections. It's important to think carefully about how you want to
organize and structure the information on your website to give you the maximum
flexibility. Even if you only end up with three main menu selections initially,
it's important to consider what you might add at a later date so that your
initial design can accommodate it.
6. Develop
Your Website Content
Content can
sometimes be the hardest part of your website. It needs to be compelling to
visitors and convey the right kind of information at the right level so
visitors actually read it instead of moving on to the next website. When you
write text, think about it from an advertising perspective.
In addition to text,
you also need images. Since you should have chosen a template with visual
elements or background images that match your particular business, other images
and graphics are generally used to supplement the text content or sometimes
even replace it. Making the pages professional looking is particularly
important as visual impact and appeal are a key part of any website. This is an
area where you should not use clipart, and unless you are very good at creating
visuals, you might want to hire someone to help you. Visuals can include stock
art graphics, images of your products, headshots of yourself and other staff
members, or other graphics that might illustrate your process or approach to
delivering the service you're selling.
7. Populate
and Maintain Your Website
Most text and
graphics are added using a built-in WYSIWYG (which stands for “what you see is
what you get”) webpage editor that is easy to use and does not require you to
know anything about web programming. The WYSIWYG editor allows you to cut and
paste your text from a Word document and upload images from your computer. It
also give you full control over text size, color, font, and other features as
well as the sizing and placement of images. You can preview the material before
you actually make it available to Web visitors and easily edit it again at a
later date. Since it's so easy to edit content, maintaining your website is
easy. If you're simply updating existing information, it won't take very much
effort. If you’re constantly adding content, including new pages, additional
menu choices, new modules, additional add-ons, or blog entries, it's almost as
easy. Each of the software packages provide a control panel which gives you
access to all of your material and content, including the Web editor and
control over other features of your website.
Of course, if you
prefer, you can easily hire a Web developer to do these things on your behalf.
Since little if any custom work is required, your costs should be relatively
modest.
Best Regards,
DWD Solutions
+27 73 996 4696
info@dwdsolutions.co.za
https://www.dwdsolutions.co.za
www.twitter.com/dwdsolutions
