(and other frequently asked questions)
Making a decision about investing in a website usually involves many new questions: How does website hosting work? How are changes made to the website? How much will the website cost? Having answers to these questions makes it easier to decide what kind of website your business really needs.
Can’t find the answers to your questions here? Why not contact us and we’ll be happy to help.
Why do I need a website?
Every day the Internet becomes more and more integrated with business. After all, a decade ago, e-mail was rare. Today, it is an essential tool that most businesses cannot operate effectively without.
Your website has a powerful impact on a potential customer’s confidence in you. A professional design, well-written copy, helpful product information, and good contact info can tremendously increase trust in your company. It lets people know you’re knowledgeable and up-to-date. Your website will open yourself up to a world of opportunity in reaching people who might not otherwise find you. With the click of a mouse, anyone can get to your company’s website 24/7.
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Put Your Web Address On Everything
A fundamental method of offline site promotion is to ensure you put your website address onto every scrap of paper, every client CD, every invoice, contract, envelope, brochure and advertisement. The more eyes that view your web address, the more likely you can harvest visitors through passive advertising.
Partake In Forums
Forums are an excellent source of information, opinions and assistance when it comes to information. They’re also a great place to advertise your site. While most forums forbid blatant self-promotion (which keeps the forums interesting) most are not opposed to active URLS in your signature line. This gets your web address out there, and also helps develop search engine relevancy.
Blogs
Google and other search engines love Blogs. The content is fresh, very relevant and various linking mechanisms (RSS for example) are great for SEO. One warning – a Blog is very time consuming, and is only effective if constantly updated. Also, news Blogs tend to get much more traffic than niche Blogs – so be realistic in your efforts.
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It doesn’t matter how good your site looks if people can’t find it. Once you’re website is designed and online, you can then begin promoting it through methods that are appropriate to your budget.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a set of methods aimed at improving the ranking of a website in search engine listings.
It is light years away from an exact science and results do not happen overnight (despite those promising a “top ten” placement). There are, after all, only ten spots on the first page of any search engine result. That’s heavy-duty competition. One thing that everybody tends to agree on is that it requires patience, perseverance and a thick skin.
There’s evidence that illustrates Google gives new sites a “bump” in indexing (followed up fairly quickly by a settling down to a “natural” position). There’s evidence that older sites get a premium “bump” simply on the merits of being around for a longer period of time. Google uses a multitude of data centres (results may vary in a Google search depending on which data centre you connect to) and their index is constantly in a state of flux (check the total search results on any given Google search – they vary from time to time, sometimes wildly). Accordingly, half of your SEO activities will be a waiting game. If you don’t immediately get the desired results, changing your site in a fire-fighting fashion could actually hamper you, especially as you’re not always going to be sure what fire you are fighting. However, as part of an overall marketing campaign, SEO will lead to more visitors, more targeted inquires and more than likely, some new clients. And that’s what it’s all about.
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