So, You bought a domain name? Now What?
Starting a Website!
Congratulations on buying a domain name! Let’s assume you have purchased a domain name and now want to enhance your company marketing by designing, promoting and have new clients find you in the search engines so they can purchase your goods and/or services. Please find the simple steps to success below. They really are not simple, but I will simplify them for you. BUT, before step one, click here for my Web Site Planning Worksheet.
Step 1 – Hosting
Trusting that you purchased a good domain name like your company name or the field you are in, in order to get this domain activated and “online”, you have to have a hosting service that will take your website and display it for the whole WWW to find. Hosting needs depend on the size market you are trying to reach. If you have a local business in a large community/city then you need a basic plan that can grow.
You should not have to pay more than $10.00 a month for this service, probably less. You need to have the hosting set up for you unless you understand how to do this. For a webmaster, with today’s tools like CPanel, it takes just a few minutes to make changes to the domain in order for it to resolve at the correct host settings.
Step 2 – Design
Designing your website is key and critical to your success. I have written several articles on how this should be done. Often times, when first starting out, a basic 2 -3 page site is fine with contact info and a statement of the services you provide. A company logo and great pictures are a must. I have done thousands of “one-pagers” for small businesses that have grown with the company into 100 page+ sites.
Involve as many employee’s as you can and listen to their input. Many today use social media and they might have some great input on how they can “share” your message.
Step 3 – Tweaking
Once you have a working web site, regardless of size, you need to be sure the messaging is right. Hire a consultant to review the site and make recommendations on how to word/rephrase the site to get more exposure. Be sure you are using the right “industry specific” keywords in your copy to make your site relevant to searches for that type of business. A review of your site should be done, not only by the person responsible for the development and maintenance, but by a non-partisan outsider who can be truthful and make recommendations on how to improve. This service might cost you a few hundred dollars but can save you/make you thousands.
Step 4 – Submission to Search Engines
Hire an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) specialist who can submit your site to all the search engines and make adjustments to the site to get you properly ranked. Depending on the competition you have in your industry, this can take time because search engines like Google will not see you as relevant until 3-6 months go by and you are getting reasonably good traffic. This activity can be generated through the proper marketing and advertising.
Step 5 – Add lots and lots of content
Realize now that a good website is one that continues to grow and get ranking. Add picture and video galleries because a picture speaks a thousand words and video’s can speak millions! Depending on your service or product, videos can put you miles ahead of your competition.
Step 6 – Always be growing, changing and promoting
Now that you have your website address on all your marketing and promotion material, never be satisfied with your creation. Change is good. Growth is good. The Internet changes often and you can quickly find yourself with a dated website that has been left in the dust by your competition. Budget marketing dollars to make your investment to this point continue to pay off.
We can provide any and all of these services for you. Call us today at 713-553-6212
