|
|
Getting Your Business online by Karen Fainges
Many consumers use the Internet to replace the yellow pages. Not being accessible via the web would be like having a silent phone number. At the very least, you should have a web page with your business name, contact details and a contact name on every page so people feel they have someone real to talk to. The main issue with designing a web page is to ensure it will perform. The areas a web page should cover are; telling people you exist, informing them on issues and selling products. The way to work out what information the customer wants to know is to listen to them. Think of the ten most frequent questions you are asked; opening times, costs, warrantees anything that you are constantly repeating. Many businesses put all the questions and answers together on a page called the FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions. Every page should have contact details like your phone/fax number and e-mail address. Informing customers by listing some common problems and their solutions means that people will keep coming back to your site and refer it to others. All this helps you to sell products. Think about the types of solutions your product offers. If you sell phones, you are selling solutions; contact with friends and family, convenience, maybe even fashion. You are not selling a 356 megahertz dual frequency band extra beam model. Then make it easy to buy. Give the details of the product and immediately ask for the sale. Credit cards can be accepted on-line, or you can have an order form designed to work both online or through normal phone/fax ordering channels. It is important to remember that online you must process orders every day. A buyer will often cancel orders left to the end of the week. If you are unsure how to word your web page find an advert, brochure or press release that has worked for you in the past and use that as your guide. Many hosting sites also have articles and guides to help you. So now you know what to write, where do you put the page? There are quite a few free web sites available that allow you space in exchange for advertising on your page. Some examples are http://www.eccentrix.com and http://virtuallyfree.com. Type 'free web page' into your search engine for hundreds more. Anything free comes with strings attached, so be sure to read the rules before you sign up. If the free sites are not suitable, most Internet Service Providers, ISPs, provide a free webpage with your normal access. The address is a bit long compared to a domain name and not as personal but it is free. A domain name is the most effective of all but it costs extra. It must be registered and hosted. The $125 price you often see quoted is just the registration price and does not include hosting, (putting your page where others can see it). A domain name allows you to call the site exactly what you want making it easier for your customers to find. It also often helps with getting higher rankings on search engines, especially Yahoo. An example would be http://www.microsoft.com. Once you know what to write and where to put your page, you need to build it. There are a number of programs to choose from but if you have Word 95 or higher, that is all you need. There are many programs specially designed for web page creation, two are FrontPage and Claris Home Page. PC magazines often have articles comparing various programs. The main advantage of using Microsoft Word is that you will probably already have it. To build your web page, simply set out your work the way you normally would but with one exception, precise positioning needs a table. A prime example is putting a picture right next to some wording. They will not sit together unless inside a table. Word also allows you to insert sound, pictures, even video on your page. There are a variety of these free for use online or in your clip art. Creating your own graphics is also now a viable option with digital cameras, scanners and videos becoming much more affordable. Graphics are often not technically difficult but it is usually more cost effective and less frustrating to allow others to do this for you. Once you have the information looking the way you want it, save the file as html. Word even has a wizard that will 'send' your page to the web. It's that easy. There are also templates that will give your site a more professional look, but they often take longer to download. Everyone has their own preferences as to what makes a good web page, but there are some rules that always work. 1. KISS Keep it short & simple 2. Pictures and graphics make it more visually pleasing but they also take longer to load. Don't over do it. 3. Keep it to the screen size whenever possible. It is better to put extra information on a separate page with a link than to try to jam it all on the one page. 4. Always have a way to contact you for more information on every page. 5. Allow the reader to get to the important information as quickly as possible. Most users do not like to go more than three clicks away from the start page. This last point is important. Different people will want different information. Utilising free web sites gives you as many entry pages as possible. Being the first thing the reader sees, you can tailor it to different needs without changing your whole site. Everyone gets to where they want to go as quickly as possible and you receive a much greater web presence. Linking them all back to your main page lets them access other information when they are already hooked and ensures all your pages will appear higher on search engines. So now you have a web page designed to do what you want it to do and costing you a bare minimum. And if it works well, then you can upgrade when and if you want to. This is where the web really comes into its own. You can test things out without a huge marketing budget. Go on give it a try. ends Contact us for more information on these articles or our services. Ph: 07 33564807 or email kfainges@bigpond.net.au All articles are copyrighted, but if you email me, I will give permission to copy it for just about anything. If you would like an article written for your magazine or newspaper, just email the details to kfainges@bigpond.net.au.
I would be happy to be a guest speaker at your event as well.
|
|
Phone 07 4743 1221 E mail kfainges@bigpond.net.au
|
