Create First Version of Your Web Site

  • Review content for web site
  • Design web site
  • Find a place to "host" web site

A web site is one of the cheapest ways to get the word out about your company. The cost to create a basic web site and hosting is minimal yet the impact can be very high. Having a web site is becoming a lot like having a telephone number, fax number, and an email address. All businesses should have one. This is your place to highlight what you stand for, what you offer customers, and how you can deliver on your promise.

The cost will range from free with an access account with some ISPs, to several hundred dollars a year to host a basic site. There are also free hosting options available with some search engines (excite and yahoo for example), however, the URL (web address) may not be very attractive or business like. If you desire to have your own web address (yourcompany.com), then you are most likely not looking at the free offerings.

A web site is ideally a living and changing thing. The most basic web sites are not much more than an online brochure. Over time, it makes sense to add some interactivity to the site. At a basic level, this could be simply the ability to quickly learn more about specific services or products based on where a prospect clicks.

A form that people can fill in to request more information is helpful. Ideally, you should allow people to skip any fields they don't want to answer (don't make fields required). Also, only ask questions you need to know to help them. Don't ask their address unless you are planning to send them something. If you collect personal information from people, you should have a privacy policy clearly stated. For consumer based web sites that collect certain information, it may be legally required that you have a privacy statement including how you will share and use information collected on your site.

The opening page should contains details that quickly alert the viewer to what your company does. I prefer simple pages that pull up quickly and don't rely to heavily on graphics. The goal is to quickly communicate key points on the front pages, with more contents and details available within a click or two. People are very impatient on the web, so make sure the most important information is available within one click and on a fast loading page.

It helps to have your mission statement, promise, logo and general idea of all facets of your company in advance of designing your web site. 

Once you have decided on all the different parts of your site that you want, take a shot at the main page.  For beginning web designers, there are a number of different WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) design programs.  The most commonly used, and possibly the easiest to use is Microsoft's Front Page.  The new version allows all different sorts of functionality, including the ability to bring the design from web sites that you see into front page and utilize their general ideas (please remember, using someone's general premise is a sincere form of flattery, plagiarism is illegal!)  Once you have a general design for your main home page, sit back and come up with the different pages that will link from it.

We use Microsoft Front Page, but you could also use Microsoft Word or even Power Point to save contents for the web. Another option for creating a web site is a web based resource that provides ready to use templates and you simply fill in the key details.

As your company evolves, it may make sense to pay someone to prepare a more professional web site. It also depends on the nature of your business. If you are a retail store, your web site could help educate people about your offerings, but it may not be as critical as if you sell information (which you could make available online) or have a web based store (e-commerce).

 Normal linking pages include:

Write out all your copy for these pages first, and then attempt to put them into a designed format.  Don't get down if it doesn't look great at first.  Bring in your friends, get other people's advice.  It's tough to see the most obvious design problem when you've designed it - don't think that it will be perfect that first time around.

While these are the typical linking pages of many web sites, I would also recommend creating the site from the sole perspective of your future and current customer. What is most important to them? What are they looking for? Why might they come to your web site?

An easy to use option for creating your own web site is http://www.verisignwebsites.com a web based service from Verisign. They charge a small monthly fee (approximately $20 for up to five pages) and allow you to easily choose and edit from a wide selection of template web site designs. They also provide the service of email at your company's URL/domain name and hosting of your web site.

It used to help to know HTML (the language that defines the formatting of information for viewing with a web browser). While it is almost 100% possible to create your pages without knowing HTML, occasionally you may be more adventurous or have problems with the content and the way it is formatted on your web site, you can learn more about HTML at the following pages that will give you a bit of a tutorial on how to code:

Always remember to be continually updating your web site with new information about your company as well as your offers.

Once you have your web site developed, you will need to find a company to "host" it. While you could connect a server to the internet and host your own web site, I would highly recommend paying a company the relatively modest fee and let them worry about keeping your web site up 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We use XO Communications and they seem fairly responsive and fairly priced. Once you sign up with your hosting company, you will be given a user name and password which you will need to copy your web pages to the server. You can download software such as CuteFTP to accomplish this task.

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