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How to Design Your Company Website
The document outlines a practical approach to designing a business website without excessive costs or complexity, emphasizing the importance of branding, proper hosting, and user-friendly content management. It addresses common frustrations faced by business owners when hiring developers and provides a checklist of essential components and actions needed for an effective online presence. The author recommends resources for building websites efficiently and highlights the advantages of using WordPress and analytics tools for optimization.
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How to Design Your Company Website
- 1. How to Design a Company Website (withoutspending a fortune โจ or losing your mind)
- 2. Do you wanta great looking website that fully supports your sales and marketing objectives?
- 3. Itโs easier thanever to build โจ an effective business website.
- 4.
- 5. I hear thesame stories from frustrated business owners over and overโฆ
- 6. This web stu๏ฌis really complicated a)โฏ I need a better website but donโt know where to start b)โฏ The costs vary so widely I donโt know how to be sure Iโm getting a good deal c)โฏ How can I be sure my site will support my business
- 7. I hired aweb developer who was: a)โฏ some guy I found online b)โฏ My neighborโs kid home from college for the summer c)โฏ a local programmer who works pretty cheap on the side
- 8. For a ten-page websitehe charged: a)โฏ$250 b)โฏ$1,000 c)โฏ $5,000 d)โฏ$7,500 e)โฏ$10,000
- 9. Now, there areproblems. a)โฏ I can't update anything b)โฏ Something on the page is broken c)โฏ It doesn't work right on mobile d)โฏ It doesn't appear in search engines e)โฏ It's hideously ugly and outdated f)โฏ I got a cease and desist letter saying that all the images are stolen
- 10. The developer wonโthelp a)โฏ He wants a *lot* more money to make changes b)โฏ He won't take my calls c)โฏ He's ๏ฌaked; no one can ๏ฌnd him d)โฏ He's a jerk! and I hate him e)โฏ All of the above
- 11. To be fair,he probably canโt help โขโฏ Developers are experts at coding, not marketing โขโฏ They love to tinker and are good at it; they donโt get why we donโt want to tinker too โขโฏ They are trained to focus on low prices for technology, not maximizing business value โขโฏ They think marketing and sales people are stupid and donโt always listen to their concerns
- 12. This kind offoolishness might be OK for your cat video blog โฆ
- 13. โฆ but itโsutterly untenable for someone trying to โจ run a business.
- 14. It doesnโt have tobe this way.
- 15. Designing websites used tobe hard.
- 16. Itโs so mucheasier today. It doesnโt have to take forever or cost a fortune.
- 17. Hereโs what youneedโฆ
- 18. โขโฏ Logo &branding โขโฏ Domain name โขโฏ Web hosting account โขโฏ Content for your pages โขโฏ Content management platform โขโฏ Lead capture mechanism โขโฏ eCommerce package (optional) โขโฏ Analytics
- 19. But ๏ฌrst, thinkabout why you need a website
- 20. Personas Who will cometo your site? Prospects, customers, partners, employees
- 21.
- 22. Section Guidelines โขโฏ Home โขโฏCompany โโฏBackground, management, investors, clients, careers, locations/contact โขโฏ Solutions/Products โโฏPrimary selling area of the site โขโฏ Services โโฏCustomer service, professional services
- 23. Section Guidelines โขโฏ News โโฏReleases,headlines, events, awards, press kit โขโฏ Contact us โโฏLink on every page โขโฏ Information request form โโฏLink on every page โขโฏ Site map/search
- 24. SEO & ContentMapping โขโฏ Donโt wreck your SEO rankings! โขโฏ Redirect old pages to the new pages โขโฏ Create content to match high value keywords โขโฏ Interlinking strategy for rich interaction โขโฏ Make on-page optimization really easy โขโฏ Sitemap.xml โขโฏ Robots.txt
- 25. Actions โขโฏ Subscribe toemail updates โขโฏ Request info or demo โขโฏ Research products & services โขโฏ Download materials/access resources โขโฏ Self-serve customer support โขโฏ Find your contact information
- 26. 07 Actions Subscribe! Free trial or demo Customer Support Whatactions do you want your visitors to take? Find contact information Research products and services
- 27.
- 28.
- 29. Maximizing Quality; MinimizingCost โขโฏ Knowledge โโฏ Constant learning saves โขโฏ Planning โโฏ Avoid costly changes later โขโฏ Vendor selection โโฏ Find bootstrap vendors and share quality tool Omit or delay โโฏ Are you sure you need it? Can you simply add it later? Be ๏ฌexible โโฏ Do not build if you can inexpensively buy โโฏ Do not buy if you can inexpensively license Donโt be cheap where it counts most โโฏ Spend generously for long term value โโฏ Donโt skimp on graphic design or quality tools
- 30.
- 31. โขโฏ Logo &branding โขโฏ Domain name โขโฏ Web hosting account โขโฏ Content for your pages โขโฏ Content management platform โขโฏ Lead capture mechanism โขโฏ eCommerce package (optional) โขโฏ Analytics
- 32.
- 33. Your domain isthe name of your website โ wherever it happens to be
- 34. Your hosting provideris the server where your website parks
- 35. Web Hosting โขโฏ Youwebsiteโs home on the web โโฏPut the electronic ๏ฌles where other people can view them โขโฏ Types of hosting to consider โโฏShared hosting โ many small sites on one server โโฏVirtual private server โ a few sites on one server โโฏCloud hosting โ a virtual server supported by a cloud- based group of servers and load balancers
- 36. Cheap hosting isEXPENSIVE โขโฏ Downtime, slow response impacts revenue โขโฏ Downtime, slow response impacts SEO โขโฏ Bad support costs you money โขโฏ Security and malware attacks โขโฏ Potential spam blocking and blacklisting
- 37. Free hosting isSTUPID โขโฏ IT guyโs internal server? (NO, NO, NO, NO, HELL NO!) โขโฏ Do you have a 24/7 server admin to babysit that free server youโre going to plug into your network? โขโฏ Extra virtual machine in your dev teamโs AWS? โขโฏ Love driving tra๏ฌc to someone elseโs brand?
- 38. What to lookfor in hosting provider โขโฏ 24/7 professional management in a secure NOC โขโฏ 24/7 telephone and chat support โ a must! โขโฏ Easy to use control panel โขโฏ FTP access, databases, control panel โขโฏ Email accounts
- 39.
- 40. Popular Content ManagementSystems WordPress, 59.1% Joomla, 6.2% Drupal, 4.9% Shopify, 1.2% Squarespace, 1.0% Hubspot, 0.1% All others, 27.5%
- 41. Why use Wordpress โขโฏFree, open source, mature, easy to use software โขโฏ Massive user community, lots of support โขโฏ Thousands of free and premium themes to make your site look great without hiring a top designer โขโฏ Thousands of free and premium plugins to add functionality without hiring a top coder โขโฏ SEO-friendly (Matt Cutts uses it for his blog) โขโฏ Security and ๏ฌexibility
- 42.
- 43. Beef up Wordpresswith plugins โขโฏ SEO - if not built into your theme โขโฏ Form handler and/or email opt-in integration โขโฏ Formatting short codes โขโฏ Security (๏ฌrewall, virus/malware scanner) โขโฏ Spam ๏ฌlter โขโฏ Caching, mini๏ฌer, image optimizer, Gzip โขโฏ Backup, updater
- 44. Lead capture mechanisms โขโฏLanding pages - in theme or external site โขโฏ Popups and banners โขโฏ Forms โ integrated with email or marketing automation provider โขโฏ Tracking code for ad conversions and remarketing
- 45. eCommerce Package Options โขโฏSeparate application or shopping cart service โขโฏ Integrated shopping cart plugin(s) โขโฏ Paste in payment processor buttons
- 46. Analytics โขโฏ Google Analytics โขโฏGoogle and Bing Webmaster Tools โขโฏ Facebook pixel code โขโฏ Google Adwords conversion tracking โขโฏ Marketing automation tracking code โขโฏ Remarketing codes
- 47. Next steps .. . โขโฏ VelocityMarketing.com Web Resource Guide โโฏLists our favorite vendors and resources for websites โขโฏ Build Your Website Boot Camp โโฏ3 week guided process to get your site up and running โโฏStructured task list โโฏEmail support โโฏWeekly web conference check-ins โขโฏ Web Marketing Consulting (Done for You Service)
- 48. Questions? Contact โขโฏ KatherineChalmers @kathchalmers katherine@velocitymarketing.com 571.302.4040