This document provides guidance on website fundamentals, including choosing a domain name and hosting, deciding between doing it yourself or hiring a developer, prioritizing design and usability, and measuring success through analytics. Key recommendations include understanding your audience and goals, ensuring the site has a great design with focused content and calls to action, and regularly reviewing metrics like bounce rate and conversion rate to improve return on investment. Resources are included for domains, hosting, design tips, and analytics tools.

1. Website Fundamentalswww.ebusinessblog.co.ukJames Copejames_copejamesccope

2. Website Fundamentals The Basics – domain names & hosting

3. DIY or Developer?

4. Beauty Is?

5. Design - Make them want to come back

6. Is it working? - Statistics

7. ResourcesThe BasicsChoosing a domain nameCompany Name or Search Term?Variations - .co.uk & .comCost approx £3.co.uk or £10.comRegistrationRemember your name & addressEx-directory in some circumstances Protect ItCheck it is not an existing trademark – IPOConsider trademarking company name and domainPackagesSometimes cheaper with bundled hosting

8. The BasicsChoosing HostingHow Much – from £3 per month

9. Compatibility

10. Will site work

11. Contract

12. Direct with host – not through developer

13. What is a Good Host?

14. Check Service Availability Stats

15. Where Actually Hosted – UK or US

16. Support

17. BandwidthDIY or Developer?Objectives – core route to market or reference point?Your own skills v BudgetTemplate OptionsHost solutions GBBO, MS Office LiveWordpress – my favourite - themesDeveloper & Design BudgetsEntry level - £250 upwardAverage - £2kGood - £5kEcommerce - £5k – £10k & upwardSEO£200 - £400 a month – plus PPC costs

18. Beauty is?Question:What was the best website you recently visited?Why?

19. Beauty is? – usual responseImpressed!

20. Gave me confidence

21. I quickly / easily achieved my objectives

22. Enjoyed the experience!

23. Benefitted meBeauty is? – Brand & Positioning Put some good thinking into it! What are you offering? - be clear - productise services Why should visitor stay? - reflect their issues - why are you better What next? - clear next steps

24. Beauty is? – Brand & Positioning A well designed site – but how do you decide?

25. Look at competitors“Most of your site visitors spend most of their time on other sites!”Consider business goals“What does the business need to achieve what does the customer want?” Ask the question “Is it going to stand a reasonable chance at achieving results?” Use 3 second rule!!!Marks Out of 10 Please- in 3 seconds!

32. What do these businesses do?....

34. Financial Services!

38. Catering!

40. Recruitment!

42. Life Coach!

43. Beauty is?Whatever the customer thinks it is - not necessarily what you think it is!!Hmm OK, can you prove it??

44. Is it working? – the proofStats / Analytics – our new friend Visitor Levels

45. Bounce Rate

46. Traffic Sources

47. Goals

49. Is it working?Bounce Rate 20% brilliant30% average40% hmmm50% problem

50. Is it working? Conversion Rate 1% average – 100 visits = 1 sale/enquiry 2% good objective3% doing well

51. Design – Make them want to come back Does site engage visitors

52. Core services / products promoted

53. Well written content

54. ‘Homepage’ is not an ‘About Us’ page

55. Don’t make me think

56. Clear calls to action – set up goalsDesign – Make them want to come backDon’t be too differentWeb 2.0 elementsDon’t decorate communicate3D effects good – only to draw attention to content Reflects the brandReflects the business propositionConsistency

57. Design – Strong focus elements