I would ask you to think about a few things before you run out and buy into one of those do it yourself quick website solutions that you see all over the internet.
1. Are you able to invest the time to learn how to build your own website?
2. Do you have the time to actually build the website?
3. Do you know how to make your website successful and what your web visitors will want?
4. Are you clear on what you want your website to do for you?
Yes these are a lot of questions when all you wanted is a website. Is it really this hard?
Hey before you fork over the cash to an expensive web guy, or you jump into one of the quickie web building solutions, you might want to spend a little time on these questions.
Now look in the mirror and ask yourself;
1. Have you determined a clear objective of what you want your website to do for you and your business? Building a website shouldn’t be viewed any differently than any other means of advertisement or business marketing campaign. Engaging in any marketing campaign without first determining what your expectations are is a recipe for failure. It’s impossible to determine if your website is a success if you don’t have any track-able goals and objectives. I always encourage my clients to expect a pre-determined expectation of ROI (Return On Investment). If your objective is simply to get a presence on the Internet because you feel that’s what you need to do these days… but you don’t know what to expect, you may want to give this a little more thought before jumping in.
2. Do you have the time to invest in learning how to build a website? Regardless of how simple a web building solution is, there will be a certain amount of knowledge required. Do you really have the time to invest in this education? If so, have fun, but be cautioned, I know a lot of small business owners who have cost themselves a substantial amount of income by avoiding business tasks that produce revenue while learning web building. The sad part is that I met most of them much later when they discovered that their time and effort was completely wasted as their website isn’t producing any results.
3. So learning to build a website sounds like fun. But you still need the time to actually do it. Can you afford that?
4. Do you understand how to get web visitors to your website? This is where a lot of “Offline Business Owners” get it all wrong. If you build it they will come? Not usually. Although the Internet provides small businesses with a terrific marketing venue, BUT unless you know a little about SEO, and how to get web traffic to your website, no one will find you online.Whatever you want to accomplish on line, you’re going to need a steady flow of targeted traffic. Visitors who are interested in your product or service. That doesn’t happen by luck. It takes some knowledge, anda bit of work. Some will tell you that there are tremendous magic tools you can buy to get web traffic. Others will be happy to take your money to show you the latest tricks to get your website to the topof the search engine listings. There’s a lot of really good information on the Internet related to this topic, but there’s also a lot of bad. The challenge is deciding which is which.
Here’s a quick list to start;
1. Develop some quantifiable goals that you want to achieve with your website.
2. Set up a budget. This isn’t free, regardless of whether you do it yourself or you pay others to do it for you.
3. Speak to a professional. I would highly recommend that you hire a good web designer who understands SEO and will show you results of his work for other clients. Even if you’re determined to build your own website, speak to a professional to avoid making the many critical mistakes that most web designers make.
4. Don’t hire the cheapest web designer you find. You get what you pay for. There are so many other things that need to be considered when building a website for an offline business. I hope these tips help, and I wish you all the success you deserve in your online efforts.
Learn more about Web Site Design. Stop by Murray McFadgen’s site where you can find out all about Web Design and what it can do for you.