So what does the small business owner need to consider when creating a website (or hiring someone to create their website)? The first is to become familiar with the process of website creation.
Initiation (or inception) is the phase where you consider whether or not a website is worth doing and where you start thinking about what may want on the website. A good idea at this point is to survey competitors’ websites for ideas. Make sure to look at websites that are from businesses of a similar size, similar location, etc. Awareness of this information will help you create information that is better than your competition.
The planning/design (or elaboration) phase is where you will create an outline of the actual website. It can be as simple as writing down pages that you will want to include. A home page, product or service pages, information about your company and a page with contact information and a form to submit to request more information are the basics. More can be added as needed, but try to include all of the pages that you will want now. It will be easier to build the pages (and the navigation) now, as opposed to later on.
The execution/development (also called construction) of the website is where your outline and ideas are fleshed out in graphics and web pages. This phase can include storyboards, wireframes, clickable prototypes, visual mockups and web page creation (HTML). This is the longest phase of creating the website. It can include several rounds of the above steps before a final version is settled upon.
Close-out/transition (the launch) is where the final bugs are weeded out and the website is launched to the public. At this point you should have a well-designed, well thought out website that is ready to be viewed. Now comes the work of getting the word out about the website. The phrase “If you build it, they will come” does not apply here. The advertising/marketing of your site will be key. Techniques, such as search engine optimization, email marketing and pay-per-click campaigns, should be given serious consideration.
Attention to the above is just a basic overview of what you should consider in your website project. If what you just read seems confusing, then the do-it-yourself (DIY) approach may not be the ideal solution (though it may be cheaper). Locating a web design firm to handle this project is not difficult; a search of “web designer” or “website designer” in your area on any of the major search engines will give you a good starting point. Make sure to see exmaples of their work and get some references, if you need, before signing up. Good luck with your website project!
About the Author
This article is contributed by David Zoffer – CEO of UltraWarp Web Design. David runs several other websites as well, including WDWRatings.com andPrecisePages.com.
]]>Well, no use in describing it any more. Just check it out and let me know what you think.
]]>Back in the early 90s, in the pioneering time of Search Engines Optimization meta-tags were the most importance factor when it came about optimizing a page. At that time it was enough to spam your title, description and keywords meta-tags with tons of keywords and rank on top of search engines for most of them. However, as the time passed, search engines algorithm evolved and more and more factors started to be taken in consideration so the importance of the meta-tags constantly dropped over time.
The only one meta-tag that remained very important over the time is the title tag (<title>Title</title>). In fact it is not a meta-tag, but a simple HTML tag, but there are quite a lot of people that consider it as a meta-tag so I mentioned it too. It is important not only for the SEO value it carries (which is quite high), but also for the fact that it appears on SERPS and is the most important factor that affects the CTR ration. When writing titles for your pages you should have a few things in mind: it should be user friendly (so people will actually click it and come to your site), it should include the keywords (so it helps the rankings) and it shouldn’t be too long. An example of good title for a library called “Book Lovers” and located in Boston would be: “Book Lovers – best library in Boston” or “Book Lovers – your favorite Boston library”.
The description meta-tag (<meta name=”description” content=”A one sentence description goes here.”>) is the second most important meta-tag. Again it not only cares some SEO value, but it also appears on SERPS and affects drastically the CTR. Considering that it’s most important role is to increase the CTR and not to carry SEO value I highly recommend you to write it for visitors and not for search engines. If you mention your main keyword it’s enough from a pure SEO perspective. An example of good description for the same Boston library would be: “Book Lovers is one of Boston’s best libraries; we aim to be the first library where you can find the newest book edition.”
The keywords meta-tag (<meta name=”keywords” content=”keyword 1, keyword 2, keyword 3”>) carries nowadays only a minimal SEO value and a lot of SEO experts even ignore it. However, if you’re like me, someone who considers that every bit counts you may want to add it to your site. However be careful to not spam it – use only 3-4 keywords and be sure that those keywords also exist in the page’s text. To continue with our previous example some good keywords would be: “Book Lovers,” “library,” “Boston.”
Any other meta-tag carries no SEO value anymore and using them will only make your pages heavier; so I highly recommend you to stick only with title, description and keywords meta-tags. If you want you can even use only the title meta-tag for your inner page (there are a lot of SEO experts that do so). But, under no circumstances, don’t copy the same title, description and keywords on all your pages because this may lead to a penalty; and I’m sure that this is the last thing you want to happen to your site.