Expanding your business to have an online presence should be an important milestone in your company's growth. People, now more than ever, do more of their purchasing on line. Taking your business on line, cannot only increase sales, it can also strengthen your brand, expand your reach and help create a closer relationship with your customers.
But, what must be done to make this happen? Where do you start? Fortunately it's easier than you think.
First you need to purchase a domain name and Hosting. This is like renting an office; you need to have an address. Your address should be an extension of your business, preferably your company's name. If it's not possible then you need a phrase or word that is part of your brand image. The important thing is to have continuity from real life to online. You can buy your domain and hosting service with many vendors, I advice you to use wwww.godaddy.com or www.1and1.com.
Your next step should be design. There is a plethora of design studios out there. One thing to keep in mind is that it's important to have a professional design, since having an amateur design might hurt your brand instead of making it stronger. Design is subjective and depends on your personal taste. You need to do some research, visit many websites and get an idea of what works, what you like and what you dislike. What is the most functional design that you saw? Get ideas, it will help guide you on your own design. If you hire a professional they will guide you on your way.
If the purpose of your new online presence is primarily informative then you need to make sure your information is accurate and constantly up to date. If your goal is to turn visitors into online shoppers then, in order to do this, you need to have a shopping cart. The primary purpose of the shopping cart is:
• Enable shoppers to select and view different items that they would like to purchase
• Change quantities and products in their final order
• Display a summary of items selected
You can get this service from many service vendors such as, Google, yahoo, 4checkout, among others.
Finally the most important step in creating a web presence is getting visitors. Spread the word, print your web address on your business cards, send it to your contacts, and use it in all your paperwork. The goal is to let as many people as you can know about your website. In the end you will see that it will quickly pay for itself. Good Luck!
Please use the commentary form below or mail Carlos Manuel Gomez
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The Orange Elephant Group directly.
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Subscribe to this comment's feedThank you Carlos for this important article
I totally agree with you about what you are writing and would just like to add some comments.
1. Stay away from “hipp design” with futuristic animations and hard to follow navigation. There is a BIG difference between a site promoting hard rock and a business or corporate website.
2. Identify your audience and aim your content to them.
3. Don't try to trick the Search Engines to get better positioning. Use content that is attractive to your audience and it will be attractive to Google as well.
4. Way not get your hands on experience with a blog? There are a lot of places on the Internet ware you could get a blog set up for free.
5. Take a look at one of the CMS (Content Management Systems) if you will update your content frequently. There are a few good ones out there for free. Joomla, Mambo and Wordpress are the most used ones.
Bosse
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