Do It Yourself Websites
There are many important considerations as you think about putting your business on the web, especially if you planning on using a do-it-yourself website solution. There are important questions to ask even leading to the decision to use a do-in-yourself site vs. having a professionally created website, but here we will assume that, at least for now, you are going to create your own site.
- Is your business local, national, or international?
- Do you want to sell things, give out information, or provide a means for your customers to contact you?
- How does a website fit in with your overall business plan and marketing plan?
And then, of course, there are many technical considerations.
- Do you need special security so you can process transactions?
- How big a service do you need, and how expensive?
- How much traffic are you likely to have?
But for most, the challenging part is not that. It comes down to “how do you do it, and how much will it cost? Well, if your needs are not yet at the Fortune 500 level, and you just want to get some web hutspa – and show you are a legitimate business, perhaps a do-it-yourself website can be a beginning solution for you. Today, do-it-yourself website solutions like our Website Builder is nearly as easy to use as email.
So, sit down with a notebook or stand at a whiteboard and map out a few things.
- Decide first what do you want your site to do.
- If you need to sell a product or products, you need an eCommerce solution.
- If your needs are basically that of an online sales brochure, Website Builder will fill the need nicely.
- Now think about colors that match and complement each other and fit your company image.
- Start collecting pictures and text, and decide what’s important.
- You need to know what your message is – and ask yourself what content supports that message.
- Consider how you will break the information up. What are the logical units of information, and how does it flow? Is it discrete bits of information, or does it need to be taken in a certain order like steps or layers?
- Put yourself in the place of someone who might typically visit your site. What information do they need? What are they seeking?
- What result do you want to get? Do you want them to fill out a form, subscribe to a newsletter, buy a product or service, or pick up the phone and call you? Does your content support them taking that action or step? It it easy for them to do?
Even though you are thinking of this as a do it yourself project, it is a good idea to involve others to help you test ideas, words, pictures, even colors. Choose people who know less about your business than you do – and perhaps even less about the web. Make it work for someone who did not design it – like your customer or visitor.
It’s also nice to know that, as you go through the process, if you have any questions on using our tools, help is just a phone call away. And our help staff is located in the USA, so you are not being shuttled off to a foreign land where the help staff may be a little harder to understand. And if you decide to let a professional do your website, we can help with that as well.