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Every good business must have a website. Here's what you need to know about website design and content. Great web design starts and ends with three ideas: FIT, FORM and FUNCTION.
Whether you want an online brochure that's used to inform, educate others and/or to promote your business; or, an online store and shopping cart that sells something such as products, services or downloadable information, you need a website.There are two basic ways that people find you: Visitors are delivered to your site proactively, as a result of their desire to learn more about you/your company; or, they find you through a common internet keyword search process such as Google, Yahoo! or MSN.
What does a great website cost?
We know a business that spent close to $100,000 on their website. We also know lots of companies that have spent $15-30,000. And, we know a number of companies that spent under $5,000. Which have the best sites? None of them! Nearly all of them aren't worth a thing because they don't provide the content that their clients and prospects want/need to create the desire to initiate an inquiry to the company, much less buy something. Even worse, the sites aren't search engine optimized so the buying community can't find them unless they know the correct URL.
What's in a good site?
First, a Good Web Name (URL, Domain Name, Website Address). A good web name should be short and easy to remember. Whenever possible, it should also align with your business theme. For instance, we have four sites: www.FIRSTBRANDWEB.com for our web marketing business. FIRSTBRANDinc.com is our corporate site. For our subsidiary consulting business, we have www.BlodgettVentures.com. To market our How-To consulting book, we chose www.YourOwnConsultingBusiness.com. The names fit the criteria.
Your website is a key component of your branding effort. It can pay big dividends in credibility if the site is good, and, if the site is bad, it can be a huge negative.
Relevant, Search Engine Friendly Content
Content is absolutely vital to a good website, and there are several types of content:
