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Frequently Asked Questions
What Steps do I take to create an on-line presence?
Why should I have a website for my business?
How do I promote my web site?
What is a Domain Name?
What Steps do I take to create an on-line presence?
Why should I have a website for my business?
There is no doubt about, the Internet is the most exciting and fastest growing medium for advertising your products and services.Imagine if every household is connected to the Internet - It is not a dream, it is a reality. Phone and Cable companies are currently installing digital cables into homes and even electric companies are investigating supplying digital services to households because they know the cables can carry a variety of services including the INTERNET.
In the not-to-distant future every home will be shopping on-line.
It is more than likely that you are advertising in a local paper or magazine and paying anywhere between $80 and up to $1000 per week. Is this where you are getting most of your business? Do people call you and have to leave a message? include your website address in your current advertising and give your prospective customers immediate access to your products and services.
If you don't do this, guaranteed your competitors are... where is your business going???
The best long term strategy for your business is to start with the information you have now and begin to integrate Internet technologies into your everyday business process.
More reasons...............
Delivering better customer service by allowing existing or potential customers access to your product information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Customers can browse at their leisure and shop in the comfort of their own home. Email enquiries and feedback and FAQ's (frequently asked questions) can be incorporated in your site to improve your customer service and help save you time. Delivering more information With radio, television and printed media, you are limited by the amount of information you can provide. A web site can provide a large amount of information and ensure that the specific benefits of your products and services are conveyed to your customers.
Cost Effective Information online can be made available in text, images, animation, audio and video - at a fraction of the cost involved in having the same information distributed by traditional methods.
Interactive and Dynamic Web pages differ from normal brochures, they can be made to include interactive functions, such as being able to search your database of products. Dynamic, because information can be changed or updated to ensure a reliable service at all times.
Direct Selling You can use your web site as a virtual store-front selling your products and services 24 hours a day 7 days a week at a fraction of the cost of running your "real store".
Save Time By including your web site address on all printed stationery, business cards and traditional advertising, customers can visit your site at any time for information without having to contact you directly.
How do I promote my web site?
Web site promotion is an important step in your Internet presence. It is one thing to have a web page but how do people find you?SEARCH ENGINES
There are over 300 search engines on the Internet but in reality there are only around ten major search engines that are used frequently. SITE DEZIGNS will list your site will all major search engines and use strategies to ensure your site receives a higher ranking in search results.
CROSS-LINK ADVERTISING
If you have work associates that also have a web site, they can display a link to your page and vice-versa. This is quite a popular and easy method of promoting your site.
COMPANY STATIONARY
Once you are on-line your web address should be printed on all company letter-heads, business cards, invoices and slips. This is probably the easiest method to draw attention to your site. Its cost effective and gets your message out there in the market place.
What is a Domain Name?
Computers communicate on the Internet using TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol). The part that interests us at this time is IP. An example of an IP number is 207.68.130.149. An IP number is basically a telephone number on the Internet. Every computer on the Internet must have an IP number. Like phone numbers, IP numbers are easy to forget, so we like to use a more humane way of displaying these numbers. This kinder, friendlier approach requires a DNS (Domain Name Server) to look up names and return IP numbers that are needed to find each computer.You could enter the URL "http://207.46.130.149" in your browser to open a web page, but "http://www.microsoft.com/" is much easier. When you enter "www.microsoft.com", the request is sent to your provider's DNS Server. It asks "What's the number for www.microsoft.com?" The DNS server tells it where to find microsoft.com and then Microsoft's DNS server tells it where www is on it's network. So a domain name is like a listing in a very big telephone book.
Right now, there's a shortage of domains in the "com" department. There are over 240 other departments such as ".net" (originally for big networks), ".org" (originally only for non-profit organizations), ".mil" (U.S. Military), "ca" (Canada), "uk" (United Kingdom), and "jp" (Japan) etc etc.
Most companies want to get a domain like "www.companyname.com", but it's becoming increasingly difficult to do this, so companies are either paying for names that others own, or they try to get "companyname.net" or "companyname.ca". The other domains are managed by various other institutions and are generally more difficult to register with.
Choosing a short, descriptive or catchy easy to remember name is very important.