Why do you need a website? If you have to ask you have a lot to learn!

Most people under the age of 35 use a computer to find services, restaurants, new cars, realestate etc. In fact they use a computer search engine to find almost everything.

Not convinced – just take a look at this!

Compare the pair!

2010-2011 Yellow Pages / 2011 – 2012 Yellow Pages.

2011-2012 required two books / 2011 – 2012 Requires only one book and it is 30-40 percent smaller! No doubt you will be told this is because the publisher has ‘reduced’ the spaces and fillers. Hmmmmm. I’m not so sure? There is a saying in advertising that’sex sells’. Advertising for Escourt services in 2011 occupied 5 pages. In the 2012 edition there was only one and a half pages!

Let’s be very clear about this the ‘Internet Express’ has left the platform and many companies , particularly small companies are not on board’.

Why are so many smaller companies doing nothing?

1. There is a lot of bunkum about how much a web site costs, how hard it is to maintain, how complicated they are to build and how much you have to spend on advertising the site.
2. Web designers talk in jargon instead of plain English.
3. Most people and companies simply don’t know where to start much less what they need.

So let’s cut to the chase: How to make a web site from scratch:

Firstly a simple Content Management System (CMS) that any designer can use. A CMS is just a fancy way of saying all the computer software and code that used to be written by a professional web designer to build for you. Well now you can get all that ‘CMS’ stuff for FREE! All the special code that tells the words and pictures on the web site where to go and when to open.

This very site uses WordPress. Ebay, Playstation, People Magazine, Sony & Playstation also use WordPress. Sure you can employ someone to tailor make a website just for you but that is a bit like building a car from parts … why bother when you can save a fortune buying one ready made? Remember also a designer who builds you a ‘one off’ template for your web site will need to charge you every time you need to make changes (ouch).

Three of the most common CMS’s are WordPress, Joomla & Drupal. And guess what? These 3 CMS’s are totally free for anyone to use! That means TOTALLY FREE, no catches. Thousands of people all over the world have donated their time to do their little bit and all for free. What’s more every day thousands more add just a bit more. So hopefully you can see why these programs are so powerful. For one person to do all that they would have to be the equivalent of Microsoft!

But let’s assume you decide DIY web site building using a CMS is not for you. Then make sure you have your ‘expert’ include the following:

1. Google Analytics (free).
2. Google dashboard (free).
3. Google XML site-map (free).
4. Contact form (free).
5. Initial Search Engine Optimisation (free).
6. Keyword suggestion tool (free).
7. Mobile Detector so if someone using a smart phone wants to visit your site the web site changes so they can read you pages properly. Oh and buy the way tell him you also want it to recognise over 5000 different types of hand held devices (free).
8. 5 Free email addresses (free).
9. Anti-spam. Yes hackers are now hacking web sites (free).
10. Web speed optimiser that makes your web site open faster no matter what browser is used (free).
11. Google and Yahoo web crawler set-up (free).
12. Add or remove pages whenever you need (free).
13. And you want to be able to change the entire look of your site every 6 months with the push of a button for free!

I hope you are starting to see just how impossible all this would be for just one person to do. To be fair in order to maintain your web site you will have to learn to add and subtract pages yourself or pay someone to do that for you. But that process is about as complicated as sending an email so most companies opt to pay for a small maintenance program and get an expert to do it for them or just do it themselves!

So what’s it going to cost if you decide to use template ready program like WordPress?

1. .If you want to learn how to make a web site and do it all yourself you can literally set up a site like this one for free. But you will need to set aside a few weeks to learn how to use the WordPress.
2. You will also need to learn how to get Google, Yahoo, Bing and friends to come and find your site and that can take years to learn.
3. You will need a domain name which costs $40 for two years and we will register it in your name providing you have an ABN or ACN. But before you buy your web site’s read SEO 101 and don’t simple register your company name unless you have an advertising budget to rival Nike.
4. Somewhere to host your site i.e. a giant computer in the sky. Cost is about $10 a month.

If you get us to set up a 5 page site just like this one all we will charge you is a few hundred dollars and that includes all of the stuff listed above. We also help you find the very best web name to get you found before you even start. All we need from you is your content i.e. five pages of 300-400 words on five different aspects of your business and pictures.

Then we need to show you ‘how to drive’ the web site so you can keep adding and subtracting pages as much and as often as you want. That usually requires a couple of hours.

If you like we can then also run an ongoing program to push you up the ranks in Google, Yahoo, Bing etc which costs $20-30 a month i.e. about $1 per day.

Compare that with what you paid for your phone book listing last year? Unlike a phone directory you can change your web site any time and advertise new products, a sale or a change of address.  Remember once it is up and running it works 24/7.

So really you can do nothing and just hope that is what you competition does as well; or, you can get going because every second you sit on your hands someone else in your industry is taking advantage of the Internet and taking you customers.

Contact us for further information … its free to talk! You can also read through this site for a bunch of other ‘how to’ web stuff.