Okay...I Need a Website, Now What?
Part 1: Branding
Congratulations! You've acknowledged the importance of a website to the success of your business-so now what?
You've taken the biggest step, by realizing the advantage that a website can give your business, you can now set it as a priority and budget for it.
It is crucial that the look and feel of your website matches your corporate image. Which means that all of your promotional materials, like brochures, flyers and business cards should fit into the look and feel of your website. So, think about your company and the image you would like to project. If you are a well-established business who is taking their first step onto the Internet, then you have a foundation to build on. If you are just starting your business, then you have the opportunity to take the Internet aspect into account while designing your image.
The first step is to choose and register a domain name. Most companies will want www.yourcompany.com. Dot coms are definitely the most recognizable domain to have. They are the most easily guessable. If people are looking for your website, but don't know the address many will just put a .com at the end of your company name. But how do you know if your company name is available? To do this, you can do a whois lookup. This will tell you if the name you want is available.
If your first choice is already taken, then consider a .net .biz or a country extension like .ca. They are not as recognizable as the .com address but still acceptable. Another option, would be to use an acronym for your business or your business tag line and see if the .com name is available.
Lately, many people have started to use hypens (-) in their domain name. Consider this carefully and know your target audience. The average user who will be typing in your domain may not realize that there is a hyphen in the domain, and may not find you. The easier you keep things, the more visitors you will have.
When you find an available domain name that you like, make sure you register it right away. There are several companies on the Internet which can register the name for you. Just make sure that you (or your company) is listed as the administrative contact. That way you own your domain, and not the company who registered you.
When you register for a domain, you will need to tell the registrar where the site will be hosted, meaning on what computer the site will served from. There are many hosting companies out there. In most cases, your hosting company can also register your domain name, so it becomes a one step process. Please view our article on choosing a host for more details about what to look for. You can also ask the registrar to "park" your domain for you. Many companies will do this for free. This is a great alternative if you think that it may be a while before you have the opportunity to get a site up and running.
Now that you have decided on a domain and have it registered to you, the next step is to decide how you are going to build the site. This is discussed in Okay...So I Need a Website, Now What? Part 2: Software or Web Designer?
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