Hosting
All websites need a a place to be hosted. There are many different web hosts that provide a variety of features and pricing schemes. Hosting is provided by: 1and1.com. They are the biggest web hosts and because of this you have little worry about them shutting down. Uptime, which is how long a web server is up, is very important because if the website is down, customers aren't seeing your site. With the 1&1 business package you get:
- 3 Domains- Means you can have 3 full websites with your one account
- 250 GB of storage space
- Over 2,000 e-mail addresses at your domain
- Free Firewall protection
- Vouchers for over $200 in pay-per-click marketing
Full Pricing and Feature list
can be found here.
Website Design
Getting your website on the web is very important. It's even more important though to make sure your site is visually appealing and easy to use. The biggest mistake you can make on a website is to consider it a product. Web sites need to change in order to better engage customers. That first impression of your site needs to sell them your business. That is what a good website is all about. Giving your customer a easy to use environment to find out about your business. Your customer doesn't go to your site for nothing; they go to learn why they should choose your company over your competitors.
There are two parts to a the creation of a website: Design, and Development. The design is the part that the customer sees. The development is for interactive features of the sites. Most websites do not need the power that web development brings.
Search Engine Optimization
The most important thing to a web site is getting seen. Today's websites are in a constant battle over the top spot on search engines. To get that top spot, and all the customers associated with it, you need to make your site both friendly to search engine bots and human customers. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the methods used to move your site to that top spot.
Search Engines come in two very different varieties:
Organic Search: Is free web search advertising. However while it is free it is important to note that many businesses put money into getting on the top. Search engines still sort results by relevance which is judged by a variety of factors.
Pay-per-Click: Is an advertising scheme where you pay for each time your advertisement is clicked. You make a bid on the keyword so that whoever bids the most will often get to the top. However the techniques of Organic Search will still apply in getting to the top.
SEO is a constant process of refining a sites keywords to get as many relevant clicks. A relevant click is one where the person who clicks on the ad is interested in your product and will most likely purchase something. This requires a strong homepage and for the site to appear under relevant keywords. Popular keywords change and so websites need to constantly be changing their keywords. For a look at the popularity of certain keywords you can use Google Trends.