Archive for November, 2009

Why Buying A Website Template May Not Be Such A Good Idea

Friday, November 27th, 2009

Last time, we discussed how you should go about hiring a web designer – what to look for and what to watch out for. There is, however, another option when it comes to acquiring your website: purchasing a pre-built template.

Doing a quick Google search for something like “website template” or “web templates” will undoubtedly yield thousands of different online businesses willing to peddle their products in exchange for your money. You will see templates varying from traditional, table-like builds to flashy, high-tech and animated looks. The more you look around, the more you’ll realize that each website that sells such templates has their own style of design – you’ll see similar elements of style within all these templates. If you’re serious about purchasing a pre-built website template, take your time and shop through as many vendors as possible. Don’t be afraid to ask questions like how many pages are provided with the template, how easy it is to setup (and if they are involved at all in the setup and upload process), and if they offer ongoing support with purchase.

If considering purchasing a template, consider the following:

  1. What level of expertise you will need to integrate the template into your own site.
  2. How easy it will be to change/update certain elements of the template site.
  3. How search engine-friendly the build is. It is not uncommon for such templates to be built in an assembly-line like process where volume is the biggest concern, and not the effectiveness of the product. If you see a website template you like, I highly recommend you consult an SEO professional before you buy.
  4. There will be many others who will buy the same template – your website will be a carbon copy of other businesses out there. Not only is it unenviable to have a replica site, but you may be subjected to duplicate content penalties enforced by Google and other engines. For clarification, again contact an SEO professional.

That said, some website template vendors offer you the ability to purchase an exclusive license for the template, ensuring nobody can buy that template after you (although you cannot guarantee that anyone else hasn’t bought an unexclusive license before you).

Ultimately, if you are happy with the template’s look as well as the flexibility of the site and the customer support you may very well need, a template may be something to consider if your SEO consultant can approve the search engine-friendliness of the template.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | 74 Comments »

Hiring A Web Designer

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

This post is the last in a 4-part series outlining the essential steps in getting a website up and running. If you missed our posts on how to choose a web host,  how to choose a domain name and how to register a domain name, we suggest you have a look at those first.

Websites, and for that matter, the internet, are still a relatively new concept to a lot of traditional businesses and business owners. However, not embracing the power the internet provides you and your business can be a fatal mistake. The web world is often the cheapest and most efficient realm to create distance and diversity from your competitors. Often, all it takes is a set of graphics to slap on your homepage to give you that professional edge – running an old-fashioned and sloppy looking website can be worse than not having a website at all. Think of your website as a store – would you want your prospective customers walking into a garbage heap?

It is absolutely crucial to hire a web designer who knows what they’re doing, and critical to allow enough of a budget to have a decent website built. Too many times have I encountered business owners who are looking to have a website created, only to find out they want to see what can be done for $500. I reply, “How about we stick your logo on a blank white page with your phone number beneath it.” Of course, I don’t actually say this, but what I do say is that with a budget like that nobody can create a decent looking website that draws and not repels prospective customers. Plus, it’s not going to do us any favors designing a site we’re not proud of. Ours and every other web designer’s credibility are at stake.

You may have heard that businesses sometimes source out design work to college students who can often do work for cheap. Occasionally, this may work. However, most students willing to take on this work view it much like any other part-time job while in college. They’re in it to make a few bucks to help get them through school and when that’s done, so are they. It isn’t uncommon to hear of businesses being left high and dry by student designers who have moved on to other things, leaving their clients’ websites stale and in dire need of updates. You do not want to be that business owner who is desperately trying to get his latest promotion on his site but is unable to do so for lack of contact with his web designer.

You’ll also want to make sure your designer knows what they’re doing and has some experience. Most designers have a viewable online portfolio of previous clients – that usually provides a glimpse into their abilities. Before contacting a designer, however, try and pick out some sample websites you’ve come across in your net travels that you like the look and functionality of. Don’t limit yourself to your specific industry – you have billions to choose from out there! Approach a prospective web designer with some of these examples and see if they are up to the task of creating something like that for you.

***IMPORTANT***
Make sure the web designer has a basic understanding of SEO concepts during the design process. Ensure they are familiar with SEO-friendly design and do not limit their design work to solely Javascript and Flash elements. The worst thing you could do is end up with a site that will never be picked up by Google and the other search engines for lack of spiderable (search engine readable) content. Have the designer guarantee you that most of the site will be SEO-friendly. Also, ensure the web designer can make backups of your website data and provide you with this in case of emergency.

I’m sure many of you reading this are wondering about cost. The size of the site dictates this, as well as the complexity and experience level of the web designer. For a decent-looking, functional, SEO friendly site that you will be proud of, a rough estimate for a smaller site would be a starting budget of around $1500-$2000.

Do not skimp on this element of your business. A major part of your credibility is being judged by the look of your website, and trying to save a few hundred dollars on your website could very well prove disastrous in the long run.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

How To Choose A Web Host

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

This post is the 3rd in a 4-part series outlining the essential steps in getting a website up and running. If you missed our posts on how to choose a domain name and how to register a domain name, we suggest you have a look at those first.

Now that you’ve decided on and registered a domain name, you’ll need to host your domain name for your website. As registering a domain name can be compared to registering a business name in the offline world, hosting a website is like renting office or retail space for your store. Companies who offer hosting services are called “Web Hosting Providers”, or “Web Hosts”, and choosing the right web host for your website is one of the most important decisions you will make during the entirety of your online campaign.

As you can imagine, choosing the right web host for you is much more involved than selecting the first company that comes up in a “web host” search in Google or Yahoo. Keep in mind that just because you may have heard of a company provides web hosting services does not mean they are great at what they do – there are plenty of big hosting companies that have made their name through marketing and branding, but not necessarily through quality of service. If you want to do your own research into a good web hosting provider, here are some questions you need to ask:

  1. Do they offer free 24/7 support? This is very important – you or your web designer/developer will need to establish good lines of communication with your web host.
  2. What kind of disk space and bandwidth do they offer? The disk space allows for the size of the website, where 100MB of disk space is more than enough for most websites. Bandwidth pertains to data transfer rate, or the amount of data that can be passed to and from a website during a period of time. If your website plans to host videos, audio or other multimedia, you will need more bandwidth. To be on the safe side, I’d suggest looking for a web host who offers at least 10GB of monthly bandwidth, which is quite a lot.
  3. Uptime Guarantees. Find a web host who can give you guaranteed uptime (the amount of time your website is guaranteed to be live when queried) statistics. This should be not less than 99.5%.
  4. Contracts. Try to avoid web hosts who want you to commit to contracts for minimum amounts of time. You will want to find a host where you can cancel at anytime without penalty.
  5. Cost. Look for a host who charges you a flat monthly rate, and ensure there are no added fees/maintenance fees. Unless you have tens of thousands of daily visitors right off the bat, beginner/small business hosting packages should be more than sufficient. Hosting fees are usually billed monthly, and should be less than $20 per month.

Given these requirements, we’ve put together a short list of some of the better hosting companies out there if you wanted to compare on your own:

FatCow.com
Aplus.net
BlueHost.com
HostGator.com

Customer reviews have shown these are some of the most reliable and customer-service friendly web hosting providers out there. Take a look on your own, and if you decide to go with any of these, feel free to let us know your experience so we can keep up the quality.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »