Basics of Setting Up a Website

When you decide to start a new website, there are a couple of things you should take into consideration before getting started. You’ll need to make some choices about your domain, hosting and hiring a website designer.

When you’re choosing a domain, there are several directions that you can go. You can choose a domain to brand your business, to appeal to the search engines or sometimes you can combine the two. Picking a domain to brand your business involves choosing a domain that matches the name of your company, your motto or some other group of words that are directly related to your business.

Choosing a search engine friendly domain name is a bit more complicated. The following are tips on how to find that search engine friendly domain name for your business with great marketing potential.

Choose a top level domain versus a .info domain name, if it is available. Most people search for domain names typing in a .com extension. However, you can also be quite successful with a .net or a .org extension. It’s not uncommon for website owners to buy several versions of their domain name with different extensions. If multiple extensions are available, consider buying them to keep competitors from buying them later and benefiting from your success.

When choosing a domain name for search engine optimization purposes, you’ll want to determine the best keywords to include in your domain. You can do this type of research on your own, to a certain extent, using tools that are freely available on the web. However, the number of times a keyword phrase is searched is only part of the equation. You also want to make sure that the competition for the term is reasonable. If you need help with choosing a domain, check out our a la carte services for our keyword research pricing.

No matter what domain you choose, always have it hosted by your own hosting server. There are many free website builders that offer free hosting but you will not have your own domain name. For example, if you were with Freewebs.com, it would be freewebs.com/andyourname here. This domain name does not look professional and it is too hard for your potential customers to remember. Today, there are many web hosting packages that offer a free domain name registration. Take advantage of it so that you stand out from the rest.

Make sure that the domain is registered in YOUR name, not in your website designer’s name, not in your hosting company’s name. Even if your hosting company offers to register your domain for you, make sure that you will be listed as the technical contact. You may want to register it yourself if you have any doubts about how the registration will be handled, even if it means passing up on a “free” offer. If you ever want to change hosts or designers, you’ll be glad you spent the ten minutes and $20, vs. the hassle and potential expense of trying to reclaim a domain if it wasn’t registered in your name.

Speaking of hosting, there are many options out there. Hosting companies have different strengths and weaknesses. For example, we recommend a different host to clients planning an informational website than we do for clients who need a full ecommerce site. If you are planning to have a blog or any special extensions, you’ll want to make sure that the host you choose can support those. If you have any doubts, contact a website designer, describe what you want and ask for hosting recommendations.

Finally, if you’re not comfortable designing the site yourself, you’re going to need to find a website designer. Of course, we’d love to help you out, but no matter who you choose, make sure that you ask to see some examples of the designer’s work. You may want to even find some websites you like and see who the designer of that site is. Talk to the company before hiring someone. In fact, talk to them a couple of times. Make sure they explain things in a way you understand, that you feel comfortable talking to them and that they return messages in a timely manner.

While you may be tempted to immediately go with the cheapest designer, you’ll want to make sure to choose someone who can complete the project in a timely manner and who will not disappear before the project is complete. Having to start over with a new designer will NOT result in money or time savings.

So, those are the basics. Choose a good domain, pick hosting that fits your website’s needs and find a website designer you enjoy working with. If we can help you with any of these areas, please call us at 832-497-1610 or fill out our contact form on this site.

What is Social Media?

For those who have been in the internet marketing world for a while, this may be a big “yawn” question. But there are a lot of local business owners out there who hear this buzz word and don’t really know what on earth this means.

I talk to such owners frequently and when I ask about social media, the typical answer is typically something along the lines of “you mean Facebook?”. It’s impossible to leverage a tool when you don’t really understand it.

So, let’s answer the question. What is social media? There are a million definitions out there, but all the definitions have a few things in common. When you’re talking about social media, you’re talking about an internet or mobile application that involves user-generated content or feedback intended for public consumption. So, if there is a way for you, as the website visitor, to interact directly with the content of the page and others can see that interaction, it’s probably social media.

What about email? Is email a form of social media? It depends. If you are using email in a group setting, such as Yahoo groups or Big Tent, then that’s a basic form of social media. The content for that group is user-generated and intended for public consumption.

Private email is not social media, as it is intended only for the person to whom it is addressed. If email is like a letter in your mailbox, social media is like putting up a message on a billboard and allowing others to spray paint messages on your billboard in response.

Some other examples of social media include:

Blogs — Notice that there’s a comment at the bottom of this post. That means you can give feedback on this post, and we can have a conversation. That makes this a social media site.

Website polls — If you put a poll on your website, and people can vote and see the results, that is a basic form of social media.

Facebook — This is a pretty easy one to grasp. Everything on your Facebook page, whether it’s a personal page or a fan page, is created by you, your friends, your “fans” or someone who is reading the page.

Twitter — Again, it’s pretty easy to grasp why Twitter is a “conversation” tool. You don’t go to Twitter to read what the creators of Twitter have to say. You go to say something or ready something that some regular person (or not so regular person) had to say.

YouTube and other video sharing sites — Although it’s obvious when you think about it based on the above definition, many people don’t immediately think of YouTube as social media. But it is. Where does the content come from? Users. People can comment on that content and provide feedback. That’s social media.

Social bookmarking sites, such as Digg, Reddit, Stumbleupon — For the sake of brevity, I’m lumping all of these together. Social bookmarking sites are websites made up entirely of links to articles that users have said are worthwhile reads. Users give content a thumbs up or thumbs down, and people can see the most popular articles on a given topic.

Websites that utilize Facebook’s new social media tools — This is a new option for changing any website into a social media site. Facebook now provides a suite of tools that allows you to incorporate some of Facebook’s features directly on your website. People can “like” your page and perform and see other Facebook actions without ever leaving your site. This is a great opportunity to include a social media aspect on a site without spending a fortune designing a brand new site.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of all of the social media sites and applications that exist. But I hope it gives you a better idea of what people mean when they mention social media.

If you have any questions about how you can use social media on your website or to promote your business, please give us a call or contact us. We’re always happy to help.