Web Hosting Geeks' Blog » small business http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog Web Hosting Industry News, Latest Trends, and Analyses. Thu, 24 May 2012 11:11:11 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 How to Bring Your Site Online? A Guide for the Small Businesseshttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/how-to-bring-your-site-online-a-guide-for-the-small-businesses/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/how-to-bring-your-site-online-a-guide-for-the-small-businesses/#comments Sun, 13 May 2012 14:19:48 +0000 Tolga BALCI http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=6144 The importance of your business’s web site is not a point to discuss. But on the other hand some common mistakes and pitfalls can easily make this essential element of your business work against you. There are two ways that you can get your company website online: you can either go for cloud-ready packages from Microsoft (Office 365) or from Google (Google Apps) or you can build your own website. Although cloud offerings provide a seemingly quicker way to get up and running, building your own website has its own benefits. You will have a website that is tailored for your business, which will make you stand out from the similar-looking sites, you will have a total control over the design, you will have a total control over the presentation and the like. Let’s see how you can successfully build and bring your small business website online.

First, you need a simple and sensible web address. It should be something like www.mycompany.com (or yourcompany.com.tr, yourcompany.ru depending on your preference) and not something like www.PleaseBuyFromMyCompany.com. People call you with your name in real life and with your Internet address in the online life, which means a web site is your name, your brand on the Internet. Once you decide on the name, decide on the domain: will you choose com, net or org domain? If your company is a commercial entity, go with the com domain. If you are an organization, then org domain will be a better choice. A friendly note: avoid dashes and numbers unless they are part of your company name.

Next, define the content of your website. Ask yourself some basic questions and make sure that you find the answers on your site:

  • Why would I come to your website? I am coming to your website because I want to know your products/services better. That means, when I hit your site on the web browser this information should be readily available. Don’t forget: the average attention span of a web surfer is less than 5 seconds. Make sure that your website does not make people trying to find information.

  • What do I do now? If I liked your products/services what do I do next? Place a visible action call to your website: “Call now for more information”, “Call now to schedule a meeting”, “Leave your phone to allow us to call you back” are examples of action calls on your website. Psychologically we, human beings easily respond to this simple calls. Use it to your advantage, but don’t overdo it. Making excessive calls will make you look like a spammer.

  • How can I contact you? Would you feel comfortable if a visitor is happy with your products/services but she is leaving because she could not find how to contact you? Make sure that there is at least a clear “Contact” link visible on your website (friendly note: make sure it is either in the top right corner, side bar or footnote). In the contact information make sure that you include e-mail addresses, telephone, fax numbers, address and an embedded Google map showing your location. Make sure that the visitor is able to contact you from wherever place on your site and she can contact you with whichever channel she chooses: e-mail, telephone etc..

  • OK, I learned about your offerings, so why should I come back? This is an often missed point on the websites. Everything is clearly presented and there is no point in visiting the website again except for the contact information. You can change this by offering fresh, up to date and quality content. This not only gives your website a personality but also will make you benefit on the SEO side, which we will see in the next section.

  • I am a social creature, are you? Facebook, Twitter and Google+, when used properly will magically work to your advantage. First, it will make your customers your “friends.” Second, it will dramatically decrease your response time, which will make your “friends” even happier. Third, any announcements you put on the social media will travel faster than the speed of light on the Internet. Fourth you can feel the pulse of the market in real time, which will place you steps ahead in the competition. I definitely advise you to appoint one person in the company whose job is primarily working with social media.

  • I am still not convinced? Customer testimonials is the answer. The experience of the previous customers, honest feedback will build trust way quicker than you can imagine. Just think about yourself: if you are planning to buy a car, and if you have narrowed your choices to a few brands, then you will speak with your friends who own cars of those brands. A good feedback about a particular brand will shift your thoughts to that brand. Your small business website is the same; customer testimonials about your products/services to your visitors are what your friends’ positive thoughts about a particular brand to you. Plus, they tell your customers things that you haven’t said on your website.

Then comes the technical part. Unless you are an enthusiast or you are a high-tech company, you might be hearing the following for the first time:

  • Site navigation: This is crucial for your website. You have to provide the visitors an easy, visible way to find the information they are looking for. At the very least, you can do this with drop-down menus, but there are lots of very creative sitemap and navigation examples you can find. I also recommend using breadcrumbs so that the visitors can see where they are at a glance.

  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO): In a world of Internet search, the ranking of your website in the search engines is particularly important. You do not need to employ various twists and ninja techniques to rank higher. Make sure that at  the very least your website is developed and coded correctly, correct keywords are used, links are properly put and tags for the images and videos are correctly used and you provide fresh and up to date content as I have just said. These all will add to your positive marks in the search engines, helping your small business website to receive higher ranks in the searches.

All these boil down to your website design: how your identity, your company’s products/services, contact information is presented to the visitor. Since your website visitors have an attention span of less than 5 seconds, the following items are especially important to deliver them the information about your company:

  • Slow loading website: Nobody will wait for minutes for your website to load. Make sure that it loads quick, preferably in a couple of seconds. If not, your visitors will leave your website and will not come back.

  • Complex website: If they cannot find the information they need in seconds, know that you lost them. Make the information visible, let them go where they want to quickly.

  • Broken links: If you have a link that does not work, either delete it or correct it. How do you feel when you click on a link on a website and see “Error 404: Not found” error? Don’t frustrate your users the same. There are various tools that check broken links. Use them.

  • Fully functional elements: After the “not found” error, I think the second most frustrating thing on a website is some element not correctly functioning. If that small application is looking good but not working, either remove it or make it work.

  • Poor design: This is the most obvious of all but still worths mentioning. There are two sides to this item. First, your website should be designed friendly, allowing easy access to content. To accomplish this, you can present information in small paragraphs and/or bullet points, highlight important elements (words and phrases) or present them with graphics. Second, your website should be easy on the eyes. Your visitors want to focus on the information they need, so that dancing cat at the side or the music running in the background will not make your website better, it will make hundred times worse. Use simple and basic colors. Even paint companies do not employ lots of colors in their websites. I strongly recommend working with a professional web designer; you will have a very quick return on your investment.

dokimos.org. It is still like this in 2012.
The website is dokimos.org. Although an exaggeration in itself, it shows you what you should not do.

Now comes the deployment. Make sure you have a secure host to deploy your website; the top 10 companies that we mention on our front page will be a good starting point. Not only you want to be your website to be available all the time (about 99.9% availability) but also you want your website to be secure. Cheap providers will offer you very good prices but you need to consider think about the future: what prices will they quote for additional storage space? What prices will they quote for the additional bandwidth? Will they be able to handle the traffic? How about the support? A cheap provider can easily turn out to be more expensive then a trusted host.

After all these steps, you have successfully brought your site online but you are not finished quite yet. You need to follow your web analytics. If you are an existing Google user, you can check Google Analytics and see which keywords point to your site, which page visitors land, from which page they leave your site, how much time they spend on your site, what is the rate of the returning visitors etc.. These all will help you analyze, change, improve, reevaluate your website and in turn your online “identity.” And it is not only Google who offer Google Webmaster Tools, Microsoft also has its own Bing WebMaster Tools and probably your web host will also offer you some tools.

I agree that all these is hard, sometimes non-ending, oftentimes tedious but it is your business, your website, your online identity and it is you (and your employees’) duty to keep it in top shape in today’s online world.

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]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/how-to-bring-your-site-online-a-guide-for-the-small-businesses/feed/ 0 Web Hosting for Small Companieshttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/web-hosting-small-companies/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/web-hosting-small-companies/#comments Sun, 16 Jan 2011 17:41:16 +0000 Dmitry http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=3700 A small business needs will be very different from those of larger businesses. They may need less space than that of a larger business and may also not need some of the features that web hosting companies sometimes offer to businesses. By looking at the different features that are available, a small business owner will be able to determine which features they need and what ones they consider unnecessary.

Technical support is something that needs to be considered when the business owner is looking at web hosting companies. Companies lose money when something goes wrong on their website and this can be devastating to small businesses. It’s important to know that web hosts are available and will respond to any concerns quickly. A lot of web hosting companies have a twenty-four hour support line that can be reached if troubles arise. It’s also important to make sure that the technical support that is received is very helpful and useful.

Bundled software should also be considered when deciding on a web hosting company. Deciding on the type of specialized software the small business needs should be decided on before entering into a commitment with any web hosting company. These packages can include things such as a content management system or shopping cart software. Some web hosts provide control panel software and this software contains a component that is called Fantastico. This allows for the user to easily install many different types of software that can be used on the website.

Editing tool and script support can be very important for a small business’ website. Many web hosting companies offer easy to use design and editing tools. For companies that are using FrontPage for their website, it is important to make sure that the web hosting company they decide on supports FrontPage extensions. It’s also important to make sure that the web hosting company is also compatible with other script languages such as PHP, ASP, and Perl, to name just a few.

Small businesses should also consider uptime and speed when researching different web hosting companies. A good web hosting company should guarantee uptimes of ninety-nine percent. Small business owners should also check the information about their data centre. This is because it’s important to know that they have high-speed connections to the Internet backbone.

Due diligence is also important when the small business owner is searching for a web hosting company. The first thing that should be done by the small business owner is to check out the web host’s website. Some things that should be watched for are awards and seals of approval. These are sometimes given out by magazines. It’s also important to look for the Internet Better Business Bureau seal. One can also search the Internet to find reviews of the different web hosting companies. These reviews can often be found on web hosting forums, where other individuals will give a detailed version of their experience with a certain company. One or two bad reviews are okay but one should be wary of a company that only has bad reviews, and no good reviews to balance it out.

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]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/web-hosting-small-companies/feed/ 3 Server Options for E-commerce Hostinghttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/server-options-for-e-commerce-hosting/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/server-options-for-e-commerce-hosting/#comments Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:10:31 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=534 There is a lot that must be taken into account when evaluating e-commerce web hosting solutions for your small business.  Among several key factors, reliability needs to be considered as well as security to make sure you web transactions and customer data are protected from hackers and criminals looking to commit identify theft.  It is important to know that there are many options available to you in regard to the type of service.  Two of the most common approaches involve running your small business on a shared or dedicated server.  Each method has its advantages and disadvantages, which we will discuss in this article.

Reasons to Opt for Shared Hosting

Shared hosting offers numerous benefits and several of them extend into the e-commerce sector.  For one, it is very affordable as you can easily find a feature-loaded plan for under $10 per month.  In addition to that, you typically receive all the tools and services you need to get your online storefront up and running.  This includes shopping cart programs, web analytic tools and support for SSL certificates to secure your business transactions.  However, while shared hosting can provide you with a relatively secure platform, it can never assure the level of protection and reliability that can be obtained from a dedicated server.

The Dedicated Advantage

Though an advanced and often more complex hosting solution, a dedicated server is not exclusively geared towards larger companies.  In fact, it can deliver the same benefits to small businesses and entrepreneurs looking to establish and grow their presence on the web.  Leasing a dedicated server will cost you more than a shared hosting plan, but it can also guarantee you better overall security and reliability, both of which are vital for anyone who wants to be make sure there business is always available.  For many companies, their website serves as the revenue generator that keeps the business going.  If these are your plans, you need to make it a priority to invest in a solution that ensures your site can be accessed at all times and provides the secure environment your customers need to feel safe.

Capacity and Complexity

When leasing a dedicated server for your small business, you are assured a guaranteed allotment of essential resources such as disk space, RAM and bandwidth.  These features alone can give you a website that performs exceptionally better than it would in the shared hosting environment.  However, you should keep in mind that dedicated hosting is one of the most complex types of web hosting you can sign on for.  Unless you opt for a managed service, you will be responsible ensuring and monitoring security, performing configurations and backups, installing software and general maintenance of the server.

There are quite a few small businesses that can thrive with a shared hosting platform and several others that cannot.  Making a choice is difficult and the final decision will depend on various factors, including your budget, level of expertise and the requirements of your business.  Most importantly, it will boil down to the overall quality of the host providing you with service.

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]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/server-options-for-e-commerce-hosting/feed/ 0 Shared Hosting: The Ideal Small Business Solutionhttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/shared-hosting-the-ideal-small-business-solution/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/shared-hosting-the-ideal-small-business-solution/#comments Mon, 22 Dec 2008 21:05:00 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=125 Shared hosting is the most popular web hosting solution today, ideal for individuals and small business owners as well.  So, what exactly is shared hosting?  Well, as the name implies, it refers to an arrangement where you share space on a web server and resources such as bandwidth and RAM with other hosting customers.  Though shared hosting providers are abundant, the key is finding a company that will set you up for success.  This article will provide a checklist to help you use the shared hosting platform as a vehicle to establishing your small business.

Finding a Reliable Shared Host

In order to give yourself the best chance of succeeding with a small business, you need a shared hosting provider that takes hosting serious.  First and foremost, they should be dedicated to making sure your site is always up and running, ensuring that visitors enjoy a smooth performance.  If your site is frequently down due to technical difficulties or performs sluggishly, converting visitors into customers will be nearly impossible.  You can better assure accessibility and performance by looking for these technical specifics:

Uptime - This refers to the amount of time your site will be available on the web.  Right now, the industry standard is 99.9% so anything less than that can be considered unacceptable.  Don’t simply take the provider’s word on its advertised guarantee.  Do a little investigating and find out how the percentage is calculated and what is actually covered in the guarantee.

Disk Space – If you are planning to start an online business, a shared hosting plan must provide an adequate amount of disk space to store your content.  You probably won’t require a tremendous amount of storage space so look for something that suits your needs rather than falling for the glamorous “unlimited” offering.

Bandwidth – Equally important is bandwidth, often referred to as data transfer.  Bandwidth is another resource that is often advertised as an unlimited offering, but just as with disk space, that simply isn’t true.  We suggest selecting a shared host that offers an accurate amount of bandwidth to support your web traffic.  Without enough, your site will lag.  If you exceed the allotted amount, you could be taxed hefty overage fees despite the unlimited offering.

E-commerce Tools – Shared hosting is your ticket into online business and essentially the world of e-commerce.  Depending on the nature of your business, some of the e-commerce features you may want to look out for are shopping cart programs, multiple email accounts, SSL support, and database access among other features.   These tools will give you the ability to open up an online storefront, keep in touch with customers and facilitate secure transactions on your site.

Support - A small business hosting solution just wouldn’t be complete without solid support.  A reliable shared host should offer support 24/7 to step in and make the save when you have questions or concerns.  If they can’t provide quality customer support, the overall quality of their hosting service is questionable as well.

The most attractive benefit of shared hosting is cost efficiency.  By referring to this checklist, you should be able to find a small business solution that is both reliable and affordable.

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