| 3. Things to be Aware of Before Purchasing a Website. |
The internet is relatively new technology and making a decision to purchase a website can be daunting. Due to the lack of understanding many small businesses have about this technology there are some key pitfalls that small businesses need to be aware of. The key areas of concern when deciding to get a website are;
1. Own Your Domain Name.Many small businesses sign up for a listing in a directory that claims to include a website. This is may look like a website and feel like a website but if it does not have a domain name that you own it is simply an ad in a directory. John Smith plumbing should be www.johnsmithplumbing.com.au not www.johnsmithplumbing.xyzsite.com.au . A website is an asset to your business only if you own the domain. Don’t be fooled into paying an exhorbitant amount to provide content for someone else’s website. Good directories are free of charge. 2. Great Graphics Do Not Make a Great Website.In the section Building my website we discuss at length the priorities you should choose when building a website. Graphics should be low on your priority list. (This may not be the case in all situations, however this is rare.) Building a website in flash (ie animation technology) may look great however it makes it almost invisible to Google. Likewise, building a website in frames hides enormous volumes of valuable content to feed Google. Asking a developer if they build websites in flash or frames is essential. If the answer is yes be wary. Being visible to Google should be the over riding factor in developing your businesses website. A well designed website can also have great graphics but it is essential to be visible to Google. 3. A Yellow Pages Web Listing is Not Your WebsiteYellow Pages is a paid inclusion advertising model even for their online component. You should look at the comparison of the paid inclusion model versus a success based “pay for performance” model. For further information go to our PDF provided in “small Businesses and website fundamentals ”.
Ask Yellow Pages to provide you with the amount of clicks you have received on their site for your paid ad (assuming you don’t have your own website). Divide the cost per month by the clicks you have received and this is your cost per click to advertise on their website. You should get a better return on investment by having your own website with a search engine that you control specifically for your small businesses needs. |
