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Introduction
There are many elements that go into making a business succeed online. Some are the same as traditional offline business, while others are specific only to the internet. What I'll try to achieve through these tutorials is to help you get the most from the internet, to help you to help your customers to say YES!
Whether you have been given the job of getting your site online for the first time, or maybe you work for a larger organisation that already has a web presence, there are some simple basic things that you should consider, some of which are often overlooked. The first of these are hosting and domain name registration.
Hosting and Domain Name Registration
Getting a site online entails designing a site and placing it on a webserver (part of the internet) to allow people to view it. For people to view it you will need a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) in the form, for example, of www.something.com. If you have an internet access account, then there's a fair chance that your Internet Service Provider (ISP) will have given you some free web space and a free URL, although it has to be said that this is not ideal as it often results in your having a long, non-memorable URL along the lines of
http://www.ausername.adomainhostingsite/customersites/yourbusinessname.
As you can see, the chances of anyone remembering this are almost non-existent, while the chances of someone writing it down without making a mistake are also not good. But all is not lost because as well as making use of free web space offered by your ISP, it's possible to get a memorable domain name too. The way this is done is though 'domain forwarding'.
Domain Forwarding
Domain forwarding works in the same way as telephone redirection, and is invisible to the user. It allows you to have a short, snappy, good quality domain name like yourname.wales.info (currently on offer to members of Staying in Wales), which forwards to your free webspace at http://www.ausername.adomainhostingsite/customersites/yourbusinessname with visitors not having to worry about that long old name any longer.
But while free web space is an option, a far better option is to have your own dedicated webspace on a commercial server.
Commercial Server Space
The difference between free and commercial server space is vast. You know how sometimes you go to a site and it takes forever to load before you can view it? Most likely this is as a result of poor webspace.
Imagine your business being open 24 hours a day, then imagine you have fitted doors that turn out to be sub-standard and constantly fail to open and, as such, keep customers out. How long would you say they will wait outside for the doors to start working?
It's exactly the same with the web. If your pages don’t load right away your customers will go off elsewhere to your competitors. A better option is to buy space on a commercial server.
With commercial server space there's no forwarding. Users will be viewing your site direct on a quality server that guarantees not to be closed when you're open.
Hot Tip
Finally, there's a problem that I come across all too often, which is the use of a technology called 'frames' for web hosting.
Frames allow one web page to be placed inside another. The problem with this is that the search engines can only see the outer web page and not the one placed inside it, making it to all intents and purposes non existent. There are two commercial web hosting companies that are notorious for this.
Checking if your website has been hosted via the use of frames is an easy task that takes seconds. If you would like to find out if this is happening to you, simply send an email to me at james@wales.info and I'll check it out for you and reply within a couple of working days.
End Note
Over the series of these tutorials I'll be covering everything from the basic stuff above, right through to the dark and shadowy aspects of Search Engine Optimisation, a process that ensures your site appears at the top of the search engines when people search.
Some of the items covered will be:
- Web site design packages
- Web site design best practices
- Making a site that sells
- Usability that improves your bookings
- General web marketing
- Making use of free directories
- Directory submitting help
- Building links to your site
- Getting more visitors
- Combining online and offline marketing
- Keyword research how to find what people are searching for
- Optimising your page titles for the search engines
- Structuring your site for best search engine ranking
- Email marketing
- Making the most of your visitors.
This is just a short list. I'll notify you of forthcoming articles as they appear. My aim is to help you with your online marketing, so feel free to ask me any questions you might have, and I'll answer them in the next edition.
J Christopher Edwards Bio
James Christopher Edwards is a highly respected search engine marketer whose clients include Adobe Inc in the USA and the Norwich Union Insurance Company in the UK. He specialises in the improvement of website revenue and moderates a number of international online forums dealing with this crucial subject. He also finds time to help small start-up businesses and charitable organisations to improve their search engine positioning. James, who is an ardent Welsh rubgy fan, has joined the Wales.info team to help promote Wales more energetically to UK, European and international visitor markets.
Tutorial Archives by James Christopher Edwards
>> Internet Marketing Basics : 3rd February 2006
Contact James Edwards
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