how to design your company website

How to Design a CompanyWebsite

(without spending a fortune or losing your mind)

Do you want a great looking website that fully supports your sales and marketing objectives?

It’s easier than ever to build an effective business website.

Katherine Chalmers

Strategic Director VelocityMarketing.com

Bio KatherineChalmers.com

I hear the same stories from frustrated business owners over and over…

This web stuff is really complicated a)  I need a better website but

don’t know where to start

b)  The costs vary so widely I don’t know how to be sure I’m getting a good deal

c)  How can I be sure my site will support my business

I hired a web developer who was: a)  some guy I found online

b)  My neighbor’s kid home from college for the summer

c)  a local programmer who works pretty cheap on the side

For a ten-page website he charged:

a) $250 b) $1,000 c)  $5,000 d) $7,500 e) $10,000

Now, there are problems. a)  I can't update anything b)  Something on the page is broken c)  It doesn't work right on mobile d)  It doesn't appear in search engines e)  It's hideously ugly and outdated f)  I got a cease and desist letter saying

that all the images are stolen

The developer won’t help a)  He wants a *lot* more

money to make changes b)  He won't take my calls c)  He's flaked; no one

can find him d)  He's a jerk! and

I hate him e)  All of the above

To be fair, he probably can’t help •  Developers are experts at coding, not marketing •  They love to tinker and are good at it; they don’t

get why we don’t want to tinker too •  They are trained to focus on low prices for

technology, not maximizing business value •  They think marketing and sales people are

stupid and don’t always listen to their concerns

This kind of foolishness might be OK for your cat video blog …

… but it’s utterly untenable for someone trying to

run a business.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Designing websites used to be hard.

It’s so much easier today. It doesn’t have to take

forever or cost a fortune.

Here’s what you need…

•  Logo & branding •  Domain name •  Web hosting account •  Content for your pages •  Content management platform •  Lead capture mechanism •  eCommerce package (optional) •  Analytics

But first, think about why you need a website

Personas Who will come to your site?

Prospects, customers, partners, employees

Content

Section Guidelines •  Home •  Company – Background, management, investors, clients,

careers, locations/contact •  Solutions/Products – Primary selling area of the site

•  Services – Customer service, professional services

Section Guidelines •  News – Releases, headlines, events, awards, press kit

•  Contact us – Link on every page

•  Information request form – Link on every page

•  Site map/search

SEO & Content Mapping •  Don’t wreck your SEO rankings! •  Redirect old pages to the new pages •  Create content to match high value keywords •  Interlinking strategy for rich interaction •  Make on-page optimization really easy •  Sitemap.xml •  Robots.txt

Actions •  Subscribe to email updates •  Request info or demo

•  Research products & services

•  Download materials/access resources

•  Self-serve customer support

•  Find your contact information

07

Actions

Subscribe!Free trialor demo

CustomerSupport

What actions do you want your visitors to take?

Find contactinformation

Research products and services

Integrations

Cont

ext

Maximizing Quality; Minimizing Cost •  Knowledge –  Constant learning saves

•  Planning –  Avoid costly changes later

•  Vendor selection –  Find bootstrap vendors and

share quality tool

Omit or delay –  Are you sure you need it?

Can you simply add it later?

Be flexible –  Do not build if you can

inexpensively buy –  Do not buy if you can

inexpensively license

Don’t be cheap where it counts most –  Spend generously for long

term value –  Don’t skimp on graphic

design or quality tools

Putting the pieces into place

•  Logo & branding •  Domain name •  Web hosting account •  Content for your pages •  Content management platform •  Lead capture mechanism •  eCommerce package (optional) •  Analytics

Branding

Your domain is the name of your

website – wherever it happens to be

Your hosting provider is the server where your

website parks

Web Hosting •  You website’s home on the web – Put the electronic files where other people can view them

•  Types of hosting to consider – Shared hosting – many small sites on one server

– Virtual private server – a few sites on one server

– Cloud hosting – a virtual server supported by a cloud-based group of servers and load balancers

Cheap hosting is EXPENSIVE

•  Downtime, slow response impacts revenue

•  Downtime, slow response impacts SEO

•  Bad support costs you money

•  Security and malware attacks

•  Potential spam blocking and blacklisting

Free hosting is STUPID

•  IT guy’s internal server? (NO, NO, NO, NO, HELL NO!)

•  Do you have a 24/7 server admin to babysit that free

server you’re going to plug into your network?

•  Extra virtual machine in your dev team’s AWS?

•  Love driving traffic to someone else’s brand?

What to look for in hosting provider •  24/7 professional management in a secure NOC •  24/7 telephone and chat support – a must!

•  Easy to use control panel

•  FTP access, databases, control panel

•  Email accounts

Whatyouneed Whatitis Whereyougetit

Domainname Thenameofyourwebsitemydomain.com Domainregistrar

Webserver Whereyourwebsitelivesontheweb(aphysicalorcloudserver) Webhos=ngprovider

ContentManagementSystem(CMS)

Aprogramonyourwebserverthatallowsyoutoentercontentforyourpagesandposts.Thecontentisstoredinadatabase.

Uploadandinstallonserveror1-clickinstallfromhost

DNSRegistryAlookuptablethatconnectsyourdomain

namewiththeIPaddressofyourwebserver.(TheMXrecordpointstoyouremailserver)

Manageinyourdomainregistra=onaccount

FTP Connec=onprotocolthatallowsyoutouploadfilesdirectlytoyourserver. Webhos=ngprovider

Popular Content Management Systems

WordPress, 59.1%

Joomla, 6.2%Drupal, 4.9%

Shopify, 1.2%

Squarespace, 1.0%

Hubspot, 0.1%

All others, 27.5%

Why use Wordpress •  Free, open source, mature, easy to use software •  Massive user community, lots of support •  Thousands of free and premium themes to make

your site look great without hiring a top designer •  Thousands of free and premium plugins to add

functionality without hiring a top coder •  SEO-friendly (Matt Cutts uses it for his blog) •  Security and flexibility

Themes are magic!

Beef up Wordpress with plugins •  SEO - if not built into your theme •  Form handler and/or email opt-in integration •  Formatting short codes •  Security (firewall, virus/malware scanner) •  Spam filter •  Caching, minifier, image optimizer, Gzip •  Backup, updater

Lead capture mechanisms •  Landing pages - in

theme or external site

•  Popups and banners

•  Forms – integrated with email or marketing automation provider

•  Tracking code for ad conversions and remarketing

eCommerce Package Options

•  Separate application or shopping cart service

•  Integrated shopping cart plugin(s)

•  Paste in payment processor buttons

Analytics •  Google Analytics

•  Google and Bing Webmaster Tools

•  Facebook pixel code

•  Google Adwords conversion tracking

•  Marketing automation tracking code

•  Remarketing codes

Next steps . . . •  VelocityMarketing.com Web Resource Guide – Lists our favorite vendors and resources for websites

•  Build Your Website Boot Camp – 3 week guided process to get your site up and running – Structured task list – Email support – Weekly web conference check-ins

•  Web Marketing Consulting (Done for You Service)

Questions? Contact

• Katherine Chalmers @kathchalmers katherine@velocitymarketing.com 571.302.4040