how to design your company website
TRANSCRIPT
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the page is broken c) It doesn't work right on mobile d) It doesn't appear in search engines e) It's hideously ugly and outdated f) I got a cease and desist letter saying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)
