Business Websites: How To Do It Right

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Branching out on the net can be daunting if you haven't a clue what you are doing. You know there will be lots of costs involved, but how can you be sure that you're doing everything correct. The last thing you or your business needs is a lot of money getting wasted on something that doesn't do what the job you want it to do.

Ask yourself the following questions... Do you need the ability to update and add new pages? You may have someone in your business who is a web developer and can add pages and updates when necessary. This is great but what if they leave? Who will then take over? The best anser to this problem is getting your site built with a content management system (CMS). This is basically a back end are of the site which you will be able to login and make changes yourself without any web development knowledge.

Do you want your site to be found in google? If you're not a huge brand like Tescos or Virgin, then you will want people to find your website by typing in keywords into search engines. For instance if your business is insurance you will want your site to be found when people search ...
... for 'home insurance', 'car insurance' etc. The only way to do this is to ensure you site is SEO friendly. SEO means search engine optimisation, meaning it is built in such a way that search engines find each page, rank them and list them when someone searches for the pages. There are many CMS's that are SEO friendly and the best ones are free so it shouldn't cost you an arm and a leg to have a content managed website that is search engine friendly. CMS's like word press and joomla are very established and free to use. All you need to do is find a developer to build it.

When it comes to design you need to make your design simple and effective. Ensure that everything on your site is only one or two clicks away. Use a template design so that each page is the same and the navigation is all in the same place. There is nothing worse than every page on a site looking completely different. Just as you get used to one page, you click to another page and have to figure out where the navigation is again. Try to stick to one or two colours and forget about flashing images or wording as these can be off putting.

Finally you should be creating a website that is the best in your business. Look at your competitors sites and see what you think works and what doesn't. See if there is anything that your competitors aren't doing and do it yourself. Make sure you site is social friendly. Add social bookmarking links so people can share your pages on facebook and the like. Once you site is there on the web for all to see, don't just leave it there. Constantly add new content and promote your site. A great website will always be evolving and getting better, the search engines will come back more often if your site has a news feed and is always getting updated.
Moustique Design are an affordable web development company offering SEO friendly website design london including business website design.