From Blank Page to Content – Where to Start?
Whether you are planning on creating your own website or hiring someone else to design your site at some point you’re going to have to start adding some content to your website, but where to start?
I find it very difficult to write about someone else’s business without quizzing them thoroughly, at the end of the day, you know your business best so either writing your own content or providing lots of information on what you do can only help.
I was talking to a client yesterday who was going to go away and start working on his content, but didn’t know where to start, I said I’d try and send some suggestions through this is what I came up with, bare in mind it’s not exhaustive but just designed to get you to think about your business and your site and give you a place to start.
• Who are you aiming your service at businesses, individuals?
• Are you going to serve a specific area or a larger more general area UK / world wide?
• What is your unique selling point (what makes your service different to the competition)
• If you were looking for your business in Google what would you type in to find it? (These are called keywords)
• Do you know the address of any of your competitors, have you checked out their sites? What do you / don’t you like about them?
• What services do you provide?
• What contact details are you going to use.
• How do you want to be paid?
• Do you have any ideas of the kind of colour scheme you’d be looking for?
• Do you have any images that can be used or do you want to find some on one of the many image sites.
Here are some ideas for basic pages you might want to include.
Home – This page should give over view of what you do, direct people to other area of the site to find more detail
About us, – explain who is involved in the company, how you got started what skills you bring to it etc.
Services – what do you offer, do you want to add prices?,
Contact – includes your contact details, giving a physical address and phone number gives customers more confidence in you than leaving them out. Contact form do you need any specific information to be able to help them best? Or will standard name, email address and message do for initial contact.
I hope this gets you started.
“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” Walt Disney
Pippas Web design websites for start up companies and small business, check us out.
How to End Your Domain Name And does It Matter?
So you’ve picked your company name, decided on your domain name, and gone to buy your domain name, through a company like 123-reg or godaddy. Then you realise you’ve got lots of options to choose from. All domain names end with a (dot)and a series of letter i.e. .com, .co.uk or .biz.
 |
| Domain name endings. |
.com Commercial is by the the most common option although is traditionally for American based businesses.
.co.uk this is the UK’s own commercial
.edu for education sites
.mil military.
.net networks
.me personal sites
.tv was originally the extension for Tuvalu but now can be used for entertainment and fansite.
.co the Columbian code is .co but now .co can be used by anyone,
.info information websites
.biz an alternative ending for businesses.
Each country also has it’s own letters which can be offered by providers, added to a number of the above, i.e. .co.uk, org.uk or uk.net
So which one should you choose?
From an SEO point of view it really makes no difference. It’s your on page optimisation and back links that really make or break a site.
However that said in the UK, there is an expectation that UK based companies will use .co.uk domain name.
Do you need to buy all the domain variations?
Well buying them all will stop anyone else using that name, but will also set you back a lot of money. Personally I would advise if you’re UK based and serve the UK stick with a .co.uk if you’re a global company, you might want to go for .com However if someone the other end of the country to you has the .co.uk version of your preferred domain but the .biz or .net or even .me version is still available there is nothing to stop you choosing that.
So if you have your own domain, what extension / ending did you go with, and what made you choose that?
To see how Pippasweb could help your business, check us out.
5 thing to consider when naming your new business
It’s January a New Year, New Year, maybe a New company?
So you’ve decided to launch a new company. A company name is likely to be the first thing a potential clients knows about you and what you offer, so picking just the right name is important, here are a few things to consider when choosing the name.
1) Make it memorable, you want you potential clients to remember your business name, for example the name Cuts for a hairdresser is pretty common but it”s you’d remember it quickly. However be careful with unusual or difficult spelling. If the client goes to find you in the phone book, or even Google your name, would they be able to still find you or would the spelling of your company make you too difficult to find.
2) A positive response when a client reads / hears the name of your company they’ll automatically try visualize something about the company, a company name that allows this for example pampered pets, would be more memorable than for example shizam. You need to find a name that gives the potential client a positive impression or feeling rather than a negative one. For example cosy toes gives a more positive impression than cold feet.
 |
| Make your business name something visual and positive. |
3) Future Expansion, if you make earrings and call your self Red earrings, what happens in the future if you want to expand to other items of jewelry.
4) Domain name, Do a search on Google, check for other companies with the same or similar name? From an SEO point of view consider using a keyword that you will want your company to be found using Google, for example if you’re going to sell books, then you’ll want it somewhere in the company and domain name. Check if the domain name you would want is still available.
5) Sound it out and write it down some times when words are said or written down next to each other they create new words or sounds that will for Example Low hypnotherapy when written as a domain name lowhypnotherapy with the new word of why?
Ask the opinion of friends, and family. At the end of the day go with your gut feeling, if you like / don’t like it see where it takes you.
So what was your thinking when you chose the name of your business, why not leave me a comment and share? All the best with your new venture.
To see how Pippasweb could help your business, check us out.
