WEB Designer SolutionsThere are a number of solutions which web designers provide, and these all depend on how much profit the web design company is trying to make from your inexperience. regardless of which option you select, you must ensure that you have access to the source code so that you will own the source and that should you change hosting providers then you do not have to do any design of the web site again. |
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CMS SolutionsThe web designer builds you a web page which uses a CMS, this then allows you to modify the content of your web page, they also create a number of email addresses for you and inform you how to configure outlook/Thunderbird. There should also be an option to access the email by the web. You would go to the website mail.yourdomain.com to log into your email. With a CMS soultion you should not have to pay extra for the addition of applications, clarify this before you proceed. |
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Hand Coded Web pagesThese web sites are going to be the most efficient when it comes to optimising for google as you have full control over all of the elements on the web page, however to change the web page it will require the assistance of a technical person to make the web page changes, as well as; uploading the web page to the server via a ftp program. To utilise this option, you will need to get an agreed cost per hour rate for the modifications or pay a monthly subscription fee, which will include a number of updates to the web page, this subscription fee could also be incorporated into the subscription fee for SEO work. |
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Renting of the websiteIn some instances the web design company will retain full control of the domain and web host, so in effect you are simply renting the space and domain and are not in control of your own business. Taking this approach may seem cheaper in the short run, however should you wish to change your hosting provider, you may find yourself without any source code to your web site , and your domain name may belong to the web design company. This strategy should be discourage as the Long term cost is more expensive, especially considering aspects such as losing Page rank, potential customers in the migration, and the design cost associated with redeveloping the web site. |
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Ideal SolutionThe Best Solution a new Start up Small Business can take, is to find a web design company who can provide the hosting, who will set up your email accounts and install any necessary applications which may be required to run your web site, The Site should be design and built with a Google friendly Content Management System so that later on you can make updates to your website easily. The Web Designer will make recommendations to you to help with optimisation of your web site and will have affiliations with an SEO Company Aus eCom Connections has affiliations with hosting companies and is able to provide you a domain (.com.au) name and hosting for 12 months for only $120. The web sites which Aus ecom, Design are google friendly and are normally indexed in Google within 1 week of going live. All our designed web sites are search engine optimised (we do not charge additional for this) and focused on your niche with particular attention to one keyword phrase. |
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Domain Name selection – Part 3
Multiple domains and Sub domainsShould you register multiple domains then you need to ensure that either the content on the multiple domain is different to the original domain name or identify which of the domains you want as a the main domain and then use a permanent 301 permanent redirect using .htaccess file. |
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Sub domains and franchisesNearly all franchises utilise sub domains for the web pages of the franchise. Should this technique be used then the franchisee needs to ensure the information on the sub-domain is different to the main web site. If the sub-domain is not different to the main site then Google will identify the sub domain as duplicate content and the sub-domain will not be indexed and as such your business will suffer. The same applies to normal website who utilise sub-domains to catch keywords, ensure that content is different and reflective of the sub-domain. |
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Keyword Rich Domain namesThe problem with a keyword rich domain name which uses hypenation is explaining what your domain name is when talking face to face. When people search for your market segment then becuase you have a keyword rich domain name, changes are that you will appear in the google search engine results, as such there is no problem. In order to overcome this problem register your normal business domain, (which is on your business cards) and then register your keyword rich domain(with or without any hypenation). Once the keyword rich domain name is registered then upload your website pages to the keyword rich domain name. NOTE if your business has been existing for some time, do not use this method as it will make you lose google ranking. this is only for NEW websites…. Next on your business domain name, then ask your webmaster to implement a 301 permanent redirect to the keyword rich domain name. now you have the best of both worlds, and easy to explain web site name and a keyword rich domain name which the search engines like…. Hope this series has helped and you go forth and increase your google ranking |
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Domain Name resourcesRead Domain selection Part 1 |
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KeywordsHaving a keyword rich domain name can definitely assist in your ranking efforts, this will help in the linking back of anchor text to your web site. Unfortunately most of the keyword rich damain names have been taken, so that means you need to find an alternative keyword rich domain name or find a way to use your keywords whichst still making it easy for people to find you. In the previous post i mentioned hypenation, and how it makes it difficult to explain to a person your domain name as well as typing in the domain name… There is a method hypenation can be used and i will discuss this in an up coming post….A Keyword rich domain name can also help in getting multiple pages (the famous indent) in the google search engine results page thereby helping push down the competition. |
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Which Domain extensionMany web designers will recommend to a business to register a “.com” and a “.com.au”, however as Google uses geo location then if your server is bases in Australia then google will identify you as a person in Australia and looking for Australian results. When your website is on an Australian server then it does not matter if you use either “.com” or “.com.au”. It is misleading and false to tell businesses that you must register both domains. |
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Intellectual propertyIn rare cases you may want to register multiple variants of the domain name to prevent other businesses from piggy backing your success and good will, however initially registering multiple variants would not make sense as there is no track record or success and should your business thrive then you can the register the other domain variants. |
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Domain Name Resources |
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Learn the truth about web developers and what they will not tell you when you want to build a web site. Web developers have ulterior motives, other than just developing your web site. 1. Web Developers will not tell you that there’s a easy off-the-shelf solution available for a fraction of their cost. Why should they charge $900 when they can charge $7000, this is their bread and butter and you will not understand the off the shelf solution. Added to this many organisations believe they must pay a fortune for a good website, so why not cash in… Custom designed sofwtare has its place when new functionality is required and it is not available in the current suite of so9lutions, but for the most part off the shelf products will have all the functionality that you need. 2. Web developers are just web developers…. They have no understanding of marketing or how customers think. Web developers are very much engineering students who talk in milliAmps and logical gates, which mean nothing to normal people, but to them it is their life. Functionally, the website will perform but it will not take into account your potential customers shopping habits, it will not promote your brand or products and does nothing to create a upsell, or cross sell. 3. The web developer has a one track mind, he knows and understand one particular technology and will ignore all other technologies at your expense (this renforces point 4 below ). Example if the devloper does not like Microsoft he mat build a website just for firefox and ignore Internet Explorer. This will mean that you will miss out on 70% of your customers as the web site will not display correctly. 4. The programmer will use build you a web site which just suits your requirements knowing full well that you will need to call within 6 months for an upgrade. we all love repeat business and web developers are no different. As the old marketing adage goes.. it is easier to keep a customer than to get a new customer..They know you will quickly out grow your current solution so they will sometimes charge a lower initial cost to get that repeat business in(knowing full well they will call you very soon) 5. Website Designs by a programmer will lack any creative appeal, the web programmer simply does not have the skill set to create an aesthetic design. Sure the website design will be functional but will not convert..(see point 2) Websites today now need to look at return on investment, it is not just your brochure on the web and you need to accurately measure the number of visitors and the number of conversions. The great news is that all of these pitfalls can be avoided by seeking independent advice, canvassing all aspects of of website design, such as markettng, logo design, creative appeal, understanding your customer, and their requirements. | |
| Finishing off consider the following scenario which happened over 26 years ago when a fellow University student got a job to develop accounting software for a small to medium sized business. He got all the specifications, and completed the job over the weekend, Approached the company during the following week and informed them it would be $60 for the software.. The company informed him that they wanted a great piece of software and not just a hack.. My fellow student and colleague took the advice on board, and went back to the company in 4 weeks, not doing any more work and informed the company that the prices was now $400. They tested the software and it was what they wanted… Moral of the story, a great solution does not have to cost the earth, work with your website design company to get the solution you need. Aus eCom Connections has over 40 years of combined experience in website design, knows and understand business marketing and has creative souls to help appeal to your potential customers |
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Web Sites designed by Aus eCom Connections always are Search engine freindly, have the on page elements optimsed, so that your new website is a powerful lead generation and marketing tool designed to help reach a greater audience
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| When starting a new business there are a number of items, which the online entrepreneur must consider before they can actually start trading, one of these is the Domain Name selection. | |
BrandingSelecting your Domain is just as Important as selecting your Business name, and undoubtedly you will experience the same problems as selecting a business name. The domain name has been taken and registered by someone else or parked(bought and not being used). Should the selected domain name be parked then it will be possible to purchase the domain from the owner, depending on how valuable the domain is to both yourself and the owner then the price may be considerable and the best option would be to select a variant of the name. To determine the owner use www.mywebname.com.au/whois.php |
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Selecting alternative Domain nameAll is not lost and you can in most instances add a prefix to the domain name eg rather than register www.bluewidgets.com.au, you can select www.mybluewidgets.com.au, rather than selecting housecleaning.com.au select greenhousecleaning.com.au Domain Name HyphenationDo not be tempted to use hyphenation to separate out the words, as this firstly makes it difficult to explain to a potential customer your web address, next it is difficult to type in and lastly Google is able to separate out words even when they are concatenated together making it possible to identify keywords. Do not use underscore and never use spaces in web page names. |
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Domain Name Selection Resources |
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| Creative people live in a different world to most of us and their objective is to be creative, unfortunately being creative does not help your business grow or convert visitors to customers. A great web design does have creative elements to it and without the creative wed designer, you may as well be watching black and white television; however most important ly a great web design will meet the needs of your customers. 1. A great looking website is wonderful for those customers that know your web address (you have handed them your business card), however you want to attract new customer who do not know that you exist and a website which does not appear on page one of google is a waste of internet real estate space A website that looks beautiful without any call to action is like a salesman that does not close the sale and leave the customer hanging. Is there a logical progression to the sale / enquiry… 2. Inability to make changes. Some web designers design the site (similiar to programmers) so that you must call them to make even the simpliest of changes. Did you realise a good Content management system can reduce your cost in the long run, by allowing you to make changes without needing to call the web designer/programmer each and every time a change is required. A Good Content mamanagement system will allow the business owner to make changes without the need to become technical and reclaim the HTML. Many web site design companies will not like me publishing this information but you the business owner need to know the truth. 3. Use of Google unfriendly CMS systems, if your web designer has installed a Content management system for you, this can mean bad news for you if they have installed a google unfriendly CMS system. One client recently showed me a website designed with a CMS system and wanted to know why google only had indexed one page of content and he had over 14 web pages.. My investigation revealed that the website indead only had one page and the CMS system made it appear a 14 pages. Make sure the CMS is Google Friendly. Aus eCom Connections only use Goolge friendly CMS systems.. 4. Web designers may know how to create a beautiful logo, create a lovely brochure, but they know nothing about besigning for the web, even if you are patient and they learn Dreamweaver, they still will not understand about Optimisation foir the web. The tootls they use are not search engine friendly. Only when you have a team consisting of website designers, Internet marketing experts, Graphic designers, and seo guru’s can you get the best of all the disciplines. 5. Many Creative web design people love to use flash and other animation software, that make the web site very pretty, however websites designed with flash are not search engine friendly. In fact google only in the last couple of months has patented technologies to allow it to understand some of the flash, but still flash web sites are still Search engine Unfriendly… Overall this means a flash website will not appear in the Google Search engine results page. Do no spend several thousand dollars on a good looking lemon which your customers cannot find. 6. Useless Spash pages…Nobody likes a spash page, most users will quickly hit the back button, splash pages take too long to load and people simply do not want to wait for the web page to load.. even if the web page has a skip intro button. 7. Frames are a means to keep the menu items fixed and loading the content into a central frame if your web designer takes this approach you can be sure that your customers will not find your business and you will not appear on the fron page of Google. 8. Unfortuantely many web designers and creative designers are more interested in winning awards, however these awards will not help your business grow and will do nothing to ensure your website gets the correct internet exposure. Ask the creative Web designer what their keywords are and how do they rank in the Google SERPS. Combine the best of both words and achieve a great google result with a beautifully designed site that converts.. 9. Work Load priotisation, Many Creative web site designers will be best of friends when they first meet you, but should a design competition come up during your project; it is highly likely your project will take a back seat while they work on the competition. In the mean time, you are losing business and money as you still have no website. |
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| Web Sites designed by Aus eCom Connections always are Search engine freindly, have the on page elements optimsed, so that your new website is a powerful lead generation and marketing tool designed to help reach a greater audience
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