Creating A Web Presence 101
Author: Kay Huna
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Are you a small business owner looking to create an online presence? Maybe you own a florist shop, an office supplies store, or work as a freelance photographer from home? Whatever type of business you have, if you have been wondering how you can use the Internet to augment your business presence and attract more clients, then peruse through this article before you go out and spend money on a website designer to put together a site for you.
Whilst it may not be your core business, it’s worthwhile to educate yourself a little bit first before you invest any $$. This article will provide you with a foundation of web marketing before you hire someone to put together a website for you so that you are not flying blind. It will also educate you about some things you can do yourself, which you may take the option to do by yourself and save you the cost of hiring someone else.
A Word About Blogs
If you have the inclination to provide regular updates and news pertaining to your business, you might consider setting up a blog in lieu of a website. A blog works like a diary, and each entry has a date and time stamp. Here is a blog about finance as an example. Note the time and date stamped posts and the optional web page peel ad in the top right hand corner. You don’t need to have any knowledge of html or programming to use a blog. Once your blog is installed, you just login to a control panel interface, write out what you want to say into a box, and click the publish button.
Blogs are also very easy to setup. You might even try your hand at creating one yourself. You can get very affordable cPanel webhosting nowadays starting from $4.95 per month. cPanel webhosting comes with a system called Fantastico, which allows you to setup a blog with a few clicks of a mouse. A good webhosting company should be able to help you setup your blog as well, even if you are a novice. After all, they want your business.
Web 2.0 Content Sites
An alternative method to spread the word about your business without the need to create a website, is to put together a free page on one of the many Web 2.0 content sites such as Hubpages.com and Squidoo.com. The following is an example Squidoo lens review of Success University. These are even more simple to get going compared to a blog because they don’t require any technical knowledge whatsoever, leaving you to focus on your content and saying what you want to say to your target audience. Pages on Web 2.0 content sites also frequently appear very high in the search engine results pages, enhancing even further the means by which greater numbers of people can discover your business and what you have to offer.
Social Networking Websites
Facebook, Linked In and MySpace are probably the three most popular social networking sites. As with Hubpages.com and Squidoo.com, social networking sites also work on pre-defined templates and styles, removing the need to have any knowledge of html and allowing you to save the funds you would have otherwise spent on a website designer and invest that elsewhere.
Search Engine Optimization
Having now installed either a blog, or setup a Social Networking or Web2.0 page, the next thing is to make sure that your page obtains a high profile in the search engine results, thereby delivering more traffic and awareness of your business. This is where SEO, short for Search Engine Optimization, comes in. Don’t be scared! You can get a handle on search engine optimization by borrowing a book from your local public library or spending a bit of time researching it on the web. There are a tonne of free websites containing search engine optimization information, as well as paid membership sites like Portal Feeder that can assign a mentor to you to assist you with your search engine optimization knowledge and site creation endeavours. There are some really simple things you can do that will heighten the profile of your website and drive traffic to it.
web design
December 3rd, 2008 at 8:22 am
How you think when the economic crisis will end? I wish to make statistics of independent opinions!