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An Entrepreneur's Guide to How to Make a Website

This article is a guide to how to make a website when you are starting a business. It isn't a 'how to program guide'. It's aimed at Entrepreneurs who want to run a business that has a website.

The world and its dog have a website and so should you. A well designed web site will sell your products and services for you and give you access to global markets. The internet has made the world a very small place. It is a very powerful tool that when used correctly will drive customers to your door. Before you leap in and choose a color scheme and a nice font you need to plan.

What do they say - 'Fail to plan, plan to fail'? If you plan things out you will get a better result and you will be able to ensure that you get what you want so let's get started.

1. What are you going to sell? What are the services and products that you want customers to see? Imagine your shop window - what does it have in it? Remember - your not the web designer - how this is presented on the web is the web designers problem. Spend time thinking this out, and write it down. Come back to it and refine it.

2. How do you want to be contacted? Your website is going to generate interest among your prospective customers and they will want to know how to contact you to buy your products and services. Remember - websites are available 24-7. They don't open at 9am and close at 5pm with an hour for lunch. Also websites are global; they are available to a worldwide audience. The telephone may not be appropriate unless you have a 24hr answering service. Think it out - you need to match your customer's expectations.

3. Search the web - Your products and services are probably not unique. Aspects may be unique but you probably have competition, so search on the web for the services and products you are going to offer. Take a look at the sites that come out in the top positions. Are they what you expected? If not, try another search. If they are, visit a couple of sites and view their source by right clicking with your mouse, and select 'view source'. Search in the source for the word 'keywords', this is called a META TAG. Look at the words in the list, as these are the words that your competition is using to be found. Make a note of them, as they may well be the words you will need too.

4. Search Keywords - Remember a Search Engine like Google is a computer program, although it's sophisticated it isn't human. It looks for words that match your customers search keywords. If you don't use the words your customers use - you will not be found. Getting this right at the outset is a big boost.

5. Create Sections - When you searched for your competitors you may not have landed on their homepage. A website can and will have many pages full of content. The more relevant content a website has, the more opportunities it has to be found. Think about your products and services and how you should organize them. Split them into sections and subsections. Each section can have its own web page. This is important because each web page has its own title, description, keywords and content. Search engines like Google index pages based on there content. A good keyword rich title is a must.

6. Keyword Tool - Type 'keyword tool' into Google and pick a keyword suggestion tool. This will help you to find the most popular search keywords and search terms that you should be using. For each section that you created, work out a title of no more than 60 characters, and description of no more that 150 characters and a list of keywords. Note them all down.

7. Write a Requirements Document - Take all the information you have gathered above, and put it in a requirements document. You now have a document that a web designer can use to create you a great site.

Picking a domain name and color schemes, fonts and logo are very important - but they are not the place to start. Knowing how to make a website is all you need to know as an Entrepreneur, you don't need to be technical you just need to know what you want - and you do.

Article Source: http://www.dummiesguideto.com

Stuart Anthony Atkinson www.duprez.co.uk Cost effective online marketing and PR services, Search Engine Marketing - SEM and Search Engine Optimization - SEO. Increase site visitors and grow your business. Visit our website for more information.

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