Six Easy Steps to get your Business Online

Step 1 - Stop Procrastinating - Make the Decision Now!
Not having a website is like not having a listing in your local Yellow Pages. If you are marketing a product or service and you are not advertising where your competition is, you will find yourself left behind. So make the decision now to get your business online! It is not as hard as you may think.

Step 2 – Choose a Web Developer
A good web developer will be the key in making your online presence a success. Choose a developer who can provide you with client testimonials and examples of their work. Your web developer should be able to help and advise you through all the phases of your web development.

Step 3 - Determine what you want your website to do
In conjunction with your web developer and taking into consideration your type of business, determine what you would like to achieve from your website. For example, do you want to:
• Communicate with customers
• Provide information about existing products and services
• Sell products via the website (e-commerce)
• Develop your customer base locally, nationally and overseas
• A tool to promote customer retention such as customer loyalty schemes or e-newsletters.

Step 4 – Choose Your Domain Name
A domain name is your own unique identity and should be easy to remember and relevant to your business. Key points to remember when considering a domain name are:• Size - The smaller the better. • Easy to remember - avoid the use of unusual or long words• Related to your business - It is not always possible but if you can get your domain name exactly as your business name that would be the best case scenario, for example www.mycompany.com.au. Your web developer will be able to determine the availability of a domain name and register your domain name on your behalf.

Step 5 - Plan Your Content
Keeping in mind the objectives of your website as determined in Step 3 , decide and plan how many pages you will need and what these pages should contain, including any interactivity you may require such as contact forms or e-commerce. Source suitable images for your site or your web developer may be able to provide generic images for use on your site. Throughout this planning phase a good web developer will work with you to help and advise on your content. But remember – a website is always a work in progress and changes can be made at any time - that is the beauty of the web!

Step 6 - Approve and Go Live!
At this stage your web developer will put together a design concept for you and present the site to you via a testing server, including all the content you have developed in Step 5. Once final approval on design and content has been approved by you, the client, your web developer will make the site live and accessible on the world wide web.