Saturday, 26 November 2011

Building Your Own Small Business Website.

By Martin Harrow


Getting a small business website built for you needn't break the bank and is likely to pay for itself through the new sales it generates. The thought that you could build your own website may have crossed your mind but you may not sure if it would be cost effective or not. Take a look at the following considerations. Primarily, do you have the spare time to devote to building a website? and secondly, what do you want your website to accomplish for you?

You can learn how to design and build a basic website for yourself. That is not to say that web design is not a massively in depth subject requiring training and talent, however with some study and application you can achieve adequate results at a basic level.

To be good at creating your own website you should be the kind of person who can pick things up fairly fast and also be adept at understanding new systems, these are often skills found in people that own and run their own business. You should acquire a few essential skills before you start off, including CSS, HTML and basic web design and layout.

So, back to our initial question. Do you really have enough time to study and implement these skills?

Possibly you have had enough of working for others and plan on creating your own business, so you are happy to invest time into this project. Have a look online, where you will find a load of resources available to help you, purchase an up to date 'Build Your Own Website' book, take a look at some tutorial sites. There are plenty of routes for learning and almost all of them will lead you in the right direction.

You may however be thinking about this option from a completely different situation. Perhaps however you are already struggling to manage your existing workload. If this is the case, building your own business website is not likely to be the best path for you as insufficient input is likely to result in a website that does not do your business any justice.

Secondly, you need to ask yourself. What do you want your website to achieve for you? You should also consider where your niche within the market sits. Take a look at some of your direct competitors websites.

If you are wanting your website to provide a basic web presence with your contact details, enabling potential customers in your local area to find and contact you. A small site coming up in the search engine results may be all you want. A basic website to fulfil this need is entirely achievable.

The type of business you are in however may need something more professional. In which case a basic site may not give your clients the right first impression of your business. Enter some search terms pertinent to your business into Google. What type of quality site do your direct competitors have? You may decide that your competitors sites are of a high standard and the best option for your business is to hire a professional to design and build your site.

So, to summarise; If you have the time required to learn the new skills you will need and subsequently build a site of a high enough standard for your business, then go for it! but if not, then youshould hire a professional. Remember, building your website is just the beginning, you will have wasted your time if people are unable to find it on Google. For your website to be productive and useful to your business, you need it to reach high in the search engine rankings.

If you are a small business owner and you don't have some sort of web presence to promote it then you are missing out on crucial potential customers and sales. Whilst it may not be beyond the realms of possibility to build your own business website, you need to carefully weigh up whether or not you have the the spare time to learn the new skills necessary and if you will be able to produce a site of adequate quality to meet your needs.




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