“So what do I need to do if I want to get started?” is a question I’ve been asked many times over ever since starting Get Online Store. So I thought I’d write a blog post about a few pointers and tips for anyone out there who is thinking of starting a business online or just adding a website to their business. Here are a few to start with:
Domain Name
First and foremost, selecting and registering an ideal domain name is important. Does the name support your business objectives? Will it create easy to remember email addresses? Are there any spelling issues or concerns? Is it too similar to a competitor? Should I get .com.au and .com etc. is just a few of the questions which will come to mind. So if you’re stuck and need a hand or some advice, feel free to contact the team at Get Online Store for some advice.
Branding
Branding is one of the most important aspects of any business, large or small, retail or wholesale. Your business brand is who you are, who you want to me and who people think you are. We strongly encourage you to have a think about how you want other people to see your business, how do you want to measure up to your competitors and what can you do to make that happen. Our recommendation is to invest in a professionally designed logo for your website as that will enable you to stand out from the crowd.
Layout and Design of your Website
All of our websites are purpose built with a visual design to captivate the audience. We’re in the business of websites so we understand what you need and we can predict what your customers will want to see from your website in order to make their online experience as pleasant as possible. Having developed hundreds of websites across a huge variety of business types, we know what to do to get you a design that is appealing, functional, innovative and interesting to really impress your stakeholders.
Website Content
What does your website really say? Is your content cleverly written and able to engage your readers? Or is it confusing, full of grammatical errors and not really portraying the right image for our business? To convert your visitors to sales, you really do need to have content that keeps people well informed as well as being interesting and refreshing. We can assist you by editing and revising your content, proof reading or writing brand new content specific to your business needs.
Content Management System (CMS)
Your website should be a one off investment, sure you may want to add little tweaks here and there and pay the odd dollars but you should not be paying money time and time again to do basic things like updating pictures and contents. You should have a CMS system for that kind of thing, with the right CMS you will be able to edit and update majority of changes yourself on a daily basis if you wish. We have a specific custom built CMS for owners of Online Stores which is easy to use, effective and free.
Hosting
Hosting is very important especially if you have an Online Store and rely on your website as a source of income. Sure you can get cheap hosting for as little as $5 a month but know that you will be sharing the server (most likely located overseas) with hundreds of other websites so you will face issues of congestion (slowness), storage limitations, higher chances of server downtime and of course no support in the event of an issue. Get Online Store offers hosting to their customers on an Australian based dedicated server with 24/7 support.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
SEO will help people know your website exists, they find you through various search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing etc. SEO can also help your website climb the ranks so you appear sooner when people search for you. We can help you design a SEO plan so your website will reach more people, sooner and convert to sales in the long term.
Advertising & Analytics
Our customers are always curious to know how many people have visited their website, did they convert into a sale, what pages they visited etc. This is all information we can provide for you and having this useful information we can then help you improve your website to ensure you see more visits convert to sales and your most visited pages are the ones which really market your business.