As a person working every day on Web related matters, I am used to a whole bunch of abbreviations, buzz-words and other technical terms. When I look at companies working in the same field as me I can see that they fully embrace this jargon on their website and their offers.

What is clear to me though is that my customers more often than not are not used to this terminology. Sure, they have heard about some of the words many times but they often don’t understand what it is all about – and why it is important.

I am usually successful at explaining this in simple terms to my customers so I thought an article would be a good idea to help a broader range of people.

What can you do with a website

If you are a business owner you have probably heard many times that “you need a website”. In most cases this is true and here is why:

With a website you can:

• make it easier for people to find and contact you
• explain what you do
• show what you do
• provide relevant information to your potential and existing customers
• show off your expertise
• build trust without even meeting people…

More could be added. Notice how your website can be as simple as just providing contact details and how, if used effectively, it can help you getting more business and build trust.

You need to consider this.

The difference between a simple website and a more advanced one can be seen looking at the following details:

• Aesthetic. It is always considered by someone who wants a new website. A good looking website goes a long way to say that a company is professional and “big” or not. The problem here is to define what “looks good”. Often, people want fancy graphics and animations to look impressive. This usually doesn’t help. What you really want is your design to be accessible and usable.
• Accessibility: means that the website can be seen by the broadest audience possible. For example a website build entirely on a technology called “flash” can have lot of effects and animation but cannot be seen by anyone with an iPhone or Blackberry. (this is not 100% true as some designers have workarounds but it mainly is). Make sure you check if your website can be navigated by people with visual impairment etc…
• Usability: for a user, it is (very) basically how easy it is to find what they are looking for and do what they want on the website. This is often underestimated and should be more important than aesthetic in most cases.
• The content: the text, images, videos or whatever on the website. This is the most important part of your website. And guess what: very often it is your responsibility to fill it in. Without content your website is useless. You have to take the time to write for it or get someone to do so. If your designer is a web marketing expert he will be able to help you to get started. Alternatively, find a good copy writer.
• Interactivity: what visitors can do on your website. This is ok to have text and images – but in some instances it is even better if visitors can leave messages, share pages, filter the content…

Technical terms you need to know

More words you need to know before choosing a website:

• Domain name: this is the address at which your website will be available. For instance the domain name for Actin Web is: actinweb.com. The domain needs to be registered – it is not complicated and many companies will do it for you. The on-going cost varies but are usually not far of £10 / year. With a domain, you have your own name on the Internet and you can use it for your e-mails and website. For the website though, you need some kind of hosting.
• Hosting: How do you think your website if made available to the world? Well the files are kept somewhere in the world on a server which is always connected to the internet. A server is basically a computer designed to stay always on (I’m simplifying obviously). This is another ongoing cost. The more visits you get on your website and the more you have to pay. For any new business, a £50 / year hosting should do. Big websites can pay hundreds of £ / month for hosting.
• Search engine friendly / search engine optimized: Basically means that the website is made so that the search engines (let’s say Google) can “see” the content of your website correctly. It does not mean that you re going to be on the first page of Google (more on that on my next article).

Choosing the right package?

We don’t offer packages at Actin Web but a lot of companies do. So how do you go about selecting the right package with a web design company?

Very often the offers look like this:

• Option 1: Up to 5 pages with free domain and free hosting £ xx
• Option 2: Same as option1 but up to 10 pages, free logo and search engine friendly £ xxx
• Option 3: Same as option 2 but with unlimited pages and editable content (content management system) £ xxxx
• Option 4: e-commerce website with unlimited products: £ xxxxx

So let’s have a look!

• Option 1: Free domain and hosting will almost always be for one year only. You will have to pay after. Make sure you know how much and check if it is reasonable (potential catch here). You will have a few pages to play with so you won’t be able to do much with it. Typically it will be Home / About / Products / Contact i.e. basic pages. As it is a starter pack the design will usually be pretty basic. This is fine if you don’t expect much from your website. With this type of website you will have to pay your designer every time you want to change anything to it.
• Option 2: You can start to put more information, product information into your website. As you do so, the necessity to update the information over time becomes greater – and again you will have to pay your designer for any change. Offer for free logo or free whatever can be convenient – just remember that it will be very basic.
• Option 3: You can create pages, edit / add text and photos. But you are not a designer! How does it work then? Well the main design stays the same but you can login into your website and have access to the text only and make changes – a bit in the same way than you would edit text on Microsoft Word for instance. To see this type of website in action, have a look at this video.
• Option 4: If you want a shop it will cost you more – because shops are more complex by their nature. There is a lot to take in account here. Unlimited products and pages can be done by any on-line shop but you need to consider a lot more such as: what product options do you want, how are you going to ship your items, how will payment be processed… This is a huge topic and I should write an article about it later.

Extras

Often you will be offered extras such as a contact form, website analytics, “Facebook integration”… All of these extras can easily be added by any designer so it’s not a big deal. In fact, most designer (like us) will add it to the website anyway. It is only important that you know what it is so that you ask for it if you need it – so here we go:

• A contact form: Look on the top of our right column: this is a contact form. Visitors can send a message directly from the website – it is faster than collecting the e-mail address and reaching an e-mail program. However some people don’t like it and will always prefer to write an e-mail. Either way, it is always convenient to have a contact form on your website.
• Website analytics: very important for web marketing (more on this later) I would definitely recommend this as it should be free anyway.
• Facebook / Twitter integration: all for social media content to be displayed on your website. This is a must have if you plan to be active on social media platforms. If you don’t have time then don’t bother, it will only waste space.
• A blog: a great tool for web marketing but takes a lot of time. Before going for a blog make sure you plan to use it seriously – you need to keep at it and it takes time.
• Support and updates: Depending on how much you plan to update your website, this can offer you some peace of mind but make sure you use it a lot. More often then not, you won’t request any change… but you will keep paying every month.
• Free e-mails: It is good to have e-mail addresses with your domain name and it is free and easy to create e-mail addresses once the domain and hosting are sorted. The setup can take longer though (setup with outlook for instance) so make sure you know what is included and how you can access your e-mails.

At Actin Web, our aim is to provide everything you need to get started on-line and that include unlimited pages, the ability for you to edit the content and all the “extras” you need. If you need some advice please get in touch!

Now that you’ve got your website…

It is time to show it to the world! But how? How do you get visitors? How do you get to the top of Google? That will be the subject of our next article: Web Marketing in plain English.