Types of Website
Some questions to think about:
- Do I expect my product or service to be bought by people who who have never heard of me before? if so, your site needs to be well optimised and attention grabbing so people find it and stay on it. Not all types of business work this way - some sell better by personal contact, in which case you will still need a 'phone book' site as we call it.
- Is my website just a supporting act in my marketing campaign? it's not your main route to market but you still need it to provide supporting collateral to people you have contacted by networking, telemarketing or direct mail. If so, it needs to look professional and but it may not need so much optimisation. You'll want Content Management though.
- Is it a 'phone book' site, a fairly simple site whose main purpose is to get found by people who can remember your name but not your phone number or email address. This simpler site still needs to look good and get it definitely needs to be optimised to get found by the Search Engines
- Do I have something I can sell online? Imagine what life would be like if orders came in overnight every night and you never had unpaid invoices to chase! A daydream perhaps, but established businesses often find an online store generates a low overhead business from places they'd never reach any other way.
You can choose from a range of website options which can be tailored to suit your business needs:
Static Site: an online brochure, anything from 3 pages upwards. We wouldn't recommend fewer pages because the search engines will disregard a one or two page site. There's usually a 'home' page at the start to introduce your business and a 'contact' page at the end with the detail of how to contact you, and as many pages as you need to describe your product or service in between. Calling this a static site is a bit of a misnomer because you'll need to update it from time to time to keep it current. We can do this as part of our service, or you can do it yourself with a Content Management System.
E-commerce Site: this is a database driven store to cope with a large number of products, often sorted into many different catergories. The store will have a payment gateway to collect from credit and debit cards. Using a database also gives the user a search facility, and simplifies the management of large numbers of products.
Some other options for you to consider:
- Online catalogue your product may not lend itself to online sales and postal delivery but you still want an up to date list of the items available. We can provide a database driven catalogue, which is basically an online store without the payment gateway.
- Photo gallery maybe you want to show some photos of examples of your products in use. A gallery displays a page showing many small thumbnail views. When you click on the thumbnails an enlargement pops up.
- Newsletter sign-up lets people add their name and email address to a mailing list so that you can keep them up to date with a newsletter. - a great way of building a relationship with potential customers
- Booking System We have ready made solutions for hair and beauty salons, healthcare practitioners, holiday accommodation and restaurants. These can be customised to suit many other types of appointment-driven businesses
As you can see there are options to choose from. We'd really like to help you decide which ones could help your business, so please call us today on 023 80 283452 or email us via our contact page for web advice that you can understand.