What Should I look for when Buying a Website?
- How well the site is indexed by search engines and how many key phrases used by search engines are found in this website.
- If search engines visit regularly and how many people find the site through search engine results – this will show how search engine friendly the site is.
- Are the visitors buying. If the website is making good money then this will be reflected in the purchase price. A good rule of thumb is “if it’s going cheap there is usually a good reason”.
I plan to start a business next year; when should I think about a website?
ASAP! The sooner you buy a domain name the better. With a domain name you can start to use your own email address, nothing puts off prospective clients more than a hotmail or yahoo email. Using your ISP’s email address can also be a big mistake as if in the future (due to the competitive pricing) you wish to change ISP you do not want to have to re-market a new email address. Even if you just buy your domain name and park it (not use it) it will mature and search engines will take it more seriously when you do build your website. I often suggest clients buy at least 2 domain names, one the business name and one or more that have important keywords for their business type, eg: www.catbyhotel.com and QualityAccomodationNearCatbyMountainSkield.com no-one will ever use the long domain name, but search engines will certainly rank it much higher for search phrases using some of those keywords in it.
Can I just have a domain name email address without a website?
Definitely! Or for a small investment you could have a ‘business card’ website. This would be a page listing your company logo, slogan, a couple of sentences about your business and your contact details. You would also have 3 domain email addresses. This option could cost you as little as $60 to build the page and $50 per year for hosting.
Is there ever a time when a website would not be useful to my business?
Yes. If you are looking for a quick dollar with minimal investment then, like any business, a website will not reap rewards. A business website is like any other business, expect to put a lot of work into making it special.
The most you could realistically get for your $1,000 is a small website (which would cut your print advertising requirements significantly). In your print advertising, instead of outlining all your services, simply add your URL to the advert and guide prospects to your site with a promise that will encourage them to look it up.
Lynn, the people person at www.CanzDesign.com for professional websites
