My daughter and I are total meme geeks and one of our favorites has always been the “starter pack.” If you’re not familiar with them I highly recommend you check them out as they are hilarious. The starter pack meme is usually a series of images that collaboratively represent a type of person or character but with less then complimentary intentions. Anyway, I had an old friend ask me about starting a new website for his wife who had recently lost her job and was opening up her own private practice. It made me think about how I really don’t have a starter pack for new business owners. I’m not going to get into extreme details but instead I thought that providing some basic insight on setting up a website as, in my humble opinion, it is the most effective way to get a business going and start generating revenue.
Local Online Marketing and Website Design in Kansas City, MO
Get a good name for your business. I’ve worked with countless businesses over the years that have the weirdest names and honestly it takes more work to effectively market them. My advise is to pick a name that has at least little bit to do with what your business actually does. Made up words that don’t make sense to people likely won’t make sense to the search engines either unless you pound brand based content repeatedly when you could be spending your online marketing time more productively like pushing keywords related to what your business does.
Get a good domain name (that isn’t too long). When my clients ask me to research domain names I tend to look for ones that contain what they do and where they do it. For instance, one of my clients recently added a new location in North Kansas City and wanted me to put a website together specifically for that location. He owns multiple smoke and vape shops but this location is the first in what KC people call the “Northland.” I ended up picking SmokeShopNorthKC.com as it not only is one of the main keywords (smoke shop) we will be going after with our SEO services but also where we will be pushing those keywords (in North KC). Don’t bang your head against the wall trying to find a domain name that does the SEO for you because you’ll never find it but do your best to pick one that makes sense, is short and to the point, and most importantly one that is easy to remember.
Get good hosting. If want to build a website, you’ll need a place to host it. Hosting is essentially renting space on someone’s server for the files that make up your website. Ideally you should host your website where you buy your domain name but it isn’t absolutely necessary. Check out the reviews on the hosting company because most of them suck to say the least. No offense but GoDaddy really sucks. I’ve had to deal with them for years and each time it’s a struggle to refrain from yelling and screaming at them. Plus, they like to nickle and dime your for every little thing which is just silly. Web Force KC can provide hosting and website security through our partnership with Just Host. We’ve worked with them for years and have never had any major problems especially when it comes to their support which is exceptional. The downtime is minimal which means that our clients’ websites rarely, if ever, are “down for maintenance” which is a good thing.
Have a professional write your website content. Nothing is worse than having terribly written content on a website. First, your potential customers can get annoyed really quick if your content is poor quality and end up bouncing off of your site to one of your competitors. Second, the search engines like rich, unique content that makes it crystal clear who you are, what you do, and where you do it. Content writers usually aren’t cheap but they do provide an invaluable service that make businesses money.
Have good images. If you aren’t a photographer, no worries, you’re not alone. I’m by no means a great photographer and neither are most of my clients even though we have increasingly more powerful cameras on our phones. I’ve had clients that have held contests with their employees to take pictures which worked out pretty well but in the end nothing beats a professional photographer. There are many websites that offer free image downloads for any type of use including commercial use. DON’T USE PICTURES THAT AREN’T YOURS! Copyright infringement is real and can cost you a ton of money. (Trust us, we’re currently in the middle of suing a local business for stealing our images and content). We recommend checking out Unsplash.com for tons of great free images. In fact, we used UnSplash images for the blog you are currently reading and we think they look pretty damn good. You may not find exactly what you are looking for there but you can at the very least get some good ideas. If all else fails, go buy some stock photos.
Lastly, make sure your website makes sense. A website should allow users to get the information they need or get in contact with you quickly and easily otherwise they’ll go somewhere else. I can’t tell you how many times a website (or more specifically a web designer) over-complicated thing when the business offered a pretty simple service or product but made it almost impossible to actually get info, make a purchase, or get in contact with the company. Clean, simple, and user friendly always works.
At Web Force KC, our goal is and always has been to help our clients navigate the ever-changing world of the internet while helping them grow their business as well. Our common sense approach to web design, content creation and website hosting/security allows our clients to focus on running their business instead of worrying about the web.
Call Web Force KC at (816) 462-9128 for local web design, SEO, and online marketing in Kansas City.
