Do you want to be on the web?

Few will have missed the transition of the dot-coms to dot-bombs. But it would be foolish to think that the web is a spent force. What we have seen is the rise and fall of internet companies who believed that they had found new business models which would revolutionise the world. Nevertheless, five years from now there will be few companies who don't use the internet for a significant portion of their operations. If you are one of those companies who have held back, then these articles are for you. They explain the reasons why you should be getting web-wise and the simple steps you can take to move your company forward.

In this first article, I will look at building the simplest type of site of all, the "online corporate brochure". In other words, you currently have some "glossy" marketing material that you post to clients when requested. This used to work, but now clients are more impatient and frequently ask you why the information isn't on your website. You therefore decide that you want to be online with a site that simply reproduces and extends your current marketing material. What do you need to do? Several issues need to be addressed.

Choosing a website name: This is not a trivial issue, because your preferred name may either be unavailable or inappropriate. Say, for example, that you trade as Smiths of Worcester and that you are in the tool-hire business. You go to a name registration service and type in "smiths". It turns out, unsurprisingly, that www.smiths.com and www.smiths.co.uk have gone, leaving you with the rather less stylish www.smiths.eu.com. Though this will still work, it is harder for the public to remember – which means any advertising you do on the sides of your vehicles and elsewhere will bring less response.

"smithsofworcester"
You then decide to try "smithsofworcester". Here you have no competition, and both www.SmithsofWorcester.com and the "co.uk" version are available. Note that you can advertise a web address using capital letters, but there is no difference between an address using capitals and one entirely in lower case. Of course, this name is far less effective than simply www.Smiths.com, because it is longer to type in, leaving more room for error. You look around for another approach.

As you are in the tool-hire business you realise that you may get marketing advantage from a name like www.toolhire.com. After all, B&Q seem happy to use www.diy.co.uk. Unsurprisingly, this has gone, but as you trade in the South-west you find that www.SWToolhire.com is available. You decide to use this. You note that some companies are even changing their trading name so that they have a more attractive web address.

Hosting for your website: All websites sit on a computer "server" which is permanently connected to the internet. As this means that it has to be properly protected ("firewalled") from attack, most companies use a third party specialist hosting company rather than connecting one of their own internal computers. Hosting need not be expensive, however – as you can use a service based anywhere in the world, there is intense competition. Typically you will pay between £50 and £75 for a package that includes registration of your name and hosting of your website.

Your payment will usually cover you for two years and will provide everything you need to have for your website – except for the website pages themselves, of course (see below). With so many vendors out there, distinguishing a good hosting service from an indifferent one can be difficult. Most internet magazines do regular reviews, however, and it is quite easy to move to a different hosting service if your supplier does a poor job (i.e. if your site is off the air or is always slow to download).

Website design has become almost a commodity service and competition is fierce

Authoring your website: This is where significant sums of time and money can be wasted if you are not careful. For a simple site you really have three choices. You could prepare your pages from scratch in-house; you could buy a "template" package that already has the general structure you need; or you could employ a web design company.

Designing your website in-house. There are many website design packages available which you could use to design your site from the ground up. The best known of these are probably Microsoft's FrontPage and Macromedia's Dreamweaver. This makes in-house design inexpensive (though remember that software and training can soon add up). If you have talented staff, and you can spare them from their normal duties, this may be the route for you. For many companies this is not an option, however.

Using a website template: Template software provides all of the main structure you need for a website, such as the "navigation" (ready-made menus that link the different areas of the site). You then add words and pictures specific to your company. Template sites like Actinic's Catalog (www.actinic.com) are widely used by small traders as they provide features such as a product catalogue, an electronic shopping cart, encrypted security, and online order processing which non-specialists find difficult to design in-house.

Products like Actinic are very powerful, and they can be quite easy to learn. Nevertheless, there are disadvantages. The underlying template can lead to inflexibility in how your site operates compared with a site designed specifically to your needs. There can also be performance penalties; it can be slow.

Web designers
Using a web design company: Website design has become almost a commodity service and competition is fierce. You should be able to have a simple, good quality site designed at a competitive price – typically from £400 for a site of up to ten pages. Of course, if you wish to make an impression you can spend fifty times that sum with a top design company. Your costs will also depend upon how clear a vision you have. Don't expect designers to quote you a competitive price if you then need them to sit in on your endless internal company meetings about the site.

Promoting your site: The internet has more pages than there are people on the planet. Do not expect the world to come rushing to your door simply because you are now online. Firstly, add your website address in prominent positions to all of your marketing material, your letterheads, business cards and vehicles. Search engines (www.google.com, www.yahoo.co.uk, www.excite.com, www.altavista.com) need to be told about your site (look for the link on the search engine sites called "add your URL"). Before you do this, however, find out about adding "metadata" to your site – the hidden keywords that describe the important things about your business and enable prospective customers to find you..