Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Finding the right Web Site Developer

Now that you have decided how you want your web site to look, feel and act, how do you find the person or company who is going to build the site?
What should you look for? Should you build it yourself or let your cousin Vinnie build it on summer vacation? Should you turn control over to a large full service web site development agency or use a small local firm? What are my options?

If you decide to build the site yourself there are some good tools available to build your own web site. Microsoft Front Page, Site Builder from Yahoo or WordPress are a few good options. But this still leaves multiple questions including:
• Is My Domain Name available?
• How do I find out if it is available?
• How do I register the Domain name if it is available?
• Who should I have host the web site?
• How will I optimize for the Search Engines?
o What techniques will I use?
o What Social Media Sites should I use?
o How do I link to my web site from Social Media Sites
o How do I register my business with Google places?

If you are comfortable with your answers to all these questions than you are ready to move ahead with building your web site. If not then you may want to seek out a reliable web site developer. How do you decide who to use? There are thousands of web site development companies in whatever city you live in. Do you want someone local that you have easy access to? Does access matter to you? I have worked with small to medium sized businesses all across the country and this leads me to the more local approach. There are many questions that need to be answered. I have found that in the beginning having access to the company building your site is crucial. I want someone who will respond to questions, look at ideas, and explain timetables and where they are in the process. I want to understand where my money is being spent before it is spent. I want some control. I want to own my Domain Name. I want the hosting site to be in my business name. Finding a web site development company that will provide all this can seem like a daunting task. But it does not have to be. Search the internet for web site developers. Look for ones that have reviews. Look for developers that are experts in SEO and Social Media. Look for developers who have the ability to build a functional site or a very creative site.

Building and maintaining your web site, is one of most important decisions you will make for your business. The next step is how to promote the site after you build it.


Cush Media, www.cushmediaonline.com is a full service on-line marketing company. We specialize in web site development, SEO, SEM, Social Media, Behavioral Targeting and Tracking through on-line analytics.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Frist Steps in developing your web presence

The first steps in developing your web presence are to decide the purpose, content and structure of your web site. Will your site be very informative about your different products and services or will you give just enough information to get the searcher to call you? Will your site be very straight forward and functional or will your site have lots of graphics, video and pictures? Will it be an e-commerce site, or will it be designed to drive traffic to your store or business? Do you want people to call you, send an e-mail or fill out a form to request more information? How many pages will your site be? Will you include your hours of operation? Will you have links to affiliate web sites or just detail your affiliation? Do you have a Logo that will be included? What will be the colors of your site? Do you want to build the site yourself, have your nephew build it in his spare time or hire an expert to develop the site? Will you use a template program?

All of these questions should be answered before you move to the next step of having your site built.

Cush Media, www.cushmediaonline.com is a full service on-line marketing company. We specialize in web site development, SEO, SEM, Social Media, Behavioral Targeting and Tracking through on-line analytics.