Whether you are building your own website or using a professional to design your business website, you need to understand effective copy, CTAs (Call To Actions), clear navigation, good use of visuals, etc.

1. Nancy Leve, Owner/Partner
Virtual Fundamentals
954-562-5951

2. Internet Impact
 Over 2 billion users worldwide
 350 million websites
 196 million .com domain names in 2010 (Wikipedia)
As necessary for a business as having a phone

3. Why a Website
 Your online identity
 Like Yellow pages in the past
 customer has a problem and wants it fixed
 To provide lots of information
 To serve your customers
 Inexpensive but powerful sales & communication tool
 Always accessible
 No weather, geography or store closing restrictions

4. Step One: Domain name
 URL: Uniform resource locator (address)
 http://www.VirtualFundamentals.com
 confusion: case insensitive
 Expertsexchange might be better as experts-exchange
 Is registered (annual fee) allows you exclusive right of
use
 Highly wanted names - expensive, others $10/year
 Business.com sold for $7.5 million in 1999
 AsSeenOnTv.com in 2000 for $5.1 million

5. Domain Search

6. Domain Availability: WhoIs.net

7. Step 2: Which web hosting services
 Server: Like large computer you lease
 stores your web site so people can access over the
internet
 if it goes down – your site goes down
 Shared hosting: Upgrading to dedicated server may be
necessary
 Prices per month vary
 Additional items may be upgrade (add’l pages)
 Don’t be upsold to lots of extras
 Longer contract holds you captive

8. What you want to know
 Blog or forum capability
 Email through the domain name
 Reviews by users
 Call tech support before you buy- response time
 Easy site builder system (usually proprietary)
 Tutorials for use (check YouTube)

9. Web Hosting Comparisons

10. iPage
Control Panel

11. Step 3: How to Build it
 Learn HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)
 software language used on Internet’s World Wide Web
 Use website templates which can be installed on your
web server
 Do a search for web site templates
 Templatemonster.com, DreamTemplate.com
 Word Press
 Has a site generator application that is easy to learn
 Weebly, Squarespace, Yola, Jigsy, Yola.

12. Building a web site using a web
professional (developer/designer)
 Price varies a lot
 Freelance websites: elance.com, etc.
 Downside:
 Don’t write copy
 Need direction on ‘look’
 Held hostage
 Updates handled when available with half hour minimum
 Can’t move YOUR website

13. Can I Build it?
 Yes. Benefits
 You have control
 Lower price
 See example: www.weebly.com

15. Step 4: Type of Site
 Promotion/information/customer support
 Adjunct source of sales revenue (Target)
 Retail operation (Amazon)

16. Step 5: Content
 Strategy: SEO
 Keywords
 Brainstorm
 Think like your customer
 Use as bullets, paragraph headers, page names
 Repeat in text as often as possible and in different ways

17. Step 5:Content
 What’s the call to action
 Answer this question. I want the person who visits
my website to ________________
 At a minimum – you want their business card
 Set an appointment
 Buy your product
 Every page leads them to take that action

18. Step 5: Content
 It is King: establishes credibility
 Review competitors
 Keep it current, fresh and relevant
 Straight forward, compelling and professional
 no technological jargon/ industry abbreviations
 People are busy/impatient. When on web –
highly activated state – not reading…scanning.
Break up long blocks of text with headings or
images
 Provide contact information on every page

19. Basic Business Information
 Should reflect as accurately as possible, what your
business is all about, what you do, how you do it and
why you are better at it
 How to contact you
 Methods of payment you take
 Locations and hours
 Answers to frequently asked questions

20. Step 6:The Look
 First impression of your company: Professional, Fun, Funky
 Depends on your target audience/brand
 Theme of low cost bargain or high roller (different look)
 Better to not have one than have one that makes your
company look bad
 Advanced graphics slows page load time
 Simple (too much creates anxiety) and intuitive
 Users prefer a standard look
 Eg. Car w/o steering wheel -no

21. Look of the Copy
 Verdana & Georgia fonts developed for web
 Good readability in all sizes
 Use bullets when possible
 People are scanning more than actually reading
 Don’t use I/we; use You
 Tight concise copy without wasted words
 Use ALL CAPS selectively
 Don’t underline (seems like a link)

23. Step 7: Navigation
 Where will the customer find the information they
want
 Simple
 Templates have norms
 Basics: Home page, Contact, About Us, FAQ,
Testimonials
 Additional: testimonials, product information, pricing

24. Navigation and Site Flow
 Provide different information on different pages
 Make it easy for them to find the answers to their
questions
 What is your call to action/ converting site traffic into
leads or sales
 Want their contact information
 Want them to contact you – via email or phone
 Want them to make a purchase

25. Home Page
 Introduction
 Most general info
 Keep important info above the fold
 Sets the look for consistency throughout
 Establishes navigation

28. Step 7:Test Drive
 How do consumers use it
 Sit and watch someone navigate the site
 What questions do users have
 Get lots of family and friends to give feedback
 It doesn’t need to be perfect to start

29. Step 8: Building site traffic
 How to get people to your website
 If you build it, they won’t just come
 YOU Build Your Audience
 promote web site address all the time and on every thing
 Business cards, letterhead, bags, gift cards, cash register
receipts, signature of your emails, brochures, automated
phone messages, newsletters
 social media marketing: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
 Get on listings: Yelp and free yellow pages listings
 Viral marketing (YouTube, emails, blogs, etc.)

30. SEO: Search Engine Optimization
 People find you from search engines
 Paid vs organic vs Google Places
 Page rank on search engines is important
 Listings order based on SE crawlers and complicated
mathematical algorithms
 Variety of methods increase prominence
 Relevance= appropriate keywords, authority=links
 Can hire a Search Engine Optimizer or become more
knowledgeable – www.SEOBook.com

31. Step 9: Track your traffic
 Are you getting people to web site
 Google Analytics – free
 Number of site visitors (unique)
 Where the traffic is coming from
 Bounce rate (time duration of site visitor on your site)
 Impact of promotions/ marketing efforts

33. Step 10: Making money via site
 Selling a product or service on-line
 Paypal, Google Checkout, Merchant Accounts
 Affiliate marketing
 Advertising revenue: add Google’s Adsense Ads.

34. Road Map: Ten Steps
 Step 1: Available domain name
 Step 2: Hosting site
 Step 3: Who will build it
 Step 4: Website type: information, adjunct selling, retail
 Step 5: Copy

35. Ten Steps
 Step 6: The Look
 Step 7: Navigation – pages
 Step 8: Test drive
 Step 9: Build traffic
 Step 10: Track visitors
Ongoing: Revise, update and improve

36. Resource: Virtual Fundamentals
 Like our facebook page
 www.facebook.com/VirtualFundamentals
 iPage – affiliate marketing – call with questions
 Twitter: www.twitter.com/webbasics4u
 Blog: Virtually Connected
 http://www.virtuallyconnected.us/blog/
 Check out pricing on web site
 www.VirtualFundamentals.com