URL: Your Online Address

Have you established you URL? What is a URL? Basically a url is the internet address of your web site. It usually looks something like "www.yourname.com". This is how your web site will be found on the internet no matter where the actual web page files are stored. Although it is typical to register a URL when purchasing hosting, some people think a url and "hosting" are the same thing but they are not and there's a good reason for it.

A better way to think of a URL is like a phone number. If your phone breaks and you buy a new one you still have the same phone number right? Well the same principle applies to a URL. When you register a URL you pay a small fee which secures that URL for a set amount of time. Usually 2 year's but you can register it for longer periods and you always have the option of renewing it on or before the registration expires. If for some reason the "hosting" provider goes out of business or just doesn't perform well, you can always move your URL and web site content to another hosting provider

It is very important to secure the URL you want as soon as possible. Securing the URL you want should be very simple but can also be very frustrating. Often the URL you want is already taken. If this is the case you might have the option of purchasing it at a premium from the registered owner. This could range from several hundreds of dollars up into the tens of thousands of dollars. The next best thing you might be able to do is choose a different extension (.com, .net, .biz, .us, .pro etc) but even these extensions might be taken as well. Last option would be to get creative with how you spell the URL.

To see if the URL you want is available try using www.networksolutions.com. You can enter a name and choose multiple extensions. The result will tell you if the URL you want is available and with which extensions if at all.

So what is a host? See the hosting section for more details.

Hosting: Where Your Site Lives

Do you have hosting? What is hosting? Hosting is a server (large capacity computer) that allow's computers from all over the world to connect via the internet and download (view) your web page. This is where all your all web page content lives.

Why do you need a host? Think of a host as an office where you conduct business. You want people to see your information, product or service but you don't necessarily want them in your house and you certainly don't want strangers having access to you personal computer. What if thousands of people show up at the same time? Could your personal computer handle hundreds or even thousands of connections all trying to view your web page? By using a host all traffic (visitors to you site) is directed to a larger computer server that is built to handle large volumes of visitors and protects your personal computer from all the ugly infections and exploits floating around the world wide web.

When do you get a host? When your ready to purchase a hosting account it would be a good time to register you URL if you haven't already. Most hosting providers will offer URL registration as well as hosting services. Some will even offer a reduced price on one or both services when you do both at the same time. I actually recommend to clients that it's a good idea to register their URL and purchase a hosting package at the same time and at same source so that when it's time to renew you won't forget about one or the other.

Where do you find a good hosting provider? There are many hosting providers and no, they are not all created equal. Some offer very cheep rates but provide terrible customer service or support. I've had good and bad experiences with most of the major hosts out there but the my best experiences have been with some of the following listed here www.internethostingreviews.com.

If you need help setting up your URL or hosting service I'm more than happy to assist you in the process.

Branding: Your Indetity to The World

The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as a "name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.

Therefore it makes sense to understand that branding is not about getting your target market to choose you over the competition, but it is about getting your prospects to see you as the only one that provides a solution to their problem.

The objectives that a good brand will achieve include:

• Delivers the message clearly
• Confirms your credibility
• Connects your target prospects emotionally
• Motivates the buyer
• Concretes User Loyalty

To succeed in branding you must understand the needs and wants of your customers and prospects. You do this by integrating your brand strategies through your company at every point of public contact.

Your brand resides within the hearts and minds of customers, clients, and prospects. It is the sum total of their experiences and perceptions, some of which you can influence, and some that you cannot.

A strong brand is invaluable as the battle for customers intensifies day by day. It's important to spend time investing in researching, defining, and building your brand. After all your brand is the source of a promise to your consumer. It's a foundational piece in your marketing communication and one you do not want to be without.

All of this should be considered when thinking about the next 2 sections, Content and Style.

Content: Your Information Product or Service

For the most part content is pretty straight forward. Aside from providing quality content it's really important that your content is relevant. Back in the "old" days people would insert keywords that might contain celebrities, events or topics of the day in an effort to rank higher in searches. Well those days are long gone.

When a search engine like Google crawls your site for information it's looking for a number of things. First and foremost it's looking for relevance. That means all the text and hyperlinks (links to external sites) should be consistent with your information, product or service. If you site is about shoes and your text is about basket weaving or your hyperlinks point to sites that are about cooking search engines like Google will rank your site lower.

What content do you need to be prepared?
Anything that you want to be hard coded (non-editable) into your web page design. This might be graphics such as background images, banner images, logo images as well as text and even video. In some cases you might want a promotional video, image or text as part of a Flash or HTML5 animation.

If you site features a photo, video or even a music gallery, have your media organized and optimized for the web. Every media such as images, video and music can be optimized (compressed) in various ways to produce smaller file sizes while maintaining quality. If you don't have the resource or knowledge to optimize your media, don't worry as I can do perform those task's as part of any project.

Proof read your text. Make sure all the text content has been double checked for spelling errors.

Secure your social networking accouts and profiles. A big part of ranking higher comes from external sites. The more relovent referrence's there are to you or your online identity the better. If you want to take advantage of the power of social networking by incorporating links to sites like facebook, twitter, linkedin etc, Get those accounts established.

Style: What's The Look, Feel or Vibe of Your Site?

The look, feel or vibe (theme) of how your web site looks should encompass any branding you may already have in place. How your site looks is the first impression visitors will have about your information, product or service.

Connecting with your online audience or the success there of really does rely on how your site looks as well as functions. Careful consideration of your target market should be a key factor in a web site design. Although the look of a site has nothing to do SEO in terms of technical aspects, the relevance of how your site looks to your target market does play a part in how visitors might recommend your site to others. Think about it. How many times have you found a site that was so visually appealing, you shared it with others? I've had clients who's customers have told them directly that they decided to use their service because the client's web site was "the best looking site" in that market. Let's face it, perception of value or status influences some people's decisions or conclusions about the quality of the information, product or service offered.

How to decide on a style or site structure?
There are millions of great looking web sites on the web. Of coarse you want to stand out from the crowd by presenting a unique image or brand for your information, product or service. If you have no idea what you want in terms of design style I always recommend that you look at other sites and make note of the things you like. It might be the look or function of menu. It might be the color scheme and or structure. What ever it is, make note of it and include a link to the site and describe what you like about it when you prepare your project outline.