A website is a vital online storefront for your business. These days, no business can compete effectively without one. You can start with a simple, free do-it-yourself website and then, when you're ready, you can hire a design firm to build a more sophisticated, tailored site for you. The key thing is to choose the right company and manage them properly.
Like your business, your website should evolve over time. In the beginning, however, using a free website design and hosting service such as Microsoft Office Live can get your business online quickly and simply without the need for complex web design solutions or costs. So, how does it work?
- Sign up. Before you can start building your website, you'll need to register with the service. This involves simply providing a contact email address, setting a password and entering some basic contact information.
- Design. Microsoft's service offers a variety of design templates to help you build your site. Simply follow the step-by-step instructions provided to choose your template designs, pages and to insert your logo and text as applicable, and your site will be constructed for you.
- Domain name and email. Once you're done with your website design, you can use the service to register a domain name (a web address such as 'yourcompany.com') for your company if you don't already have one. This service is free for one to two years depending on the type of name you choose. You'll also get up to 100 free email accounts for your business.
- Publish. The service will then help you publish your final site via the system. Note that Microsoft also offers free support for Office Live.
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You may find that your web needs to change over time so that a free service is no longer suitable. Sometimes, for example, you'll need to add functions, complex design or multimedia elements or bespoke areas such as a customer intranet. This is the time to bring in a specialist web design company.
- Find a web design company. The first step in the process is to find a web design company or individual with the skills and experience to help you with your site build. Not all web designers are equal so the choice you make is vital. Ask your business contacts for recommendations. You can also contact designers who have created sites that closely match your own requirements or who have a track record of creating sites in your sector. Take a good look at their own site to see what they can do.
- Brief the web design company. The quality of design and build that a web designer can produce can only be as good as the brief that they are given. Take some time to think about what you need from your website, both as a stand-alone marketing tool and as an integral business function. Make sure that your designer has all your brochures, logos and font preferences. They also need to understand your web business needs. Expect to talk about how your website needs may change in the short to medium term to make sure that you can develop your existing site rather than commission a new one.
- Manage the web design company. Expect good levels of customer service from your web designer. You should agree milestones so that you can track progress and give feedback during development. Don't wait until it's done – it may be too late to make changes.
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