Are you lost and confused about ecommerce web sites? What do you need to know? Where does one begin? Let www.WEBSITECENTER.com enlighten you with our quick list of important notes below:
DOMAIN NAME
Purchase a domain name that corresponds with your company name. You might also need to register a domain name that is closely related to your product type. For example: You sell washing machines that are discontinued. Your company name is Bobs Appliances. So the domain name that you might consider registering would be BobsAppliances.com AND discountwashingmachines.com or discount-washing-machines.com, .net, .org, etc.
WEBSITE DESIGN
Build a web site. Complete with all of the product photos, detailed information as well as corresponding and supporting web pages e.g. Home, Contact, Privacy and Return Policy, Terms and Conditions, Frequently Asked Questions and most importantly, about the company who will service and guarantee product delivery.
Obtain an Online Merchant Account with Payment Gateway and corresponding or compatible online shopping cart. This service will provide you the capacity to process credit cards on your computer as well as collect money online through your website and online shopping cart.
WEB HOSTING
Get a Web Hosting Account. Select a web hosting account platform that is most compatible with your office computer environment or existing business network AND online shopping cart program. There are two platforms to choose from: Windows or Unix. Talk with your network administrator or speak with a professional web designer to help you determine the right web hosting package for you.
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION AND MARKETING
Once the web site is LIVE and launched online, it is imperative that you conduct a Search Engine Optimization Service as well as set up a Pay-Per-Click Marketing Campaign to properly promote the website on search engines to reach your preferred target audience. Driving THE RIGHT KIND OF TRAFFIC to the web site is even more important than the number of traffic you receive. The only way to drive the right kind of traffic is to conduct a PAY-PER-CLICK Marketing Campaign by utilizing Google Adwords pay-per-click marketing campaign, Bing Microsoft Ad Central pay-per-click service and Yahoo Search Marketing Sponsored Listing service. If you have not determined who your target market is - their age, income capacity, location, gender and buying habits - these pay-per-click marketing campaigns will help you single them out.
WEB DESIGN COMPANY
Last but not least, select a website design company that will see you through all of the process above.
When selecting a professional web design company to help build your ecommerce web site, select a company that has been around for at least 10 years in the business so you can be assured that they have seen how the Internet has grown and which direction it is going. Selecting a Local Web Design company can be very helpful but not necessarily required. Select an ecommerce web design company that has a TEAM of ecommerce professionals - from web to graphic designers to marketing specialists to merchant account payment gateway providers and NOT just one person that works out of his garage or does ecommerce websites only on a part-time basis. Your ecommerce business will go a lot further and your chances of reaching a higher level of success will greatly improve IF you select a web design company that has a TEAM of ecommerce professionals who will provide you the training and security that your ecommerce business will need on a day-to-day basis.
WebSiteCenter.com is the ecommerce web design company to hire. We have ecommerce experts on staff to help you and your business at your disposal. Professional web and graphic designers that will present your products in the best of light. Our online marketing experts who specializes on pay-per-click campaigns and search engine optimization will deliver the ideal target market who will buy your product. WebSiteCenter.com also has the support team who can help deliver the product to your customers in a timely and most courteous manner. For a more hands on approach, WebSiteCenter.com will provide you all of the training that you'll need to master your ecommerce business from A-Z. We can show you how to update your products online, process a telephone order, provide shipping options, manage your online traffic and provide security.
When starting an ecommerce web site, remember only one thing: Work with a company that will be there for you tomorrow, next week, next year, and throughout the life of your ecommerce business.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
THE FOUR FACETS OF WEB DESIGN
The four primary aspects of web site design are CONTENT, TECHNOLOGY, GRAPHICS and simple PRACTICALITY. The primary purpose of content is to inform, motivate or persuade users. Use of current and standardized technology is to implement functionality i.e. online payment or member login feature. Graphics provide visual and form that speaks volume about a business. Lastly, relates to whether the cost to build this web site is practical. If there is no clear purpose or benefit for building the web site, then why build it in the first place. The web site must have a purposeful relationship with its users where one reciprocates the other and vice versa.
Eric Tan
Technical Sales Director
WebSiteCenter.com
Las Vegas, NV
Eric Tan
Technical Sales Director
WebSiteCenter.com
Las Vegas, NV
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
ABC of Internet Marketing
Since the Internet has many use and various form of medium and protocols, when I refer to Internet Marketing (as in the blog title) for the sake of this blog, it is in reference to Search Engine Optimization - which uses the Internet protocol of http (hyper text transfer protocol) - commonly referred to as the World Wide Web. Another popular Internet protocol used in Internet Marketing is the SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) - for blasting out emails. We're not going to get into the subject of email blasting in this article. Come back later for that...
The purpose of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is to help search engine rank your site on the first page of the search results. Someone looking for a web designer in las vegas might use that phrase to find a company - but another might use "las vegas webmaster" to find such a business - hopefully, they find us - WebSiteCenter.com - LOL. Internet Marketing using SEO is your best chance of getting NEW traffic thus possibly resulting in more online sales. I'm sure that we already know all of the benefits and meaning of "getting a bunch of real traffic" so we're not going to get any deeper than this. When we talk of traffic - we mean, actual people looking at your web site. A lot of Internet Marketing companies refer to traffic as "hits" and it is not hits at all it is "visits" that you have to focus on. So we all know the purpose of SEO - what you really need to know is HOW?
The ABC of Search Engine Optimization is (A) Site Structure, (B) Site Features, (C) Site Content.
A-Site Structure
Developing a web site is lot like building a house. You have to have a good DESIGN PLAN that is approved by the Federal, State, County and probably City Guidelines. Conforming to the guidelines and building standards assures EVERYONE that the house is safe towards its tenants, its visitors, its neighbors and are recognized by the entire community as part of the neighborhood. If you build your house and not follow any guidelines, no matter how safe, the community or law enforcement agencies will not let you occupy the house due to non-conformance to standards. Well, enough about houses now let's talk web design.
If you build your site without conforming to standards - seach engines cannot see your web site. The standards that we have to follow as webmasters is ICANN's subsidiary W3C.org. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the mother of all approved codes - HTML, CSS, Javascript, etc. It is important to note that your home (index) page have to be in HTML format for optimum results - index.html. You can ONLY optimize an HTML web page - nothing else! Anyone who says otherwise is only fooling themselves. HTML pages is the safest form of web format for search engines to read - this is why it is the approved STANDARD format. There are various web page formats to choose from - most commonly the file extensions .html, .htm, .asp, .php, and .cfm. In actuality, you can create your own file extension - but only you can see it. You can build your web pages using these OTHER file extensions but only HTML (and .htm) will be the only optimized search engine friendly pages.
Once we pass the web pages through W3C's code validator, then comes the review of search engine guidelines. We follow Google's webmaster guidelines for this. Why only Google's? Well, we've had plenty of experience on various search engine guidelines - we read most of them - then they came and went without leaving much of an impact. In our opinion, it is always best to start by concentrating on the top three search engine first which is Google, Yahoo and MSN. Google's webmaster guideline makes a lot of sense and "true in nature" within the digital environment. They laid out all of the aspects of their search engine and what we can do as webmasters to help prepare the web pages to work with their program.
B-Site Features
Now that "A" has been done above - you're now getting a ton of traffic...yipeeee! What do we do with this traffic? If this is an informational site - the most they can do is email you and inquire. If this is an ecommerce site - then they can buy something - and email you. How about it's an ecommerce site but it is also a community site or a classifieds or other fun stuff.
The site features is what will impress the visitors / users of the web site. The main reason to build a web site is to cater to your current customer base or upcoming customer base. In the case of a shopping web site - provide new arrivals on a regular basis - discount coupons, promotions, events, invites, forum, community sharing, etc. Give each customer a reason to keep coming back.
C-Site Content
Keep them coming back with unique and relevant content. If the content is "exclusively" yours, then they can only see the content on your web site. Once the site has been optimized - your primary job as a web site owner is to continue to pump unique and exclusive information - whether it may be text, videos, etc. It will not help you at all by simply visiting other interesting sites then copying their content and placing it on yours...search engines can detect this - and if you don't have permission to post their content on you're site you could get in trouble for copyright infringement and possibly charged with criminal offense.
To fully understand Site Content the way the Internet is suppose to work is to look at the Internet as a whole - and you're main objective is to contribute to that "whole" by adding something unique, useful and relevant in nature - content that came ONLY from you - whether it be in text, videos, audio or whatever will display or play on a browser.
The purpose of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is to help search engine rank your site on the first page of the search results. Someone looking for a web designer in las vegas might use that phrase to find a company - but another might use "las vegas webmaster" to find such a business - hopefully, they find us - WebSiteCenter.com - LOL. Internet Marketing using SEO is your best chance of getting NEW traffic thus possibly resulting in more online sales. I'm sure that we already know all of the benefits and meaning of "getting a bunch of real traffic" so we're not going to get any deeper than this. When we talk of traffic - we mean, actual people looking at your web site. A lot of Internet Marketing companies refer to traffic as "hits" and it is not hits at all it is "visits" that you have to focus on. So we all know the purpose of SEO - what you really need to know is HOW?
The ABC of Search Engine Optimization is (A) Site Structure, (B) Site Features, (C) Site Content.
A-Site Structure
Developing a web site is lot like building a house. You have to have a good DESIGN PLAN that is approved by the Federal, State, County and probably City Guidelines. Conforming to the guidelines and building standards assures EVERYONE that the house is safe towards its tenants, its visitors, its neighbors and are recognized by the entire community as part of the neighborhood. If you build your house and not follow any guidelines, no matter how safe, the community or law enforcement agencies will not let you occupy the house due to non-conformance to standards. Well, enough about houses now let's talk web design.
If you build your site without conforming to standards - seach engines cannot see your web site. The standards that we have to follow as webmasters is ICANN's subsidiary W3C.org. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the mother of all approved codes - HTML, CSS, Javascript, etc. It is important to note that your home (index) page have to be in HTML format for optimum results - index.html. You can ONLY optimize an HTML web page - nothing else! Anyone who says otherwise is only fooling themselves. HTML pages is the safest form of web format for search engines to read - this is why it is the approved STANDARD format. There are various web page formats to choose from - most commonly the file extensions .html, .htm, .asp, .php, and .cfm. In actuality, you can create your own file extension - but only you can see it. You can build your web pages using these OTHER file extensions but only HTML (and .htm) will be the only optimized search engine friendly pages.
Once we pass the web pages through W3C's code validator, then comes the review of search engine guidelines. We follow Google's webmaster guidelines for this. Why only Google's? Well, we've had plenty of experience on various search engine guidelines - we read most of them - then they came and went without leaving much of an impact. In our opinion, it is always best to start by concentrating on the top three search engine first which is Google, Yahoo and MSN. Google's webmaster guideline makes a lot of sense and "true in nature" within the digital environment. They laid out all of the aspects of their search engine and what we can do as webmasters to help prepare the web pages to work with their program.
B-Site Features
Now that "A" has been done above - you're now getting a ton of traffic...yipeeee! What do we do with this traffic? If this is an informational site - the most they can do is email you and inquire. If this is an ecommerce site - then they can buy something - and email you. How about it's an ecommerce site but it is also a community site or a classifieds or other fun stuff.
The site features is what will impress the visitors / users of the web site. The main reason to build a web site is to cater to your current customer base or upcoming customer base. In the case of a shopping web site - provide new arrivals on a regular basis - discount coupons, promotions, events, invites, forum, community sharing, etc. Give each customer a reason to keep coming back.
C-Site Content
Keep them coming back with unique and relevant content. If the content is "exclusively" yours, then they can only see the content on your web site. Once the site has been optimized - your primary job as a web site owner is to continue to pump unique and exclusive information - whether it may be text, videos, etc. It will not help you at all by simply visiting other interesting sites then copying their content and placing it on yours...search engines can detect this - and if you don't have permission to post their content on you're site you could get in trouble for copyright infringement and possibly charged with criminal offense.
To fully understand Site Content the way the Internet is suppose to work is to look at the Internet as a whole - and you're main objective is to contribute to that "whole" by adding something unique, useful and relevant in nature - content that came ONLY from you - whether it be in text, videos, audio or whatever will display or play on a browser.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
ABC of Web Hosting
Web Hosting is really the question of control and ownership. Based on how you answer the question of control and ownership - will depend on how you proceed to the next step.
There are three types of web hosting - shared hosting and dedicated servers - the third being a web based web site that comes with web hosting. Shared hosting is ideal if your site is relatively small with a proportionate amount of traffic. You retain ownership of the content since your space is considered privately owned. To manage your site using shared hosting is relatively simple and cost-effective in most cases, therefore, it is the best and ideal start up web hosting package when starting an online business.
Dedicated servers are ideal if your content could potentially grow large in a matter of months or even 1-2 years. Naturally, with a lot of content will draw in more traffic thus generating more bandwidth usage. A dedicated server or virtual dedicated server will be your ideal solution. It will provide you the room for growth, the power to handle the traffic and the flexibility and managed cost to handle the responsibilities. With the added room and power comes the added cost. However, starting at around $99 per month - cost will not be a deterrent.
Web Based Web Site and Hosting is not something you should consider as a solution - for any size business. We don't recommend this solution for anyone because it will not provide any benefit towards your goal. The web pages are not search engine friendly. The content that you enter are "technically not yours" once they have been incorporated into the system. It will not provide you the flexibility in growth, in manipulating the design layout as you wish - but rather stuck with the minimum number of web page layout that are less than desirable, and it will not present your business in its true form. It's true, your content can be displayed on a computer screen in a matter of minutes but if no one sees it - it won't do anyone any good.
Then, there are two hosting environments - Microsoft Windows and Unix Linux. Microsoft Windows utilizes ASP pages to manage its content while Unix utilizes PHP pages to do the same - both will hold, store and display HTML web pages - which can consists of Flash, Graphics and Text to name the most common elements.
Which environment to select really depends on your current IT environment. If you utilize Windows XP or Vista and are running on a Windows Server to manage your office network environment - then this is a no brainer - your best bet would be to use a Windows Environment Web Hosting account. However, if cost is an issue as well as selection of software solutions available on the market - then a Unix environment will provide more options in this area. You can utilize a Unix environment for your web site - while using a Windows environment for your office network and both will work just fine with each other while you establish your market niche. Although this would not be recommended as a long term solution, it is highly utilized to satisfy most business budget while you wait and prepare to implement the long term solution.
There are three types of web hosting - shared hosting and dedicated servers - the third being a web based web site that comes with web hosting. Shared hosting is ideal if your site is relatively small with a proportionate amount of traffic. You retain ownership of the content since your space is considered privately owned. To manage your site using shared hosting is relatively simple and cost-effective in most cases, therefore, it is the best and ideal start up web hosting package when starting an online business.
Dedicated servers are ideal if your content could potentially grow large in a matter of months or even 1-2 years. Naturally, with a lot of content will draw in more traffic thus generating more bandwidth usage. A dedicated server or virtual dedicated server will be your ideal solution. It will provide you the room for growth, the power to handle the traffic and the flexibility and managed cost to handle the responsibilities. With the added room and power comes the added cost. However, starting at around $99 per month - cost will not be a deterrent.
Web Based Web Site and Hosting is not something you should consider as a solution - for any size business. We don't recommend this solution for anyone because it will not provide any benefit towards your goal. The web pages are not search engine friendly. The content that you enter are "technically not yours" once they have been incorporated into the system. It will not provide you the flexibility in growth, in manipulating the design layout as you wish - but rather stuck with the minimum number of web page layout that are less than desirable, and it will not present your business in its true form. It's true, your content can be displayed on a computer screen in a matter of minutes but if no one sees it - it won't do anyone any good.
Then, there are two hosting environments - Microsoft Windows and Unix Linux. Microsoft Windows utilizes ASP pages to manage its content while Unix utilizes PHP pages to do the same - both will hold, store and display HTML web pages - which can consists of Flash, Graphics and Text to name the most common elements.
Which environment to select really depends on your current IT environment. If you utilize Windows XP or Vista and are running on a Windows Server to manage your office network environment - then this is a no brainer - your best bet would be to use a Windows Environment Web Hosting account. However, if cost is an issue as well as selection of software solutions available on the market - then a Unix environment will provide more options in this area. You can utilize a Unix environment for your web site - while using a Windows environment for your office network and both will work just fine with each other while you establish your market niche. Although this would not be recommended as a long term solution, it is highly utilized to satisfy most business budget while you wait and prepare to implement the long term solution.
Monday, November 17, 2008
ABC of Web Design
The ABC of Web Design starts with planning - which means writing down everything on paper or word processing program and creating an outline of your business model. Address everything in the business plan including where and how you intend to produce the product - are you manufacturing it yourself or are you outsourcing to an outside company - and when it is produced - how much inventory to hold and related subjects like storage, shelf life, categorizing, labeling, packaging. Thereafter, you'll need to discuss marketing, management, logistics, personnel - I think you get the picture. Now, that you have the "A" of ABC as your business plan, we now need to work on "B".
Based on your business plan, we will now be able to determine the structure of your web site or online presence. The main purpose of developing a web site is to PRIMARILY used it a marketing tool and presentation medium for your Sales or Customer Service Representatives to use as reference so prospective clients or customers can view your product details, photos or videos at their convenience by simply visiting the web site. The SECONDARY reason is to attract a worldwide market to visit the site. The structural options provided to you are as follows:
1. Static
2. Dynamic
3. Hybrid - Static and Dynamic
Static pages:
Pros: All static pages are search engine friendly to begin with - and when optimized properly - all static pages can potentially be a doorway or landing page to your web site. Meaning to say - your home page is not the only page that will bring in traffic - all of your sub pages can potentially bring traffic to the site. The pages are quite easy to create provided that master pages were created for future use. If done correctly and with proper planning, it can serve you well in terms of traffic.
Cons: The management and upkeep of static pages will take longer to update thus costing you more in employee payroll or hourly rate. This will create possible delays in launching new promotions if not planned properly.
Dynamic Pages:
Pros: Easy to install, update and manage with relative ease with little or no technical experience. Content can created on the fly. It's secured and has an abundance of features available for future use.
Cons: Not search engine friendly therefore your cost will be in marketing. With static pages - the cost is in Site Management. With Dynamic pages - the text and information displayed on a page are generated when it is requested - say when you clicked on a link - the web site will then put together the information and generate a web page for your viewing. The page is not put together until you request for it - like clicking. Since search engines cannot click on a link - all it can do is read the content of the page and follow URLs - it does not literally click on a link - it read the link and if the URL qualifies - it follows it - again following a URL is not the same as clicking it. Cost of software and annual updates. Copyright to the software belongs to the software developer - it is not your own. Cost of development can increase tremendously if you outgrow the initial software solution.
Hybrid Web Site:
Pros: A hybrid site is search engine friendly due to the strategically placed static pages within the site. Low maintenance cost because the majority of the content are managed dynamically. In essence, all of the pros of the static and dynamic pages above applies here.
Cons: Initial Cost will be higher than normal because of the work and third-party expenses such as software license, installation, and the development of the static pages and related work involving the set up of architectural and structural planning of the site.
Obviously, there's a lot more to it than this - you just have to call me to get the intricate details.
Based on your business plan, we will now be able to determine the structure of your web site or online presence. The main purpose of developing a web site is to PRIMARILY used it a marketing tool and presentation medium for your Sales or Customer Service Representatives to use as reference so prospective clients or customers can view your product details, photos or videos at their convenience by simply visiting the web site. The SECONDARY reason is to attract a worldwide market to visit the site. The structural options provided to you are as follows:
1. Static
2. Dynamic
3. Hybrid - Static and Dynamic
Static pages:
Pros: All static pages are search engine friendly to begin with - and when optimized properly - all static pages can potentially be a doorway or landing page to your web site. Meaning to say - your home page is not the only page that will bring in traffic - all of your sub pages can potentially bring traffic to the site. The pages are quite easy to create provided that master pages were created for future use. If done correctly and with proper planning, it can serve you well in terms of traffic.
Cons: The management and upkeep of static pages will take longer to update thus costing you more in employee payroll or hourly rate. This will create possible delays in launching new promotions if not planned properly.
Dynamic Pages:
Pros: Easy to install, update and manage with relative ease with little or no technical experience. Content can created on the fly. It's secured and has an abundance of features available for future use.
Cons: Not search engine friendly therefore your cost will be in marketing. With static pages - the cost is in Site Management. With Dynamic pages - the text and information displayed on a page are generated when it is requested - say when you clicked on a link - the web site will then put together the information and generate a web page for your viewing. The page is not put together until you request for it - like clicking. Since search engines cannot click on a link - all it can do is read the content of the page and follow URLs - it does not literally click on a link - it read the link and if the URL qualifies - it follows it - again following a URL is not the same as clicking it. Cost of software and annual updates. Copyright to the software belongs to the software developer - it is not your own. Cost of development can increase tremendously if you outgrow the initial software solution.
Hybrid Web Site:
Pros: A hybrid site is search engine friendly due to the strategically placed static pages within the site. Low maintenance cost because the majority of the content are managed dynamically. In essence, all of the pros of the static and dynamic pages above applies here.
Cons: Initial Cost will be higher than normal because of the work and third-party expenses such as software license, installation, and the development of the static pages and related work involving the set up of architectural and structural planning of the site.
Obviously, there's a lot more to it than this - you just have to call me to get the intricate details.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Welcome to WebSiteCenter, Inc. Blog
I'm diving into this blogging fad as part of my study on how well blogging works as an integral part of my marketing strategy. It also serves my other desire to be able to manage large content of text information without having to design my own content management system (CMS) or use an out-of-box solution or use google's blogger.com service.
My principal interest in using blogging as a format is for me to be able to place, display and organize the myriad of support issues and solutions; project scenarios and recommendations; just a lot of things I want to say but don't really have a time to quickly integrate the content to my site. That requires more planning and team work. I just want something quick, simple and ready to go. That's why I'm here - blogging...I guess.
Get ready to get in on my head!!! You're in for a wild ride! You'll be shock when you learn what my thoughts are...maybe.
My principal interest in using blogging as a format is for me to be able to place, display and organize the myriad of support issues and solutions; project scenarios and recommendations; just a lot of things I want to say but don't really have a time to quickly integrate the content to my site. That requires more planning and team work. I just want something quick, simple and ready to go. That's why I'm here - blogging...I guess.
Get ready to get in on my head!!! You're in for a wild ride! You'll be shock when you learn what my thoughts are...maybe.
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