In the first place many website hosting services provide website builders free of charge. There are often several problems with this.
- Firstly, most often, you are limited in the number of pages you can construct, and if you want more pages, you are often presented with a Pro Version of the program which , as you may be surprised to find, is not free.
- Secondly, these programs can be pretty basic and in my experience, you end up with a website that looks as if it was constructed in the 1980's during the dawn of computing. Not the best presentation for your cutting edge business.
- Finally, they tend to lack flexibility. So if you later want to expand your site's facilities and add forms, videos, music, flash etc. - it may prove impossible.
How about specialized website builders. These tend to be a much better choice and there are two main types:
a) The 'download and build' websites software.
With these you download the website builder software to your computer, install it (usually a fairly easy process),
Use various wizards and the design templates provided to design your website and upload it to your web hosts.
You may need a little technical knowledge to use these especially how to buy a domain, set up website hosting and use ftp (file transfer protocol) to transfer your files from your computer to your website's hosting package.
Many of these come with time limited trials so you can find out if you like the product before you commit yourself by buying the product.
b) The Online Website Builders
These can be easier to use as the download/install process is eliminated. Most of these also have either a trial period or an online demo which walks you through the whole process.
All you do is proceed step by step through a series of instructions making choices and decisions along the way and then you're done.
However, they tend to have a recurrent monthly cost (often including website hosting - which means you are tied to them for life)
So what should you look for in a website builder.
- Clear instructions - Are there clear Step-by-Step Instructions or is there a Video demonstrating the process.
- High quality template designs - Are the designs you see good enough for you or as good as your competitors websites.
- Widgets - Does the software give you the ability to incorporate plug in widgets such as flash banners, video, music, forms,
- Help facilities - Is there a FAQ section / Contactable Helpdesk or Chat module in case you get stuck
- Domain and Hosting - Are you given the ability to purchase your own domain name or transfer it to their hosting and is it possible to transfer the end product to your own website hosting.
- E-Commerce facilities - If you plan to sell goods or services - are there facilities that will help you do this such as a shopping cart.
- Trial - Do they offer a free trial period so you can test the product without fear
- Cost - is there a one time fee, or do you have to pay monthly or yearly? and how much. Even If they are hosting your website for you, the cost should not be more than a little higher than the cost of professional hosting elsewhere.
- Hidden Costs - Find out exactly what you get for your money, and what you would need to pay extra for
- SEO - Do they offer you any optimisation, free website marketing facilities or website traffic building facilities - and are these free.
Basically, you need to look at your business model and services and see if the services and facilities offered by the website builder will really help you build your business.
Choosing the best website builder is a matter of opinion as 'best' is a relative term, but the best website builder for you will depend on your skillset and technical ability, theme or niche, time constraints etc. by carefully taking all these factors into consideration, you will be able to build the best website for your business.
Build Small Business Website
One of the most important aspects of search engine optimization (SEO) is the proper selection of keywords or key phrases. Keywords are the terms that searchers enter when using search engines like Google or Yahoo. For instance, a user looking for someone to help them build a small business website might enter terms like ?website design? or ?small business website? into the search box. The search engines use those terms to find ?relevant? web pages.
What makes a page relevant to any particular search is the topic of another discussion, but it is clear that the presence of related keywords on a webpage create a high degree of relevance. So in the search for help building a small business website, search engines will be looking for web pages that contain the specific search terms as well as other information that is relevant to the same term.
Selecting the proper keywords for your website is crucial to making sure your pages are returned when searchers are looking for the products, services or information you are providing. While there is certainly a lot of information available about how to select keywords, in reality, keyword selection is as much art as it is science. It is a mix of ratios, search probabilities and good detective work to figure out what searches will be looking for, and how the search engines will relate you webpage to their searches.
In general, you can think of keywords as mini ads for your website. Make you ads to generic and searches, and search engines, may overlook the specific thing they are searching for. You can think of keywords as falling into three basic categories: Niche, Primary and Secondary.
Niche keywords are very specific and may result in a low volume of searches but a higher listing in search results. For instance, a site that sells SEO services may focus on the keyword phrase ?increase ExactSeek page rank.? For searchers who are knowledgeable enough to understand this term and are targeting the ExactSeek search engine there is a high chance your site will show up in a search for ?Increase my page rank on ExactSeek.? However, there will be less people searching for this phrase then say, ?get better search engine rankings? or ?get better search results on Yahoo.? The up side with niche keywords is that there is less competition for the keyword.
Primary keywords are those that appear to be a good balance between volume of search and competitive use. These are the words you should consider focusing your SEO efforts on. These words have good amounts of search volume because they are relatively generic, however they are a good match for your website's content. These keywords do have competitors, but there is likely enough search volume to generate traffic for your site. A page optimized on the keyword ?non-profit website design? would be relevant to a good number of related searches but would have less competition than a page optimized for ?website design.?
Secondary keywords provide a good volume of searches but have a higher level of competitors. An example is ?website design.? While there are lots of people searching for ?website design? there are millions and millions of competitors. Secondary keywords should not be ignored because of the potential volume, however, trying to optimize for such a generic term without other primary or niche keywords will likely not lead to much traffic.
In summary, ideal keywords receive a reasonable number of searches in major or niche search engines, are relevant to your site's content and are not heavily used by competitors. Keywords that have below average search volumes still may be excellent choices because they may be very relevant to your specific content and have limited competitors. Select multiple keywords for your site and consider using unique keywords for each page if the content is different.
Aubrey Jones is President and founder of Riverbank Consulting, Inc. Through Webs 4 Small Business he is able to bring SEO and other internet services to Small Business owners. He has been in the technology and internet industry for over 10 years building and managing large commercial internet services.
Both A.afolabi & Aubrey Jones are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Aubrey Jones has sinced written about articles on various topics from Computers and The Internet, The Internet and Internet Marketing. For help selecting the right keywords for your small business website and other SEO needs visit: Webs 4 Small Business at or Riverbank Consulting at. Aubrey Jones's top article generates over 27100 views. to your Favourites.
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