Small Business Web Design Customer Information Center


						Web Design Services for Small Businesses Home-Based Businesses Non-Profit Organizations

				Customer Information Center This Customer Information Center that will guide you through the process of setting up your business on the web. If there is a question you have or a topic that is not addressed please contact us. All inquiries are confidential and certainly do not obligate you to sign up for services!! Why Do I Need A Web Site? How To Get Started Choosing a Designer Choosing And Registering Your Domain Name Where Will Your Site Be Hosted How To Promote Your Site How Do I Pay For Your Services? Miscellaneous Information Privacy Policy For additional information download the FREE New Site Information Packet (PDF). Why Do I Need A Web Site? A web site is a cost effective way to make your business accessible to your customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week! A visit to your site can give all of the information you want your customers to have, whenever they want it! A very convenient way to advertise...your information is always available and can be updated in an instant. Customers will know they are getting exactly what they want by doing business with you just by visiting your site. You can free up some of your employees time by including frequently asked questions about your business. Back to top How To Get Started The most difficult thing for a small business owner may be finding out how to get this web site "thing" started. First you need to take a look at your business and decide what purpose your web site will serve. Take a look at other sites in the same industry. How are they using their web space? What services do you offer that they do not? What kind of information do they have? What is your target audience? Do you want to sell things from your site? Gather information you already have for your business like brochures, yellowpage ads, newspaper ads, price and product lists, photos of your building, you and your staff, logos, trade certification information etc... RMH Web Design will look at sites in your industry right along with you so if you would like to recommend sites for review just send the URL, (web address). Get a notepad and start jotting down ideas. Eventually you can start organizing your ideas into what you visualize your web site to be. After you order your site, we will go over it together to get the look and layout you desire. Back to top What Should My Site Look Like? Your site should reflect you and your business' personality and be clean, clear and easy to navigate. While you visit other sites in your industry, take note of the types of sites that you like and those you do not like. RMH Web Design will provide guidance as the look of your site takes shape. Can I use pictures of my products/service on the site? Absolutely! Graphics should be used to supplement your textual content. The use of a lot of images can slow the loading time (the time it takes for customers to see everything) of a page. Some visitors may not wait for the page to appear completely. They usually move on. If you have ever been to a site that has taken a long time to appear and become impatient, you know what this means. You can include pictures of your storefront, your staff, your products, YOU! RMH will work with you and help you decide how to best use the images you have. Back to top Choosing A Designer/Developer After you have decided the purpose of your site and have some idea of what you want it to look like, if you haven't already found a designer/developer, now is the time. Be sure whomever you choose can provide exactly what you need. Do you want custom graphics or a pre-made template? Do you need an on-line store with a secure order form? How will your site be marketed (search engine submission)? Are there hidden fees? How much does maintenance cost? Will anyone from the company be available to answer questions? If RMH Web Design cannot meet your needs, we will be more than happy to help you find someone who can. Through market research, many different design and development companies were found out there and it is certain there is one that will suit your business needs! You can also search the web, even by region if you would like to find a company in your area. Back to top Choosing And Registering Your Domain Name What is a Domain Name? A domain name is essentially a unique, easy to remember name used to identify your web server (computer your site is stored on). Your domain name (virtual URL) is assigned a number associated with the computer your site is stored on but rather than trying to remember a string of numbers, it's much easier to use a name you recognize! . So used along with "http://www.(yournamehere)", this now becomes your URL (Uniform Resource Locator) or web site address. The domain name for RMH Web Design is rmhwebdesign.com. The complete URL for this site is http://www.rmhwebdesign.com. Putting it in the location line of your web browser brought you here! All domain names are registered with ICANN (The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers-see below). Think of ICANN as the DMV of domain names! Do I have to have a domain name to have a web site? Not necessarily. There are hosts that can provide you with a non-virtual account (or subdomain hosting) which means the URL of your site would be http://www.yourhostingcompany/yourbusinessname. Your hosting company will give you a subdirectory on their servers to store your site's files. If you decide to move your site, you cannot take this name with you. Your URL will be different as well as any e-mail addresses that you may have signed up for with the hosting company. The advantage to having a domain name is that you will have your own URL and you can take it wherever you want. If you decide to switch to a different hosting company, a virtual URL and any associated e-mail addresses, can go with you and will always remain the same (provided you renew your registration each year). What should my domain name be? Choosing your domain name can be a simple as the name of your business. For example, if the name of your business is XYZ Auto Repair, you may want http://www.xyzautorepair.com to be your web site address. That means, xyzautorepair.com is your domain name. Use only letters, numbers and/or hyphens. (Although the name cannot begin or end with a hyphen). There is a 67 character limit on the length of your name and domain names are not case sensitive. XYZAutoRepair.com is the same as xyzautorepair.com . But, what if someone already has my name? It is possible that the name you choose is already taken. In that case the registrar (companies that process domain name registrations) you use may suggest others. Try using xyz-autorepair.com or xyzauto-repair.com or x-y-zautorepair.com. Chances are that one of the variations you come up with will work. How do I register my name? There are two ways you can register your domain name. One is through an accredited registrar. RMH Web Design offers domain name registration. Order your site and register your domain name with RMH Web Design and we will deduct $10.00 off your design fee! If you are not sure where your site will be hosted, it may be a good idea to "reserve" your name before someone else gets it! For more information about registering your domain name, check our Domain Name Registration Information. The other way is to have your hosting company (see below) do it for you. When you sign up to put your web site on-line with a hosting comany, many offer to take care of the registration process for you. If your site is not ready, you can park your domain with your host. In other words, reserving your name and space before your site is ready to go live. What is ICANN? A new non-profit corporation called ICANN-The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ( http://www.icann.org ), is now assuming the responsibility from the U.S. Government of managing the Internet domain name system (DNS) from InterNIC ( http://www.internic.net ). They keep a record of all registered domain names on the Internet and the associated computer you choose, or your host computer (see about hosting below). How much does it cost to register a domain name? The cost of a domain name can run anywhere from free with a hosting account to $35.00 per year, depending on with whom you register. Many registrars offer sales and promotions and some hosting companies will include your domain name registration in with their hosting packages. How long does the process take? Depending on how you register, 24-48 hours. Back to top Where Will Your Site Be Hosted What is a hosting company? A hosting company provides a place on their servers for your site to be stored. There are virtual hosting companies that allow your site to be on their servers with it's own domain name. Non-virtual hosting companies lease you space on someone elses server and allow you to have a sub-directory of your files using their domain. Non-virtual hosts tend to be less expensive than virtual hosts. What is a server? A host computer that stores information like web pages and is connected to the Internet all the time is considered a server. How much does it cost? That completely depends on the hosting company that you choose and how many options you need. The cost of hosting will depend on how much storage space and bandwith (data transfer) you need, how many e-mail addresses you need, cgi-bin access and so on. Some require a set-up fee. The more features you are looking for, the more you will pay. For example, an on-line store with a shopping cart and a secure server order form will most likely cost more than a storefront site. Billing from your hosting company is seperate from your domain name registration and web site developer, unless your hosting company builds your site for you. Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) may offer free space to it's customers. Check out how much space they allow and if commercial, business or for-profit pages are allowed. This may be the ideal set up if you only require a page or two! How do I find a hosting company? Check out Host Index. This is a directory of hosting companies where you can compare hosting plans to help you decide what your business needs. RMH Web Design also offers hosting plans starting at $5.42 per month. Please visit RMH Hosting for more information or to order your hosting account. What should I look for in a hosting company? After you determine the purpose of your business site, look for a host that will meet your needs. Things to take into consideration are storage space for your site's files, technical support availability, bandwidth capacity (the amount of data that can be transmitted in a fixed amount of time), type of lines the company has their computers hooked up to for reliablility of a connection... Yes, there is a lot to consider when choosing a hosting company. Back to top How Your Site Is Promoted Submission to search engines After your site is up and running you will want your site to be submitted to search engines (a program that searches for documents based on keywords) so people can find you. This can be done in a number of ways. Your hosting company may offer search engine submission. Your site designer/developer may offer. There are companies that, for a fee, will submit your site. Or you can also do it yourself. Seach engines use keywords that are placed on your page (but hidden from visitors) to find you. Keywords are placed on your site by your developer and would include things like the type of business you are in, your region etc. For example, keywords for an auto repair shop may include "auto repair, your town, your county, automobile, car repair, truck repair, brakes, inspections, ASE certified, vehicle repair, engine repair, motor home repair...." RMH Web Design will work with you and your hosting company to ensure that your site is efficiently submitted!!! Industry Directories With the Internet growing every day, there seems to be a directory for every possible business industry! Directories work a little differently that search engines. If you searched for auto repair shops in your search engine, you may find directories listed. Click on the directory for a list of auto repair shops. When your site is submitted to a directory, an actual person takes your information, visits your site for review and places it in the listing along with a description. Banner exchange A banner exchange program offers you a chance to promote your site simply by putting a banner on your page and submitting your banner to the exchange. Your banner will be rotated on the sites of all the members in the exchange. Local Business Directory or Chamber of Commerce Find out if your community has a web site and add your link (or RMH will do it for you). Link from your own or friends personal home pages If you or your friends have a personal home page, that is a great place to put a link to your business site!! Put A Link In Your E-Mail Signature Most e-mail programs have the option of putting a "signature" line at the bottom of your e-mail. That means that you can put a link to your business site in your signature and EVERYONE you send e-mail to will get it!! Business cards, letterhead, invoices, print ads, yellow page ad, business checks... Be sure to include your URL (web site address) on all your marketing tools! Your Answering Machine If you turn your answering machine on after hours, add the URL to your message. That way customers can go to your site and find the information they were looking for! Link From RMH A link to your site will be placed in the portfolio of RMH Web Design. A chance for more visitors and potential customers!!!! Word of Mouth Definitely one of the most cost effective ways to promote your site! Sign Guestbooks While you are out surfing, if you visit a site with a guestbook, sign it!!! How Do I Pay For Your Services? RMH Web Design accepts MasterCard, VISA, Discover, American Express, checks, and PayPal. Payment instructions are given with your invoice. Back to top Miscellaneous Information Why do sites look different on different computers? Every attempt is made to be sure your site looks good in all browsers. However, the same site can look very different from one computer to the next. This is because computer s can be set up different than yours. You can modify the appearance of text (size and font, for example) on your computer by changing the preferences in your browser. Different browsers do not necessarily "read" each web page the same either so the same page could look different in Netscape than it looks in Internet Explorer, even on the same computer. RMH Web Design is versed in both Macintosh and Windows platforms. Each site is previewed in the major browsers such as Netscape 4.05 +, Internet Explorer 4.0+ Safari and FireFox. Privacy Policy: RMH Web Design is committed to honoring the privacy of our clients and visitors requesting information. Only information that the Client specifies, will be used on the Client's web site. Information that is collected that will not be used on the Client's web site is held in strict confidence. This information will not be released or sold to any third party for any reason unless permission is granted from the client. The release of certain information, as required to submit the client's site to search engines and directories, will be done so only after permission is granted from the Client. Back to top
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