1. Plan ahead

Once you have made the decision to have a Website, plan ahead - don’t expect to have it all up and running in a few days.

3. Budgets

Costing could be an issue, and, as with other promotional media, and your site can be priced to suit your budget.

Every site is different so prices will differ too. A lot depends on how much content you have, interactivity, graphics, databases and forms.

Understand that once you have signed off on your design that it is going to cost you more or cause other problems if you change your mind through the production or construction stage.

So often sites are designed for looks first and functionality second. The most important issue should always be given to the way the site is to be used.

4. Website content

Keep it simple and identify your key messages.

The Home page is like the cover of a book and as such should be kept simple and easy to understand. Use it to make a few key points - who you are, what you offer, and an introduction to what’s inside.

The “follow on” pages, or other pages on your site show all the other details that continue on from the home page links. This is where you show your product or service. Make the headings simple and straight to the point – like “Who we are”. An "About us” page would show a brief profile about your organization. “Contact Us” shows people pictures (only a good idea if people turnover is not a problem) their phone numbers and email addresses.

Supply us with text in digital format using Word.

5. Searching or finding your site

People don’t just search for a product using terms like “games” or “miniatures”. More often they will type in the exact model and make of what they are looking for. So if you feature many products be sure to put in a full description for each.

To help search engines (like Google or Yahoo) find your site insist the key words describing your business are very prominent and preferably in the body text of your pages.

You will need to give your website designer very specific words and sentences about your business.
Search engines send out a software called spiders or robots. These read your pages and collect details to display as search results pages.

Meta tags, invisible to users, are a way to boost your position in search engine results. These keywords about your business can be different on every page on your site, adding a better chance of coming up in a search result.
To find out what other sites are hiding away for search engines, open your browser when online, and in a site (maybe your competition?), pull down the drop menu that says “Source”. Within the data look for the title and meta words. This will give you a guide for your words.

With meta words it is important not to repeat the same words one after the other as some search engines will dismiss these sorts of pages. A few repetitions are OK, but only make the repetitions in phrases and keep to a minimum.

It is also useful to put in a few mis-spelt words too - for example - "bull dozer, bull doser".

6. Keeping it up to date

The contents of your web site should change periodically. Visitors must feel the site will hold something for them each time they visit, giving them a reason to return to the site regularly. Write a timetable for changes into your site plan.

Although you change content occasionally the basic appearance should remain constant to maintain your organisation’s style.

Using Cyberpack’s services to update your site will be the most effective answer and we can give you a budget to cover this periodic requirement.

7. Don't make promises you can't keep

Don’t select input from users, such as forms - based orders or email response unless you have a commitment to process them.

Don’t list a contact number or email address unless you’re ready to respond promptly.