Have you got your site right? Creating Websites for Business

A functional website is the critical first stage in e-commerce, for any business. Angus Kidman examines the options of scale, cost, hardware and software, and hosting it yourself versus outsourcing

After a patchy start, Australian businesses are increasingly recognising the potential benefits of creating their own website for business.

According to the 2006 Sensis e-commerce survey, 48 percent of small enterprises in Australia now have a basic internet presence. As business size increases, the likelihood of having a website also rises, with 80 percent of medium businesses having already made the move online. So there’s a clear correlation between business growth and online activity, but moving online requires a careful planning and selection process.

First, you need to consider and plan the scale. Will the site offer just basic information; will content be regularly updated; do you need e-commerce options; will it be built by you or hired professionals; and will it be situated within your company on a dedicated server, or with an external provider?

It can be tempting to create a site featuring every bell and whistle imaginable, especially if you’ve gone to the trouble of hiring an external designer or developer. However, that might not suit your business. Your site needs to reflect your business branding and personality, but it also needs to be easy to navigate for people unfamiliar with your business. While an increasing number of Australians have high-speed broadband internet connections, many still use dial-up. Options such as Flash movies or complex graphics may prove frustratingly slow for these customers (this can be a particular problem for rural businesses)

Any visitor is only one click away from leaving. If your site is difficult or slow to navigate and load, many people will simply dismiss it. In particular, make sure critical business information—what your company does and major contact details—is visible on the entry page. Many experts advise against including your email address, as this can increase the volume of spam mail you receive. Using a contact form, which keeps your email address private but still allows customers to reach you electronically, is a good alternative strategy.

Ideally, you should integrate the site with other marketing activities. If you already produce a customer newsletter, then make that content available online as well.

The complexity of your site will also impact on the overall cost. In a typical site budget, you’ll need to allocate time for basic site design (including proofreading, an often-neglected element) and development. If you’re using site design software, discussed in more detail below, then this may not be a direct cost, but bear in mind that time spent on site design is effectively time that’s not available for other business tasks.

If you’re planning to host the site yourself, you’ll need to include costs for any new servers—typically in the thousands of dollars—and required internet connection upgrades, which are likely to rank in the hundreds of dollars a month. And if you’re planning on using a third-party provider, you’ll need to include ongoing monthly charges. (See our ‘Hire a Host’ section for more on this.)

This need not be excessively expensive, however. Basic website hosting, suitable for a simple business site, is available for as little as $10 a month. Check carefully to see what sort of uptime guarantee is included, as some discount providers have a patchy record on performance. It’s also a good idea to ask for references to other sites hosted with the same provider, and contact those businesses to ask about their experiences.

Prices for such services vary widely. For a basic site (including email services, which are typically bundled in since they will utilise the same internet domain name), you can pay anywhere from around $10 to $40 a month, depending on traffic levels. As prices rise, available services increase, including options such as complex statistical tracking, database-driven sites (useful if content changes frequently, but less relevant otherwise), higher levels of traffic, and support for different development technologies.