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Does my Business Need a Website?

Example website for a company

If you are asking yourself, “Does my business need a website?” the answer is unequivocally “YES!”  Over 2.6 billion local searches are performed monthly (Small Business Community – https://smallbusinesscommunity.org/2013/03/15/online-marketing-for-local-business-introduction/).  Having a website isn’t just for e-commerce anymore; it’s a must for any legitimate business.  Your website should be the hub to your marketing plan.

You should implement a website for a number of reasons:

  1. Websites provide your contact information and location easily: 43% of searches use a local keyword.  86% of those convert to a phone call or visit to your physical location, according to SE Leads (http://localvox.com/resources/marketing-statistics/).  People aren’t just relying on the Yellow Pages or other print directories anymore. Instead, they’re trusting Google to list local businesses based on their search terms and location.
  1. Websites provide information about your business: Businesses spend thousands of dollars creating paper brochures and fliers that end up being thrown away or misplaced on desks.  Having a website allows you to change information real-time without having to pay printing costs. Customers and prospects will always receive the latest information when they visit your site.
  1. Websites allow you to attract new customers: Over 2.4 billion people use the internet daily.  By not having a website, you miss out on these potential customers.  Have you ever heard a business owner say, “No thanks, I have enough business”?
  1. Websites can establish trust and credibility: What your website looks like affects the perceived value of your business.  If it looks unappealing, is rife grammar mistakes and has broken functionality, people are going to assume that your business is exactly the same: dysfunctional.  Your website is a reflection of you and your business.  By having one that is grammatically correct and well structured, your business will gain instant credibility and represent the true nature of your expertise.  One important thing to remember is that it is BETTER TO HAVE NO WEBSITE THAN A BAD ONE.
  1. Websites can provide reviews, testimonials and your completed projects: People like to see that you are capable of doing the work that they want to hire you to do.  They also like to know that other people enjoyed working with you.  Therefore, providing customer testimonials or allowing reviews of your company online help to showcase your expertise and the qualities that make working with you unique.  You can also provide details of completed projects, showing the quality of your work.
  1. Websites provide the opportunity for a Vanity Email: Along with your site comes the ability to have an email address that is you@yourwebsite.com.  You may think that the Gmail, Yahoo! or Hotmail account that you currently have is fine, but it lacks professionalism.  A vanity email is much easier to remember and will resonate with your clients.  A 2015 Verisign study concluded that 65% of consumers consider a vanity domain to be more credible than a generic email account.
  1. Websites allow you to have a company blog or event page: A blog or event page on your site allows you to provide your clients with your latest promotions, events, discounts and more.  The blog also allows you to establish your expertise with your customers by writing high quality content that is relevant to them and your field.
  1. A website allows YOU to save time and money: Your website provides your clients with 24/7 access to your company and any information that you provide.  If you add a customer portal, ticketing system or even an FAQ section, you will streamline your process and decrease YOUR cost of customer support.
  1. A website allows you to keep up with your competition: I can guarantee that at least one of your competitors is online and if you are not, the additional people that they can reach will not even know about you.  Why make it easy for another company to beat you?  A good site can help level the playing field between big and small companies.

If you want to establish rapport with a broader set of customers, provide up to date information about your company, easily answer questions from clients, reach a new set of prospects and compete with your largest competitors, then a website is for you.  Integrity First Technology Solutions can help you create a successful website and more.  Contact us today!

 

Hosting a Site on Plesk without Providing the Email Service

Recently, IFTS had a situation where we were asked to host a website for an organization, but they would be using Microsoft365 for their email.  This was a new situation for us, as we provide the email service for every other website that we host.  The organization’s web host is MidPhase, so this is where we created an “A” record for their domain pointing to our server.  On our server, we set up the domain on Plesk as usual.  Additionally, we copied the Microsoft365 email DNS settings from MidPhase into Plesk as a precaution.

The organization’s new website was published and working well.  Additionally, sending a test email to the Microsoft365 account from Gmail worked fine.  However, sending an email from any email account on our server to the Microsoft365 account resulted in the email immediately being bounced back.  The bounce back contained the error code 17099 and a message that claimed that the mailbox did not exist on the target server.

Just establishing the DNS settings point to Microsoft365 in Plesk was not enough.  When you create a domain in Plesk, it evidently automatically creates a postoffice for that domain in mailEnable.  Therefore, despite the fact that the DNS settings pointed to Microsoft365, the mailboxes on our server just attempted to automatically deliver the email to the domain’s newly created postoffice that was not being used.  Hence, the bounce back.

The solution is to turn off the mail service for this domain.  To do this, go to Home > Subscriptions > Your domain.  Click on the “Mail” tab next to “Websites and Domains”, then click on the “Mail Settings” tab.  Select the domain and click on the “Activate/Deactivate Services” button to deactivate the postoffice/mail domain.

plesk screen shot

After we did this, we sent a test email from our server and it went through fine with no bounce back.

 

 

 

What do I Need in Order to have a Website for my Company?

In order to have a website for your company, you typically need to have three things:

  1. A domain
  2. A web host
  3. Your coded website files

Domain

http www go to website 3d abstract concept

As soon as you know the name of your company, you will want to start looking into a domain name, or what a user will type into their web browser to get to your site.  Generally, your domain name should be short and to the point.  There are two reasons for this:

  1. You want people to easily get to your site and short names are the easiest to remember
  2. This will most likely be your email address, so it should be easy to say and spell for others

For example, if your company name is “Betty Brown’s Cupcakes”, you may want to look into purchasing the domain “BBCupcakes.com”.  Some companies purchase multiple domain names and have them all forward to the main domain.  Using the cupcake company as an example, they may purchase “bettybrownscupcakes.com” as well as “bbcupcakes.com”.  Then they could have “bettybrownscupcakes.com” forward automatically to “bbcupcakes.com”.  This way, their customers are able to type the company name into the address bar and still arrive at the company’s main site.

A domain is normally purchased by year through a domain provider, but multiple years can be purchased as well, sometimes with a small per year discount.  The domain provider should provide a control panel that will allow you to configure your web host and email settings.

Web Host

3-Blog-Article-Image---webhostforwebsiteOnce you have a domain, you will need a space upon which to put your website.  This is where a web host comes in.  A web host will provide space on a server for you to put your site files.  They should assign you an IP address or server address, which you will need to enter in your domain settings.  This way, when your domain name is typed in a browser, the browser looks to the domain provider, who provides the server where your website sits.  The browser then looks at that server and is able to display your web page.

Website files

Once you have your structure in place for hosting your site, you will need an actual website to go on it.  To create your site, you will want to speak with a web design company about the best options for you.  They should go over site structure, content and framing as well as many other things that go into the creation of a website.

Bonus: SSL Certificate

It is highly recommended that an SSL certificate be purchased for your site to protect your site visitors.  For more information on SSL certificates, please see IFTS’ blog entry on SSLs.

Please see our blog entry next time on “My Site is Up and Running, so Now What?”