Web sites for small business

Do I need a web site?

The answer should always be YES. Even if you have enough work coming in your customers will expect to be able to contact you, view your products and get an idea of your professionalism and your ability to deliver the product your are selling.

What sort of web site do I need?

It depends on what you need your web site to do for you.
1. You may be after an online presence where people can look at what you offer and get in touch via an online form or by phone.
2. You may want to set up a blog where you can write informative posts and get people to comment and interact with you.
3. You you may want to sell products via an online store.
4. Or you may want a combination of the above.

A Static html & css web site is the best option if you want to showcase your services and allow people to get in touch. A wordpress site is best for a blog where you can interact with people via your blog posts. You can also incorporate e-commerce functionality into the site. If you are looking for an e-commerce solution to sell products an e-commerce site is your best bet. There are plenty to choose from but Shopify offers everything you need to get yourself set up. If you have an existing web site and would like to introduce an e-commerce solution you can set up Shopify on your existing site.

Domain Name

Your business needs a web site which means it needs to purchase a domain name. Domain names are not expensive and are the first important step in setting up your web site. Buying a domain name is relatively easy - choosing an appropriate name is a little more difficult. Domain names have a suffix or what is known as a top-level domain (TLD). TLDs include .com, .com.au, .net.au, .org.au, etc. A '.com' name can be registered by anyone, however a '.com.au' (and other '.au' 2LDs) can only be registered by Australian companies and must meet eligibility criteria. For an Australian small business you should be looking at purchasing a '.com.au' domain name where the name is the same or similar to your business name. You can read the rules here. If possible, it's a good idea to register the .com equivalent as well, if it's available. For example, if your business name was 'PJMC Plumbing' the domain name you would be looking at purchasing would likely be www.pjmcplumbing.com.au or www.pjmc-plumbing.com.au. You would also look at the availability of the '.com' equivalent domain name - in these cases it is available but, depending on the name of your company, it may not be. We are authorised sellers of web hosting and domains through Synergy Wholesale and we can provide some of the best prices available when you sign up to one of our packages.

Web Hosting

Your web site needs to be hosted. Hosting companies charge businesses for having their sites on their servers, providing space for web files, data transfer, email addresses, reporting and support. These start from around $15/month for a small site. There are plenty of quality (and not so good) hosts to choose from. We use an Australian based web host for our web hosting. An SSL certificate provides site protection and customer reassurance and should be included with your hosting, or at least with a small extra payment.

Page Content

Once you've got a domain name and have settled on a hosting company, you need to create your web site. Costs involved with creating a site can range from hundreds of dollars up to thousands, depending on the size of the site and the functionality required. Ongoing costs can vary depending on what type of web site you have and what functionality you have. Apart from your domain name and hosting fees you may have advertising costs and maintenance costs (especially for an ecommerce site).

How do I monitor my site?

There are a number of ways to keep track of how your site is performing. Google analytics is a great start and may be the only tool you will need. It gives a comprehensive summary of your visitors, their demographics, what pages they visited, how long they stayed on the site and much more. It is a free tool - you just need to set up your tracking code with Google and paste a small piece of code on each page on your site.

Learn more about search engine optimisation (SEO) and the search engine results page (SERP). If you are looking for a new web site we can create a fully optimised site for you. Click for more info.

Our web services

new web site

1-5 page fully optimised site with our local business setup included as well as a .com.au domain name, contact form, 5 email addresses, three months hosting fees with SSL certificate from $499.
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web site maintenance

Ongoing maintenance of your web site including site updates, traffic analysis, broken links, site speed and on-page issues with a monthly performance report. Cost based on site updates.
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web hosting

Australian based web hosting plans starting from $7 per month with unlimited bandwith and emails and SSL certificate. We also have domain name registration available from $15 per year.
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