Creating Your Own Website: Things to Consider

Can you create your own website? Sure you can - there are lots of programs (many of them free) and with a little tech knowledge and lot of time, you can put together a website that will give people your basic information. However, if you are creating your website for a business, there are some critical elements that you want to be able to address:

1. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) - Having a great website won't do you any good if the search engines cannot find it. SEO is the technical description of how a website is designed to match what Google, Yahoo, and Bing are looking for when their systems "crawl" through your website. A lot of SEO rides on the actual writing of the website, but there are coding and behind-the-scenes issues to be considered as well. Thankfully, much information is available online to help you with SEO too including articles that come straight from the horses' mouths - that is, written by Google, Bing, and Yahoo experts. 
2. Web-friendly content - In order for search engines to be "happy" with your page, your content has to be written in a very specific way. Google prefers a certain number of words per page depending on the page type, the content should have specific keywords included, headings need to be of the right type and style, the writing should be at about an 8th grade reading level, your location should be included, links are necessary, and the list goes on. 
3. Pictures and graphics - Your website will be much more attractive if you include pictures - just make sure you have permission to use them! If you have taken the pictures yourself, you are just fine, but just because you found the picture online doesn't mean that you can use it on your website - many copyright suits are based on this mistake. 
4. Business listings - Each of the three major search engines and all of the major online review websites create a business listing page specific for your business. You will want to take control of your your listings and ensure all of the information is up to date and includes the link to your website. There are many ways to use reviews to market your business, so be sure to read up on Online Reputation Managing (ORM) too.

Depending on your level of comfort with technology, you may be able to put together your own website with minimal support, but if you need more guidance, IRM would be happy to help you either with your website, your SEO, or your ORM.