How To Set Up a Commercial Website

Setting up a website for your business may seem complicated, but with the current online resources, you will find that it’s quite easy. You can build one that is attractive and effective, you simply have to plan ahead and pool the right people in.

Consider the following steps:

* Think about what you want your website to do. Prior to setting it up, decide how you want the website to function. Work out what kind of site you need it to be while it aids your business growth. There are several types of websites and it ranges from simple advertising pages to full-blown e-commerce websites. You can build a simple webpage with your contact details, and a few words and simple images to advertise your business. You can also opt for an e-brochure or catalogue, or you can go for a functional e-commerce site with order-taking capabilities and interactive sections for your customers.
* Get a web designer. Although many web hosting companies now offer free build-your-own-website tools, the outcome may be too generic and not visually enticing to consumers. However, if you’re concerned about keeping costs to a minimum, they can be a decent initial website and online presence. Another option for a low-cost site is to request for quotes from local graphic design studios. Many of them offer affordable web “design and build” schemes.
* If you are willing to shell out a couple of bucks, find a local web design company. Seeking professional advice will make your site a more serious image and will attract serious customers as well.
* Work out the contents of your site. A good way to go is find one active website which attains what you want your would-be site to do. List the best features of that site and you can pattern your site after that. However, basic contents should be included, such as the “About us” and “Contact us” pages. Of course, your products and services should take up as much web pages as needed to clearly advertise your business.

* Pick out you hosting company. Before choosing a web hosting service, you must ensure that you’re getting your money’s worth. One thing to consider is the included web space. 200MB or higher is sufficient. For the traffic included, it should be 1GB every month. Traffic in information technology means the amount of visitors or number of visits a web site receives.
* Another thing to consider is if FTP access is included. This will allow you to log onto your site and amend any information as needed, for instance, you can update the product catalogue for the new month.
* Work within the law. If your site includes an online ordering tool and you collect customers’ personal data and payment details, make sure that you’re in compliance with the current security or privacy laws in your area. Get legal advice if you’re in doubt.


These are general tips on how you can set up a commercial website. Remember that it’s best to work closely with the site designer and builder. Their ideas and the inputs of the business owner or manager are important factors for the design phase of the web site. Monitor the progress of the website building, make a test visit and purchase and assess which features still need tweaking.