Need a great website for your business or organization, but don't have a huge budget? Feel like you're getting the runaround when you talk to web developers about your project? Here's an overview of what you need to build your own company website without spending a fortune or losing your mind.

1. How to
Design a
Company
Website
(without spending a fortune
or losing your mind)

2. Do you want a great
looking website that fully
supports your sales and
marketing objectives?

3. It’s easier than ever to build
an effective business website.

4. Katherine Chalmers
Strategic Director
VelocityMarketing.com
Bio
KatherineChalmers.com

5. I hear the same
stories from frustrated
business owners
over and over…

6. This web stuff is
really complicated
a) I need a better website but
don’t know where to start
b) The costs vary so widely I
don’t know how to be sure
I’m getting a good deal
c) How can I be sure my site
will support my business

7. I hired a web developer
who was:
a) some guy I found online
b) My neighbor’s kid home from
college for the summer
c) a local programmer who works
pretty cheap on the side

8. For a ten-page
website he charged:
a) $250
b) $1,000
c) $5,000
d) $7,500
e) $10,000

9. Now, there are problems.
a) I can't update anything
b) Something on the page is broken
c) It doesn't work right on mobile
d) It doesn't appear in search engines
e) It's hideously ugly and outdated
f) I got a cease and desist letter saying
that all the images are stolen

10. The developer won’t help
a) He wants a *lot* more
money to make changes
b) He won't take my calls
c) He's flaked; no one
can find him
d) He's a jerk! and
I hate him
e) All of the above

11. To be fair, he probably can’t help
• Developers are experts at coding, not marketing
• They love to tinker and are good at it; they don’t
get why we don’t want to tinker too
• They are trained to focus on low prices for
technology, not maximizing business value
• They think marketing and sales people are
stupid and don’t always listen to their concerns

12. This kind of foolishness
might be OK for your
cat video blog …

13. … but it’s utterly untenable
for someone trying to
run a business.

14. It doesn’t have
to be this way.

15. Designing websites
used to be hard.

16. It’s so much easier today.
It doesn’t have to take
forever or cost a fortune.

17. Here’s what you need…

18. • Logo & branding
• Domain name
• Web hosting account
• Content for your pages
• Content management platform
• Lead capture mechanism
• eCommerce package (optional)
• Analytics

19. But first, think about why
you need a website

20. Personas
Who will come to your site?
Prospects, customers, partners, employees

21. Content

22. Section Guidelines
• Home
• Company
– Background, management, investors, clients,
careers, locations/contact
• Solutions/Products
– Primary selling area of the site
• Services
– Customer service, professional services

23. Section Guidelines
• News
– Releases, headlines, events, awards, press kit
• Contact us
– Link on every page
• Information request form
– Link on every page
• Site map/search

24. SEO & Content Mapping
• Don’t wreck your SEO rankings!
• Redirect old pages to the new pages
• Create content to match high value keywords
• Interlinking strategy for rich interaction
• Make on-page optimization really easy
• Sitemap.xml
• Robots.txt

25. Actions
• Subscribe to email updates
• Request info or demo
• Research products & services
• Download materials/access resources
• Self-serve customer support
• Find your contact information

26. 07
Actions
Subscribe!
Free trial
or demo
Customer
Support
What actions do you want your visitors to take?
Find contact
information
Research
products and
services

27. Integrations

28. Context

29. Maximizing Quality; Minimizing Cost
• Knowledge
– Constant learning saves
• Planning
– Avoid costly changes later
• Vendor selection
– Find bootstrap vendors and
share quality tool
Omit or delay
– Are you sure you need it?
Can you simply add it later?
Be flexible
– Do not build if you can
inexpensively buy
– Do not buy if you can
inexpensively license
Don’t be cheap where it
counts most
– Spend generously for long
term value
– Don’t skimp on graphic
design or quality tools

30. Putting the pieces
into place

31. • Logo & branding
• Domain name
• Web hosting account
• Content for your pages
• Content management platform
• Lead capture mechanism
• eCommerce package (optional)
• Analytics

32. Branding

33. Your domain is the
name of your
website – wherever
it happens to be

34. Your hosting provider is
the server where your
website parks

35. Web Hosting
• You website’s home on the web
– Put the electronic files where other people can view them
• Types of hosting to consider
– Shared hosting – many small sites on one server
– Virtual private server – a few sites on one server
– Cloud hosting – a virtual server supported by a cloud-
based group of servers and load balancers

36. Cheap hosting is EXPENSIVE
• Downtime, slow response impacts revenue
• Downtime, slow response impacts SEO
• Bad support costs you money
• Security and malware attacks
• Potential spam blocking and blacklisting

37. Free hosting is STUPID
• IT guy’s internal server? (NO, NO, NO, NO, HELL NO!)
• Do you have a 24/7 server admin to babysit that free
server you’re going to plug into your network?
• Extra virtual machine in your dev team’s AWS?
• Love driving traffic to someone else’s brand?

38. What to look for in hosting provider
• 24/7 professional management in a secure NOC
• 24/7 telephone and chat support – a must!
• Easy to use control panel
• FTP access, databases, control panel
• Email accounts

39. What you need What it is Where you get it
Domain name
The name of your website
mydomain.com
Domain registrar
Web server
Where your website lives on the web
(a physical or cloud server)
Web hos=ng provider
Content Management
System (CMS)
A program on your web server that allows
you to enter content for your pages and
posts. The content is stored in a database.
Upload and install on server
or 1-click install from host
DNS Registry
A lookup table that connects your domain
name with the IP address of your web server.
(The MX record points to your email server)
Manage in your domain
registra=on account
Connec=on protocol that allows you to

40. Popular Content Management Systems
WordPress,
59.1%
Joomla, 6.2%
Drupal, 4.9%
Shopify, 1.2%
Squarespace,
1.0%
Hubspot, 0.1%
All others,
27.5%

41. Why use Wordpress
• Free, open source, mature, easy to use software
• Massive user community, lots of support
• Thousands of free and premium themes to make
your site look great without hiring a top designer
• Thousands of free and premium plugins to add
functionality without hiring a top coder
• SEO-friendly (Matt Cutts uses it for his blog)
• Security and flexibility

42. Themes are magic!

43. Beef up Wordpress with plugins
• SEO - if not built into your theme
• Form handler and/or email opt-in integration
• Formatting short codes
• Security (firewall, virus/malware scanner)
• Spam filter
• Caching, minifier, image optimizer, Gzip
• Backup, updater

44. Lead capture mechanisms
• Landing pages - in
theme or external site
• Popups and banners
• Forms – integrated with
email or marketing
automation provider
• Tracking code for ad
conversions and remarketing

45. eCommerce Package Options
• Separate application or
shopping cart service
• Integrated shopping
cart plugin(s)
• Paste in payment
processor buttons

46. Analytics
• Google Analytics
• Google and Bing
Webmaster Tools
• Facebook pixel code
• Google Adwords
conversion tracking
• Marketing automation
tracking code
• Remarketing codes

47. Next steps . . .
• VelocityMarketing.com Web Resource Guide
– Lists our favorite vendors and resources for websites
• Build Your Website Boot Camp
– 3 week guided process to get your site up and running
– Structured task list
– Email support
– Weekly web conference check-ins
• Web Marketing Consulting (Done for You Service)

48. Questions? Contact
• Katherine Chalmers
@kathchalmers
katherine@velocitymarketing.com
571.302.4040