Thinking of starting a website? Before you chat to a website designer, you can create your own draft website just using a word document. This will be the kind of information your website designer will be requiring from you, so you can be prepared - which will save time and money, and allow for a more accurate quote.

Open a new document and consider page one as the home page. Decide what you need to say –what will your main heading be? What will you say in your first paragraph? This exercise will force you to focus on what you have to offer your customers, and it will give you an idea of how much information you will need to provide in order to give a complete overview of your business.

Create a new page for each section of your website. You may include a page for each product or service you offer, or just have one page as an overview of all your products or services. The contact page can be straightforward – just list all the methods of contacting your business.

Have a look at other websites in your industry to get ideas, and think about what it is that you like about your favourite websites. Communicate all this to your website designer to will help ensure that you get the most value from your website.

It’s obvious that you need a website to be in small business these days, but how do you go about organising the content that will be on your website? If you have a business plan (and you should, even if it’s basic), then you can use it as a starting point to develop your website content.

The summary of your business plan is analogous to your home page content. It contains an overview of your business: what you do; what you offer your customers; who are your customers; why they should do business with you; etc.

Your business plan will include a list of the products or services that you offer, with detailed descriptions. You can use this information to form the bulk of your website. It may require several sections to include all the information in an organised and easy-to-find manner.

Throw in a biography (often called ‘About Us’), and all your contact details and there’s the heart of your website. This process can be done in reverse. Putting together content for a website can be used as the basis for your business plan.

Business websites can be roughly categorised into three categories: brochure, ecommerce and hybrid.

1. Brochure website

This is for businesses operating in the ‘offline’ world, also referred to as ‘bricks and mortar’ businesses. They have a physical office or shop that they operate from, and they don’t sell goods or services through the internet.

A brochure website is simplest and most economical type of website; it can even be just a home page and nothing else. It’s an information source about your business - like a brochure that you would hand out to potential customers – that contains some sales and marketing copy and contact information.

A website for a restaurant could contain information about the style of food served, the location, operating hours, menus, how to contact or make a booking.

Increasingly, this is how people look for a business.

2. Hybrid Website

Businesses who operate a traditional ‘bricks and mortar’ business, but who also take advantage of the ecommerce possibilities the internet provides, are businesses that may have a hybrid website.

Diversifying your business to include an online component can introduce efficiencies and enable you to reach new markets.

Examples:

· retailer selling online
· banks
· newspapers

3. Pure ecommerce

With the explosion of internet use around the world, new business models have been appearing to take advantage of the new space.

Many businesses now operate purely in the online space, with no offline operations. This can be a very efficient way to conduct business, as ordering and fulfilment processes can be automated.

Examples:

· Google
· hotspotting.com.au
· eBay
· realestate.com.au

Ten years ago, most people would look for goods and services in the Yellow Pages or newspaper classifieds. Today, people ‘Google’ the business they are seeking. A business with a professionally built website is more likely to be found near the top of the results for a relevant search.

The types of business that don’t need a website are diminishing as more and more people search for everything online. Five years ago, many categories of business didn’t need a website. Why would a motor mechanic need a website? Today if you are searching for a local motor mechanic on Google and the top result takes you to a well designed web page, you may well contact that business first. Especially if it provides details of the services provided, operating hours, pricing and contact information.

Consider a restaurant website for example, it could contain information about the style of food served, the location, operating hours, menus, how to contact or make a booking. This information would be very useful to the person looking for somewhere to eat out in the local area.

A brochure website is simplest and most economical type of website; it can even be a ‘one pager’ - just a home page and nothing else. It’s an information source about your business that is accessible to potential customers wherever they are located. As a minimum it will contain sales and marketing copy and contact information. It is for businesses operating in the ‘offline’ world - also referred to as ‘bricks and mortar’ businesses - which have a physical office or shop that they operate from, and they don’t sell goods or services through the internet.

As more and more people search for goods and services online, consider the advantage for your business of a professionally designed brochure website.