Developing Your Design: Layout Elements

Think of yourself as an artist with a blank canvas. When building a custom layout you want to start by answering a few basic questions. Think about your goals for the site, the target audience, the conversion objectives and branding aims. Start by asking yourself: what should my site convey and what do I want visitors to do? Whether your startup is seeking to generate new leads from clients, make sales of products or build loyal readers, you should design according to your conversion objectives.

Let’s suppose your startup markets local business professionals and you’re generating leads for your partners – in order to optimize your site layout and design, you should think about visual elements which appeal to the demographic. Your website should have a unique visual persona which is conveyed through professional fonts, logos, quality images (whether you take your own or purchase stock photos), properly balanced color, accessible navigation and an intuitive layout.

Start by mapping out a user scenario based upon how your site is presented. In this case, a user might visit your home page from a search engine looking to inquire about local accountants. After reading the content and mission statement on your site, he then begins to explore the site to gain a sense of how you can help solve the problem. In the example on the left, you can see the visual map of a potential conversion and should design each element to make the navigation to the conversion outcome easier.

Of course, branding and visual elements are important for ensuring the user remains on the site and establishes trust with your brand.  Adding visual elements such as testimonials, trust seals and a clean layout can encourage further action. You should emphasize the conversion and navigation aspects of your site so users are encouraged to interact with the site.

Coding Your Design: HTML / CSS and Testing

Working through various drafts of your design in Photoshop, you should get feedback from colleagues, partners or friends. Get a sense of which visual elements work best. Once you have narrowed it down to a design and layout structure, you should then proceed to code the design in HTML and CSS (cascading style sheets which controls fonts and layout elements.) If necessary you should hire a programming to code your design, and should consider implementing it within the software that best suits your purposes. For example, a corporate or blog layout should be coded for Wordpress or another CMS (content management system) while an e-Commerce cart should be written in the proper template style. With a quality coded design you can proceed to testing and analyzing the various visual elements based upon feedback.

Choosing Website Builder Tools

Many web hosting companies and software development companies offer visual site builder tools for beginners. For either a low flat fee or monthly hosting rate, you can build a site with a visual WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor. Understanding how to design a quality site in house requires programming and design experience that many startups do not have. You don’t even have to know basic HTML with these programs, since they rely upon drag and drop visual editors, as well as automated scripting so you can add forms, functions, images and media. Website creation software is designed to bridge that gap by offering tools so you can create an ideal site to match your brand vision.

Most programs on the market today cost less than $50 with advanced programs running slightly more. Popular options such as Intuit Website Creator also give you a web-based interface for just $5 a month, which also gives you the flexibility of hosting the site with them for a nominal fee. Most professional designers create sites starting with visual images and proceed to code – with website builder tools you complete the process in one step, using an integrated interface to customize the design accordingly. Many programs, such as Web Easy Professional come with templates that you can customize, making it easier to start with a professional template.

Designing with Site Builder Tools

Today’s website builders have advanced features such as media editors, automatic uploads to your hosting, search engine friendly features (such as automated keyword tags), as well as automatic backup tools.  You can easily hire a professional writer to produce sales copy, as well as a designer to make a professional logo and integrate those with a website builder. Most software programs make it easy to add images, contact forms and tables to your site.

By loading up a basic template that meets your application or industry type – corporate, entertainment, etc – you can start customizing a variety of pages (About Us, Products, etc.) with your own content and images.  After building a quality site, you can go back and update the content as your startup evolves and can even learn basic design programming by viewing the dual visual and HTML editors included in many programs.

Suppose you are starting an apparel business online. In this case, the shopping cart will be a core part of your development process to facilitate online sales. Even if you’re a reseller you can use the site to take advanced orders, making the sales process much easier from beginning to end. Having multiple revenue sources for your business is a core way of limiting risks and opening up new business opportunities. When planning out the strategy for your business, you’ll want to make sure the execution of the idea follows through. Having a reliable shopping cart on your site can encourage transactions, improve data security and save you money.

There is a variety of shopping cart options on the market today ranging from open source solutions to fully hosted options. Let’s suppose you want to launch your apparel business through an e-Commerce cart. Here is an analysis of the features you want to look for in a hosted versus an installed shopping cart:

Hosted Shopping Carts

There are popular options, such as Volusion, which offer a fully integrated, hosted approach to shopping carts. With these solutions you can build out your apparel store on their servers, including customizable templates, integrated SSL certificates (for secure checkout), a merchant account to manage credit transactions, your own domain name as well as hosted software which allows you to manage your inventory and content. This solution is ideal for those who want their IT infrastructure taken care of so you can focus on building your business. There are a variety of hosted end-to-end solutions on the market, although there are often fixed monthly plus data transfer fees associated with these carts. You can get your apparel store up and running in a matter of days with an integrated approach, but expect to pay a couple hundred dollars a month for the complete services.

Self-Installed Shopping Carts

If you’re looking for more customization options, then a self installed shopping cart can provide an ideal solution. Popular open carts such as Magento feature an open structure where you can modify templates, modules (add-on features) as well as integrating add-on merchant, SSL and other services with a structured process. You’ll have to host your apparel store on an external server and compare vendors for your SSL, merchant account and design, so this may require a bit more research on your part. By spending extra time and resources, however, you’ll be able to broadly customize the cart to meet your ecommerce store needs.

Potential customers start commercial searches from a variety of vantage points, whether they are casually looking for a vendor, are seeking out new ideas or are just curious about finding a particular solution. As a result, any search marketing campaign should begin with keyword research. Identifying which search terms users utilize to find solutions in your area can help you better understand the market and tailor your marketing efforts accordingly. Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to the practice of updating the content, links and structure of your website to capture search terms through the regular (natural) results. Targeting the surrounding ads through pay per click (PPC) marketing is known as paid search.

Keyword Rearch

There are a variety of keyword tools, including Google’s keyword tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) which provides data on how frequent terms are searched for, as well as how many advertisers are on the PPC term. As an example, let’s analyze a series of Golf club related keywords to understand how we can utilize keyword-level data:

In the example above, there are both informational and commercial keywords. While commercial keywords have a higher buying intent they are also more competitive since more sites are actively competing for those keywords in both paid and natural search channels.  The key to successful search marketing is to build out a variety of content and campaigns which target both commercial and informational sources based upon opportunity.

Search Marketing Strategies

If you’re just starting out with a limited budget, then you’re going to want to first associate a dollar value to a conversion on your site. Whether you’re selling golf clubs or generating leads, understanding the net revenue from a particular conversion can help you properly organize an ad campaign.  After you identify the conversion goals you can start working on both your paid and natural search campaigns. Google is the best place to start for both aspects, since you can both track the results of your natural campaigns through Webmasters Tools (http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/) as well as targeting 70% of keyword searches through Google Adwords (http://adwords.google.com/).

Both PPC and natural search require determining keywords along with mapping them to the right pages on your site. For PPC you want to track your spend relative to conversions so you can adjust the bid and ads on each keyword, while natural search campaigns rely upon generating high quality links to your website, a major factor in search rankings. You should ensure the content of your site is high quality and targeted toward specific keyword sets, including product descriptions, blog posts and content pages, all of which should have a clear path toward a conversion outcome.

Selecting and Setting up Credit processing for your Startup

To start, it’s important to understand how merchant services fit into your overall conversion process. A merchant provider helps process credit cards by establishing an intermediate account which also has filters against fraud. In order to process credit cards, you need a processor for the card, a gateway which verifies the payment as well as a merchant account where the funds are deposited. A high quality merchant provider can offer you both a gateway and an account complete with security protections. There are a wide variety of merchant service provides, and you should work with the most reputable ones including Authorize.net, Paypal, Google or a provider linked to a major institution such as your bank.

Your vendor will essentially be your partner in processing, implementation and security for transactions on your site. Therefore, it’s important to ensure you select a quality company that offers support for their products. You can compare reputable providers in terms of the fixed and variable fees they charge on transactions, the contract requirements, as well as the protections they offer on purchases.  A high quality provider will have fraud filters, instant access to funds as well as a flexible contract with low processing fees, so you can keep and protect more of your revenue. For example, if you’re selling an investor newsletter online through your startup, you’ll want to accept all major credit cards and to be able to charge a subscription for recurring revenue. Identifying a merchant provider can help ensure the process is setup properly.

One you select a provider, you can often integrate the solution into an existing e-Commerce cart. Popular online carts such as Magento feature automated integration, so you only have to enter a basic set of account details as well as ensuring you have your SSL certificate (the secure socket layer that encrypts sensitive data transfer) setup on your site. If you have a custom shopping cart, check with the card processor to determine how you can use their API (application protocol interface, which connects your site with their backend) to process transactions. Most startups will want to use a checkout solution that has automated processing to make the process easier.  Maintain good contact with your selected merchant representative, who can help you with documentation, support and new features that might save your business money in the long run.

Case Study: A Startup Guide to Selecting Hosting

Let’s support you’re building a web sports startup that provides fantasy sports games, breaking sports news and sells tickets to sporting events. You have a complete business model that requires a quality hosting provide to deliver your content quickly, effectively and securely to customers. The first factor you’ll want to consider is just how much capacity and security you need from a host. If you’re starting out with just the content (news) section of the site, your bandwidth (data transfer) requirements will be basic enough for shared hosting, which is where you lease a common server shared across a variety of other sites.  A full site might require a larger investment in a virtual or dedicated server, which gives you more benefits in terms of load time, capacity and identity (you’ll have a dedicated IP address, which is how users and search engines uniquely identify your site.) Hosting providers maintain and lease servers to startups, so finding the right partner can limit your technical challenges while meeting all of your content needs:

• Support and Reputation

The first factor to consider is how responsive is your web host. Your server is running 24 hours a day, so their support desk should be too. In case your site goes down early in the morning, you want to hear a responsive voice at the other end with a helping hand. Look for a hosting provider who has been in business for years and offers quality support, whether they are a local or national provider.

• Data Security and Scalability

As you’re just starting out, make sure the hosting provider has the ability to easily migrate, or move, you to an upgraded hosting plan with minimal downtime. A reliable provider can help you add more space, features or options as your business grows. Having the ability to meet your current and future needs with the right provider can ensure your host can grow with you over time.

The Process of Incorporating a Web Startup

While the legal process of using an incorporating service may seem like a formality, the experience can help you better understand your business goals. Therefore, take the opportunity to make sure you fully understand the unique aspects of your business as well as your long term plan rather than just filling out the forms to help a provider register your firm. Working with incorporating services can make it much easier to file since there are formalities, but the basic characteristic questions asked by the filer will help you to conceptualize your business formation goals.

If you’re like many startup owners you only have a broad concept for the business – incorporation is a great opportunity to sharpen that thinking. When you incorporate your business, you do this on the state in which you have an office as well as filing with the IRS for tax purposes. If you’re just starting out you can use your home address or a registered agent, which serves as a placeholder address based upon an agreement.

The first issues when organizing your business is think about ownership, liability and operations aspects of the firm. To start, you should identify whether you are going to be the sole owner or whether you may bring in partners or investors in the future. If you’re a sole owner, then you may want to file as an LLC, which is a pass through entity that allows you to protect your assets while making it easier to organize the firm legally. On the other hand, there are tax and distribution issues to consider if you’re considering taking on new investors. Most states require you to file an Articles of Incorporation as well – an incorporation service can help you determine the structure for these as well as ensuring you file all of the necessary paperwork. To successfully register your business you will need to meet all requirements of the Secretary of State, and incorporating services will double check your filing for completeness and accuracy. In some cases you may want to refer to a business attorney to clarify any particular aspects of incorporating, while incorporating services can provide a base level of organization for your firm.

Domain Name Research and Strategy

Your search for a quality business domain name should begin with research into the name itself. Start by identifying what you want your company name to convey to consumers, and then begin thinking about possible naming options based upon that research. You may want to select a generic, descriptive name that directly conveys the location, service or contents if your site. Start by identifying the core keywords relevant to your site, whether it is a city, product name or industry. These domain names are keyword-rich and may require you to purchase a domain name from an existing owner – in this case, you will have to negotiate a price with the existing owner, who you can identify through Whois searches (http://whois.domaintools.com/) .

On the other hand, you may want to brainstorm unique branded domains which you can use to build up a brand – for example, Skype built a business with a creative domain that had few direct connections to web conferencing. The research process should incorporate ideas in both categories so you can narrow down you preference based upon what is available. Once you have identified the core terms ideal for your brand, you should begin the process of identifying which are available in your desired extension. While .com is the favored domain name extension, you may also want to consider .net domains for technology companies, .org names for non-profits as well as country-codes (.us, .co.uk. de, etc.) for localized sites. Fully evaluate your options to determine which available names is the best fit for your company.

Domain Name Registration and Security

You can determine domain name availability at a variety of accredited domain registrars (http://www.verisign.com/domain-name-services/find-registrar/index.html) . Make sure to register a domain at a reputable, accredited company which has a long track record, accessible support and an easily navigable interface. Since you’re investing in a brand name for your choice of a registrar is important.  After identifying the ideal domain you may also want to invest in related brand-protection names – such as registering your brand in .net to redirect to your main site or buying common typos to protect the brand.

Your goal in building a web-based business is to develop a reputable brand built around quality services. To improve the credibility of your brand, use accurate, accessible registrant information – this ensures potential customers and business partners can verify the location and identity of your startup. Taking time to register, develop and protect your online brand can get your startup on the right track.