5 Blunders to Escape When Building your Own Website.

As a small business in the current era, a website is seen as an essential must for most businesses as the way customers search for a native business or service has changed from using directories such as Yell to using Google.

 Getting the website right is significant for small businesses as its first thing a potential client or customer may see of your business. Inappropriately getting a professional into build you that website can be an expenditure some small businesses can't have enough money when starting up their business. The business owner will then one or the other go without a website or decide to build one themselves with the aim of having it substituted by a professional when the cash flow allows it.

I continuously recommend my clients to have a go at doing some kind of website building, if not their own, a test website so they know the kind of work I would do and they have an elementary knowledge to do some updates themselves.

What faults can a Proprietor make when branding their businesses?

1) - Personalisation - We all have our own thoughts of what we think a good website looks similar. The type of colours we would like to use on our website and what we want to display on the website. Far too many small business owners try and initial their website that it becomes more about their needs rather than what their clients or customers will want to see.

       Tip - i) - Research & know your target market with the website. Find contestants sites and take spur (DO NOT COPY) from what you like about the sites.

2) - We, We, We - When anyone talks about their company, they will always say "we are the best", "we can do this" etc. When writing content on a website, we need to involve the visitor into thoughtful about you and why they would use you. Don't tell the visitor you're the greatest, tell them why you are.

       Tip - ii) - Write your content with your visitor in mind, tell them why they should careful you over your competitors.

3) - Info Graphics - When building a small business website, including images of previous work, your premises or of you and your staff is common perform, but have you ever looked at an image and thought "this image doesn't instil sureness in this company?”

       Tip – iii) - Use professional looking images, either by borrowing a expert camera kit, using a local photographer or buying stock images from sites such as Fotalia and shutter stock.

 4) - Official Papers - As a small business, a well-documented contract is a must when allocating with clients. A well written contract will protect you in case of late payment and purchaser or customer feedback.

       Tip – iv) - Get a set of contracts written up to protect your and your business. A lawyer can write up contracts to cover any condition that may occur or there are websites that sell generic contracts which you can amend to your specific needs.

5) - Exclusive rights - The main matter a small business will find when building a website is copyright. There is a common problem with copyright on the internet as a lot of people don't realise that any text, images and other content such as videos, simulations etc. have automatic copyright rights to the author. It is not rare for small businesses to copy images from other websites to use on their own site.

       Tip – v) - Never copy images, text or content from a different website without prior consent from the website owner or content creator. You may take inspiration from copyrighted content but you cannot copy the unique. Stock Image sites such as fotalia may have alike images / videos which you are legally endorsed to use.