Here are some things that owners of a startup business need to keep in mind when thinking of a new web design.

1. Registration of the Domain Name

Before business owners contact a web design company that will create the website for their business, choose a domain name and check if it is still available. Examples of domain name are google.com, nike.com and filsupport.com. It is recommended to put the name of the business or some keywords in the domain name. Keywords are usually the service or product that a business is offering. This means that the domain name should be like companyname.com, service.com or companynameproduct.com.

Now, if the domain name which was chosen is available, it needs to be registered or booked so that nobody else will be able to book it. If the business owner doesn’t know how to do this, web design companies would be able to assist the owner in booking the domain name. However, business owners need to be very careful with the web company who will register the domain name because there are some companies who are going to register a domain name on behalf of their customers but they keep all the rights while the customers pay for it. Therefore business owners need to make sure that when the domain is booked, they are assigned as the registrant, billing contact and perhaps the technical contact as well.

It is very important that after the domain has been registered or booked, the web company should provide the domain control panel details to the business owner.

2. Website Hosting

There are web design companies which also provide web hosting services. Web hosting will allow a website to be accessible via the World Wide Web. Business owners need to buy a web hosting space.  For a startup company, a 500 MB space is quite good enough which can already take care of the business’ specific e-mail accounts (i.e. manager@companyname.com or employeename@companyname.com).  The e-mails will automatically be working right after the domain name and the web hosting space had been purchased and even if the website has not yet been launched or still at the development stage.  The e-mails will have more flexibility and become more reliable if there are google applications implemented for them.

Business owners must remember to ask the web host for their customer service contact info which can be an online support (a ticket based support) or a phone support. This is to make sure that they can be contacted immediately should there be any problems that may arise like the e-mails not working or the website is not loading.

3. Web Design

Before contacting a web design company which will build the website, business owners need to make their own research in advance. They can start by looking at the websites of the business’ competitors which can help them in figuring out what requirements do the new website really needs. They should also decide first on what type of website will the business have. Would it be a static or a dynamic site.  Static websites are websites which has fixed contents while dynamic websites have frequently changing contents which requires a Content Management System or CMS.

4. Web Development Technologies

Which web development technology to use depends on what the website require.  There is really no bad web development technology or one which can be the best among others.  There is just the right one which best fits the requirement. There are websites which use an ASP.net while others use and open source platform.

5. Web Development Company

The right web development company for any web design project is the one that has years of experience, can provide samples of their works, references, has a team of web professionals and can deliver results.  However, business owners can also include some other factors like the rates and mode of payments in making the decision on which company to outsource to.

6. Internet Marketing

Having a website is simply the start. It is important to have a well planned internet marketing campaign. If the business doesn’t have anyone within the organization who knows how to make a website become popular and appear on the result page on search engines, getting services from an internet marketing company is a highly recommended.  What’s the use of a website if it is invisible to people who are using the internet? A website is invisible if it doesn’t show up on the first page of the results page because majority of these searches never get passed the first page.

A business owner, who plans to have a new website designed for his or her startup business, needs to know of the things mentioned in this article in order to have a more successful online business.