Part V: Maintenance (Building a small business website)
Summary: How to run your small business website.
In this section, I will go over the things you need to be aware of when running your small business website. For other topics, see:Table of contents
- Introduction
- Part I: Pre-Exploration
- Part II: Exploration
- Part III: Development
- Part IV: Deployment
- Part V: Maintenance
Your custom domain registration is not forever. Make sure you do not forget to renew the registration; otherwise, it will expire and will be up for grabs. The worst thing you can do for your online presence is lose your domain name. It also makes sense to take advantage of registration promotions when you can save 15-25% off the renewal fees.
Tools
In addition to the website builder and webmaster tools offered by search engines, you may find the following tools helpful:
- PMetrics: Tracks site statistics and performance.
- Montastic: Will send you an email when your website goes down (similar services).
- CheckSite.us: Checks if site is down for everyone or just you (similar services).
Once you publish your site and it stays online for a few months, you will probably start receiving solicitations from third parties for improving your Google ranking, or what is known in the industry as search-engine optimization, or SEO. Should you pay your hard-earned dollars for a promise of getting more visibility in search results? The short answer is: no. For a longer answer read Paul Boag's article The Inconvenient Truth About SEO.
Examples
Finally here is a list of small business websites, that were built using the principles I outlined in this series:
- Autovet (automotive shop; Weebly; free)
- Harbor Senior Care (elderly care; Weebly; free)
- Oleg Oliferuk, DDS (dental practice; Weebly; free)
Resources
250 Quick Web Design Tips (Part I)
Web Developer Checklist
| << Read Part IV |
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