Regardless of what kind of business you have or what you plan to sell over the Internet, you need a website—no ifs, ands, or buts about it!

Setting up a website can be simple, fast, and cheap, literally as easy as 1-2-3-4:

STEP # 1 – Buy your domain name

STEP # 2 – Find a web host

STEP # 3 – Design your website

STEP # 4 – Upload your website

You don’t need to spend a fortune on your website, but you do need to know what works and what doesn’t.

Most people try to save money here, and rightfully so. Web design companies are a dime-a-dozen these days.

But these people and companies end up with a tragic site that doesn’t sell a thing, all because they skimped when they should have spent and spent where they should have skimped.

For example, many people even today still think you don't need to purchase your own domain name (www.yourwebsite.com.) They would rather save a few bucks and have a url such as www.yahoo.com/members/yourname/index.htm

Yes, believe it or not, this is still happening—a lot. Big mistake. If you’re serious about having a presence on the web, it is essential to have your own domain name.

Tips For Choosing A Domain Name

• Try to find a catchy name that people will remember.
• Try to find a name that isn’t too hard to spell.
• Try not to make the domain name too long, because it’s annoying and easily forgettable.
• Get a domain name with a keyword in it. This will improve your ranking on some search engines.
• Try to buy a .com domain name (instead of .net or .info or other) because this is what first comes to mind when people type in a domain name from memory.
• Try not to use a hyphen (-) in the name because visitors to your domain will have to be sure to remember the hyphen, which usually doesn’t happen.
• If your website is country specific, then a country domain extension would be suitable. If your're marketing your services only in the UK, then www.yourdomain.co.uk

• If the domain name you ultimately choose doesn’t have keywords that relate to your site in it, you can improve your search engine rankings by registering other domains which will point to your primary website.

Check to see if your domain is available at www.godaddy.com. If there’s one that you love and it’s still available then act fast and grab it before someone else does.

Design, Layout, Usability, Navigation, Architecture, And More

When building your website, remember that the design, layout, usability, navigation, architecture, functionality colors, and so on, are all vitally important.

Your site MUST focus on your target market. Decide where they will be coming from, what they are looking for, who they are (socio-economically), what will attract them or turn them off, and much more, and then laser target them with precise precision.

This is the secret key—if you don’t remember anything else from this report, remember what I said in the paragraph above. Read it one more time, it’s that important.

In terms of design, you need to make your site is intuitive so that your visitors will have the best experience possible.

For example, your site should follow some already recognized standards—like logo in the top left-hand corner, blue underlined links, and top and side menu bars. Now, these may seem like rules that can be bent or even broken, but web users are already familiar with these elements, and adhering to these rules will help make your site more usable.

Visibility and contrast are also important when you want to “influence” viewers to look at one part of a web page faster than another.

The hierarchy of information on a website and on secondary pages is also important. Topics categorized by their level of significance, with the most important topics appearing closer to the homepage and at the top of every page, with less important information further away and lower down the page, will help users find the information they need on your site.

These are just some basic guidelines. All of this is not easy at all, even for seasoned pros, and it can make the difference between the life and death of your business.

Consider this: Most people stay on a website for just six seconds before deciding whether to stay or go. And we all usually decide to go.

So make sure, in your effort to find the lowest priced web design company on the globe, that you keep these tremendously important ideas in mind.

You may think you’re saving money, but what you may actually be forfeiting is quality, and you don’t want to do that considering your website is probably the single most important marketing tool you have.

For great tips, strategies, resources and helpful hints as to how to design your website to make it sell, you can contact AAU (www.allaccessunlimited.com). We provide a healthy dose of FREE consultation whenever possible.

Now that your site is up, the real work begins—driving qualified traffic to your site, and that qualified traffic is the people and companies who are going to be buying your wares.