Your company would like to get on the web.
The investment is small compared to other advertising media,
however it pays to choose your web developer carefully.

Your success on the Internet will be greatly affected
by the quality of work that the web company provides.

Some Internet providers give you "one stop shopping",
where you can get connectivity (access) to the Internet and
web development and maintenance.
Some of them outsource this to other companies.

If you have a programmer, graphic artist, scanner and the strength :-)
you can use a web provider overseas who may be cheaper

I have seen price quotes for the same plain web site development
ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars.
Price is not the only consideration but the price range is amazing.
The following are a few questions/points to ask your
prespective web company:

The Company

• How long have they been in the business?
  
  
• Where are they located - avoid 2 guys and a garage
  (However, history shows there have been exceptions )
  
  
• Look at their home page.
  
  Do they look like the company that can represent you?
  
  
• Where is the on-line server located?
  
  Do they have a backup server?
  
  How often do they backup their server?
  
  
• Which company provides them connectivity to the Internet?
  
  How fast is the line(s) to the Internet provider(s)?
  
  
• How many people work full time in web development?
  
  
• Who manages the technical end (system)?
  
  
• When/how can you reach them (especially when things go wrong)?
  
  
• Does the contract stipulate financial penalties
  for extended downtime per week (your site is down)?
  
  
• Request web addresses of 5 current customers with
  their own domains.
  Look at the customers pages and contact each.
  Contact info is usually on their web page.
  Are the companies overall satisfied?

Domain verse non-domain

• Any company that wants to utilize the Internet in a
  serious way should get their own domain.
  
  
• companyname.co.il is for Israeli companies
  
  
• companyname.com (USA based address)
  (also for companies that do not want to show they are in Israel)
  
  
• Good reasons to use a domain:
  
  A. You can print it on all your material (it is your premanent address.)
  
  B. If you decide to change your service provider,
  your address (domain) will stay the same.
  (note: routing info changes are made that your customer
  does not see or know about, figure 1-2 days to switch over)
  
  C. People will not appraise you based on the provider you choose
  (for better or worse)
  
  D. Your email address should/will also contain the same
  domain name (at least a forwarding alias)
  info@xxx.co.il
  sales@xxx.co.il
  admin@xxx.co.il
  hr@xxx.co.il
  My email address is: jrichman@jr.co.il
  All my email gets forwarded to my regular Internet dial-up account.
  You do not need a website to have a forwarding alias.
  Most Israeli services providers charge a small fee per month for
  email forwarding to your regular Internet account.
  If they host your website, they may not charge you for the forwarding service.
  
  E. All companies that connect their network to the Internet need a domain
  
  F. A small company can have a virtual domain
  without a network (for example my domain: jr.co.il)
  
  G. Domains are given out on a first come first gets basis.
  If someone else has widgets.co.il then it is theirs.
  (note: You may want to pay $60. and reserve a domain for the future).
  xxx.co.il = commercial
  xxx.org.il = non-profit
  xxx.ac.il = academic
  xxx.gov.il = Israeli government
  
  H. You can lookup the owner and routing of a domain address at:
  http://www.jr.co.il/hotsites/r-domain.htm
  
  I. The xxx.co.il can be routed to a server outside of Israel
  Note: www.jr.co.il is sitting in North Carolina
  (Cheaper hosting then Israel but sometimes there are logistical problems.)
  

Development

• Make sure YOU own any pages/programming source code developed for you
  Get a CD copy of all program sources / graphics.
  AT THE VERY LEAST: save a copy of all pictures and html pages
  via your browser.
  This can save you large legal bills and a lot of trouble if you
  decide to change providers down the road.
  
  
• Each developer has his own style.
  Review sample pages done by them.
  There is more then one way to deliver a message.
  
  
• Avoid too many graphics on a given page.
  
  
• Most decent sites have a consistant look and a common button bar or links on the top or bottom of each page
  
  
• Make sure there is a contact button or form clearly marked
  This should include:
  email address (maybe a graphic to avoid spam), phone, fax, snail-mail address
  
  
• Many developers would like their logo or company name on
  the bottom of your front page.
  IF you agreed to this it should be worth something!
  
  
• If you need financial transactions processed on-line,
  do they have a secure web server?
  What do they charge for the service (setup and monthly fees)
  
  
• If you have a Hebrew based site it would be wise
  to have a button to get to a parallel English page.
  

Business Considerations

• Do you have the freedom to put whatever you want on your pages?
  
  
• Can you put advertisements or sell services on your own?
  
  
• Can you lease your web space to your next door neighbor?
  
  
• Who are the provider's other customers?
  
  Do you want to be listed in the provider's mall?
  
  
• Will the provider advertise your site?
  Will he/she continue after the first week or is that your job?
  
  
• Will the provider enter your site in dozens of Internet Yellow Pages?
  
  
• All contact points/email links on your pages should go directly to you
  by email (only you). They are YOUR potential customers.
  

Maintenance Considerations

• If a plain page of text cost $20. to setup, what would 100 pages with the exact same format cost?
  It should NOT be $20 x 100. It should be much cheaper.
  
  
• How often and what are the charges for updates verse new pages?
  
  
• How quickly will the updates be done (get this in writing!)
  Up to 1 week is usually acceptable.
  
  
• Do you get weekly or monthly web statistics reports?
  Does it have summary information you can use and understand?
  (raw data logs with dozens of pages are hard to analyze and usually worthless.)
  Are there graphs?
  There are many packages (eg: Webtrends is good in my opinion)
  I tend to look at:
  Total hits/impressions per week
  Total user sessions per week
  Top 30 domains (where visitors come from)
  Top 50 most access pages on your site (hits)
  Top 100 refering pages (how they came to your site)
  Most companies do not charge for statistics.
  
  
• How are the monthly hosting fees calculated:
  A. Fixed quantity of pages stored (disk space in megabyte)
  B. Gigabytes transfered from the site (usually quoted in 100 gigabytes per month).
  C. Are you permitted to put large audio / video files on your site ?
  
  
• There may be extra charges for forms and other programming needs.
  Verify if the charges are one time or monthly.
  
  
• All of the above needs to be stated in a signed contract.
  It could even be 1 page, but always read the small fine print.
  You may want a lawyer to look it over.

Do it yourself

• Can you get direct FTP access to update your site by yourself?
  If your updates are usually text only then you can save
  a lot of time and money.
  
  

Access to your site

• Access depends on many factors.
  Ask various friends using different providers in Israel and
  abroad to access your site.
  Ask them how fast your pages come up.
  (let them try at different times of day / night)
  
  
• Use an on-line traceroute program to check access time
  http://www.jr.co.il/hotsites/r-domain.htm
  
  
• Always review all new links and pages BEFORE they are open to the public
  Use a spell checker.
  If your native tongue is not English,
  have a native tongue professional writer look at it.
  

Publicity / Promotion

• Check to see if your provider entered your link in popular directories and search engines.
  There are thousands but there are about 10 which lead the pack.
  Check out the most popular at:
  http://www.jr.co.il/hotsites/ypages.htm
  
  
• Exchange links with companies that are related to your field.
  
  
• Press Releases
  Use a professional PR company if you can afford it.
  
  
• Write free articles for popular newspapers / magazines
  
  
• Paid advertisments (on and off the Internet)
  
  
• Participate in discussion groups related to your site
  (mailing lists, Usenet)
  http://www.jr.co.il/hotsites/mailing.htm
  
  
• For good articles about web promotion see:
  http://www.jr.co.il/training/webpromo.htm
  
  
• Articles, links and information about Social Media Marketing
  www.jr.co.il/hotsites/social-media.htm
  
  
• Publicize your site on all printed material you distribute.

Why I should visit your site (more then once)

• Besides your own marketing material you may want to consider
  putting other interesting material on your site to attract users.
  
  
• Update the material often (weekly or bi-weekly) so users return often
  
  
• Date your material.
  

Summary

Question and Comments



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