The most obvious way, for many, to “go digital” is via Social Media and other free online platforms. Websites are considered to be somewhat very expensive and a preserve of the Big companies and much bigger SMEs.
Of course, it’s also possible to do business online without a website. If you repair cars, for example, you want customers to be able to find you, website or not. Think about the last time your car broke down. You probably searched for something like ‘mechanic near me’ and reviewed your options. You might see a website for a local Garage… or you might discover a good option in Google Listings for Mechanics.
Just as when we talk about Google My Business and Bing Places for Business. These types of tools will help many SMEs get online with ease, as one can add descriptions, reviews, maps and images. These listings are free, a nd are a good way to help your business appear on results pages when people search.
In this article we’ll be focusing on websites: we will unpack the basics like how websites work, how to pick and register a proper domain name, and how to make whatever you decide to do online as friendly as possible to your digital visitors AND support the goals of your business.
Let’s start with the basics — without getting too technical — on web servers and domain names, what they do for you and how to find what you need to get started. A website is your business’s office on the Internet. It’s where potential customers can come and learn about your business and what it has to offer them. Let’s say you decide to open a bakery in the real world. First you’d have to rent a space to house it, right? A website is no different. Only you’re not renting space on a high street, you’re renting space on a server.
There are loads of services out there that take care of this automatically… but here’s a quick overview so that you have an idea about what’s happening behind the scenes. OK, hang with us, here comes a bit of technical information.
A server is a computer connected to the Internet, with software that allows it to store or ‘host’ the pieces of your website: the code, the images, the video clips and anything else that makes up your site. It’s called a server because it ‘serves’ up the right content when requested — that is, when someone wants to view a page on your website.
There are many companies and services that will rent you space on a server and host your website. Web Solutions Africa is one these companies. Just like a brick-and-mortar or physical shop, you pay an ongoing hosting fee, which is a bit like paying rent, leaving them to take care the technical aspects of running a server so you don’t have to.
Every single server in the world has its own address. This is called an IP address, which is short for internet protocol. All you need to know is, it’s a long string of numbers that means any device connected to the internet can talk to the server and find it.
Luckily, you don’t need to understand what they’re saying to each other; all you need to do is choose a nicer name to reference that numeric IP address. Which brings us nicely to the second part of this session: the web address, or ‘domain name.’ Your domain name is how potential customers will find you, the same way people would find our real-world bakery: by the sign above its door. It’s the thing you type into the browser window to get to any website. Like www.websolutionsafrica.com or www.yourbusinessnamegoeshere.com.
Let’s break it down. Everything after the ‘WWW dot’ is actually what’s known as the domain name. It’s the part that lets people find your website, so it’s pretty important. Any device that searches for this address — a tablet, a smartphone, a laptop — is communicating with the server. The server then sends that device all the correct pieces it needs to display the website — things like images and code — so that whoever is on the other end of the device can view your pages. When someone types your web address into their browser, here’s what basically happens. First, their browser figures out which server holds the content, and heads over to that server. The browser then says, “Hey, would you mind giving me all the elements I need to show a person this web page?” The Server replies, “Sure, I’m sending along 5 images, 2 scripts, and a few additional files.” The browser puts all the pieces together, and the person sees your nicely formatted web page. And that’s pretty much it, except they’d actually be talking in really confusing bits and bytes, not English. But that wouldn’t make any sense to us.
Now let’s talk about benefits of Having a Website. In this Day and age there’s no excuse for not having a website, even if your business is only just getting off the ground. Many potential customers and clients won’t take you seriously without one. Plus, there are so many upsides to setting one up that not doing so is almost irresponsible.
One of the most obvious benefits of having a small business website is that it enables people to find you online and get in touch with you easily. Having an effective and compelling site can even lead to sales you wouldn’t have made otherwise.
1. Improves Reputation and Credibility of your Business or Hustle
A website gives an added professional feel to your Business. Most websites are usually designed with a professional touch and the webs addresses, domains, have the name of your business. In addition, a business email has become much of a requirement when dealing with Corporate, NGOs and Government entities.
In addition, a website provides a solid and credible base or referral point for your social media platforms as well as directories such as Google my Business.
2. It saves you Money
When you have a website, you can as well avoid many other costs associated with maintaining Physical, Brick-and-Mortar. With a website you have the liberty to avoid high rentals, rates, travelling costs, warehousing and more. You can actually have a virtual office where you are free from landlords, risk of fires and more.
3. 24/7/365 Availability
Websites Represent your physical Office on a 24/7 availability Basis. It is always available because internet servers are always online at a rate of almost 99.99%
4. It is Cheaper to Maintain that a Physical Office
The costs of hosting and maintaining a website is much lower than rentals and maintenance costs of a physical office.
5. It has a Wider and Global Reach going Beyond your local Community
A website is not confined to one physical location or a number of branches as with other entrepreneurs or corporate. A website is available worldwide and to anyone with internet access.
6. Improves Customer Service
With a website, your clients can reach out to you at any point in time, through live chat, chat bots or emails. Clients can also do Online Window Shopping, if you have an online shopping and ecommerce on your website.
7. Saves you time – travelling to and from the office, sending announcements, press statements.
8. Easy, Cheaper and more Efficient Way to Promote Your Business, through blogs, pictures, integrating with social media and Google My Business, cheaper advertising online instead of paper.
9. Online Sells and Ecommerce
Together with all the benefits brought about by a website, Online Shops have brought about the much needed convenience to customers. The SME can benefit from very low operational costs and highly efficient technology.
10. Keep Track of Your Business Performance in Real Time through Analytics
There are so many tools now available online to track the performance of your website and all other associated platforms such as directories and social media. With Google analytics you can get insight on the performance of your website, and the information, services and products that your clients are mainly requesting.
Indeed, after such long lecture on the mechanics and benefits of a website, one will be eager to learn and understand how you can design or get one designed and set up for you. Therefore, lets quickly get into it. There are various ways of getting a website done, especially for SMEs. However, it is important to note that before you get a website done, you must have your content in place, well organised and structured to achieve your Business goals. The content includes information about your business, the products you sell, the services you provide, your team, your skills, your contact information and location, photos, videos and more which you may feel is relevant for your entity.
Services for Website Design and Business Email hosting come in various forms and formats, giving a wide range of choices to SMEs. Some packages are somewhat “Free”, whilst others are extremely cheap. On the other hand, there are most professional and credible ones. These exist in both low end, medium and high end. In order to get a better understanding, let us break these down.
1. Free websites
These are not actually free. They are offered by companies like WIX, WordPress.org and others. You can start designing with them but the huge costs will crop up with time, especially after the trial period has ended. In addition, the website has less credibility because of the adverts that are always popping up.
2. Extremely Cheap websites
These usually trap a number of SMEs. The lesser the cost the lower the service offering. Most SMEs have struggled to keep up with maintaining such services, as there is a fee for every additional service or query, making it more expensive in the long term.
3. Custom Packages from Renowned Website Design and Hosting Companies
This is the most recommended way of starting your journey towards enjoying the benefits of having a website. There a many companies across the country which offer such services, from the low end to very high end.
However, there are a few companies which have structured packages specifically for SMEs. The best company offering affordable and quality Website Design for SMEs in Zimbabwe is Web Solutions Africa. The prices are affordable and the quality is exceptional. SMEs comprehensive packages, with design and hosting start at only USD $300 for a full year. The company also offers after sales support and many other Business Development packages for SMEs. Other companies are offering the same service for close to ZWL $1 000, making it unreachable for many.
There you have it! I hope you now understand the mechanics, terminology and benefits of setting up a website. We have given you indicative costs and believe that once you are ready you will be able to set up your website soon. As Web Solutions Africa, we are ready to assist you all the way.
