Payment Service Providers (PSPs): PSPs such as PayPal, Stripe, and Square offer easy-to-integrate solutions for accepting online payments. They handle the payment processing and security aspects, allowing you to focus on integrating their APIs into your website.
API stands for Application Programming Interface
It is a set of rules and protocols that allows different software applications to communicate and interact with each other. An API defines the methods and data formats applications can use to request and exchange information.
Merchant Accounts
You can set up a merchant account with a bank or financial institution to process credit card payments directly. This typically requires more effort to set up and may involve compliance requirements, but it provides more control over the payment process.
Payment Gateways
Payment gateways like Authorize.Net, and Braintree act as intermediaries between your website and the payment networks. They securely process credit card transactions, handle the communication between your website and the payment networks, and often provide additional features like fraud detection and recurring billing.
E-commerce Platforms
If you’re using an e-commerce platform like Shopify, WooCommerce (WordPress), or Magento (now Adobe Commerce), they usually have built-in payment integrations that you can activate. These platforms often support multiple payment gateways, making it easy to start accepting payments.
Cryptocurrencies
Some websites accept cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum as payment. You can integrate with cryptocurrency payment processors like BitPay or CoinGate to facilitate these transactions. This may be the wave of the future, so it may be a good idea to learn more about these options.
Mobile Payment Solutions
Mobile payment options like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay have gained popularity. Integrating these payment methods into your website can provide a convenient checkout experience for mobile users.
When choosing a payment method for your website, consider factors like transaction fees, setup and maintenance effort, security, supported countries and currencies, and the user experience you want to provide.
SSL
It would be remiss not to mention the need for an SSL. This is important for any website but even more so for a website taking payments, We have all of the info in this SSL blog.
Image of Scrabble wooden letters that spell the word Keywords
When adding content to your website, it is important to write and publish copy that will help with search engine placement. Using Keywords in your written content is one thing that can be done that helps with the effort. More info on Wikipedia
SEO Friendly Content
Writing Search Engine friendly content for your website is important to improve your search engine rankings and attract more organic traffic. Below are some tips.
Keyword Research
Identify relevant keywords related to your topic and use them throughout your content. You can use keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush to find relevant keywords.
Use Headings and Subheadings
Use headings and subheadings to break up your content into sections and make it easier for readers to scan your content. Also, use your target keywords in your headings and subheadings to help search engines understand the structure of your content.
Optimize Meta Descriptions
Write compelling meta descriptions that include your target keywords and provide a brief summary of your content. This will help search engines understand the content of your page and attract more clicks from search engine users. This can be edited every 6 months but best to keep the same meta descriptions to build authority on the subject matter.
Write High-Quality Content Using Keywords
Focus on creating high-quality content that provides value to your readers. This includes using proper grammar, spelling, and sentence structure, as well as writing engaging content that is easy to read and understand.
Use Internal and External Links
Use internal links to link to other pages on your website and external links to link to relevant, authoritative sources. This can help improve the user experience and provide additional value to your readers.
Optimize Images
Use descriptive alt tags for your images that include your target keywords. This can help improve your image search rankings and make your content more accessible for users with disabilities.
Overall, writing SEO-friendly content requires a combination of keyword research, high-quality content creation, and on-page optimization. By following these tips, you can improve your search engine rankings and attract more organic traffic to your website.
You have decided to get a new website or finally update your old one. Congratulations! This is the next step in showcasing your business to customers and potential customers.
The Process
The website development process typically involves the following steps. The process is, of course, more in-depth but this will give you an idea of what goes into it.
Planning
The first step is to plan the website development process. This involves identifying the purpose of the website, defining the target audience, creating a content strategy, and determining the website’s structure and navigation.
Design
Once the planning phase is complete, the next step is to create a design for the website. This involves creating a visual layout and selecting color schemes, typography, and other design elements.
Development
The development phase is the actual coding and building of the website. This includes creating HTML and CSS files, integrating design elements, adding functionality, and testing the website.
Content creation
The content creation phase involves creating and adding content to the website, including text, images, videos, and other multimedia elements. Adding identified keywords to the text to help with search engine placement.
Testing
After the website is developed, it needs to be tested thoroughly to ensure that it is functioning correctly and is compatible with different devices and browsers. This means testing all forms, links, and content for any typos.
Launch
Once the website is tested and approved, it is launched and made available to the public.
Search engines
Once the website is launched, it needs to be submitted to search engines. This helps with placement so that it can be found.
Maintenance
After the website is launched, it needs to be maintained and updated regularly to ensure that it stays current, relevant, and secure. This includes updating plugins, and WordPress versions, tracking website traffic, and keeping blog content coming. See our Maintenace page for more information.
These steps may vary depending on the complexity of the website and the specific requirements of the project. However, this general process provides a framework for developing a website from start to finish.
E-commerce, short for electronic commerce, refers to the buying and selling of goods and services over the internet. With the rapid growth of the internet and the increasing use of smartphones, e-commerce has become a popular way for businesses to reach customers around the world.
Benefits of E-commerce
One of the most significant benefits of e-commerce is that it allows businesses to reach customers anywhere in the world. With an online store, businesses can sell their products and services 24/7 without any geographical boundaries.
E-commerce eliminates many of the expenses associated with traditional retail stores, such as rent, utilities, and staffing. This translates into lower prices for customers and higher profits for businesses.
E-commerce allows businesses to gather customer data and use it to personalize the shopping experience. By analyzing customer preferences and behavior, businesses can recommend products and services tailored to individual needs and interests.
E-commerce offers convenience for both businesses and customers. Customers can shop from anywhere at any time, and businesses can easily manage their operations and inventory from a single platform.
Challenges of E-commerce
With the rise of e-commerce, competition has become more intense, with businesses vying for customers’ attention and loyalty. This means that businesses must continually innovate and differentiate themselves to stay ahead.
E-commerce transactions involve sensitive customer information, such as credit card numbers, which can be vulnerable to theft and fraud. Businesses must take steps to ensure that customer data is secure and protected from cyber threats.
E-commerce involves shipping and delivery, which can be challenging and costly. Businesses must manage their supply chains and partner with reliable logistics providers to ensure that products are delivered on time and in good condition.
The rate of returns is much higher than in traditional retail, as customers may not be able to see or touch or try on the products before purchasing. Businesses must have a clear and fair return policy and be prepared to handle returns efficiently.
Future of E-commerce
The future of e-commerce looks bright, with continued growth and innovation in the industry.
With the increasing use of smartphones, mobile commerce is becoming a significant part of e-commerce. Businesses must optimize their online stores for mobile devices and offer mobile payment options to meet customers’ needs.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is being used in e-commerce to personalize the shopping experience, improve search results, and offer personalized recommendations.
With increasing concerns about the environment, businesses must prioritize sustainability in their e-commerce operations. This includes using eco-friendly packaging, reducing waste, and partnering with sustainable suppliers.
Future Growth
E-commerce has revolutionized the way businesses sell their products and services, offering benefits such as global reach, lower costs, and convenience. However, it also poses challenges such as intense competition, security concerns, logistics, and returns. With continued innovation and trends such as mobile commerce, artificial intelligence, voice commerce, and sustainability, e-commerce is set to continue its growth and transformation of the retail industry.
Happy 2023! Warm wishes for a happy and prosperous new year!
Let this be the year that you give your website a little love. Like many business owners, your website might be really out of date. This doesn’t help your business’s credibility. Google wants to see new content on websites to determine their ranking on the search results pages.
Perhaps you are trying to do the updates yourself or handing it over to an employee who is not really that experienced with websites and perhaps has already too much on their plate to give it the focus that it needs. We are attentive, responsive, and easy to work with.
You won’t look back
Contact us today to discuss your needs. Let us become your website partner. You won’t look back. See what some of our clients have to say. Grateful Web Services Reviews
It’s pretty uncommon these days to find any business without some kind of web presence. If you are old school and just haven’t taken the plunge, it’s time. Maybe you think having a Facebook business page is enough, but it isn’t. Most new clients come to us because they need to upgrade their current website. Perhaps you have been putting it off and you know that it’s long overdue. It’s easy to forget about your website since it’s out of sight, out of mind. Although, this is likely the first impression that you give to potential customers.
Not knowing where to start or maybe feeling overwhelmed about the process is natural. Grateful Web Services is here to help. It’s always recommended to go with a professional who has the experience and can hold your hand throughout the process.
Domain name
Unless this is a brand-new website, you most likely already own the domain name that you want to use. It’s best to keep it simple and use the name of your business. There are a lot of extensions out there like .com, .net, and .store. etc. It’s usually best to stick with the most used .com if possible. This is the industry standard and what most people expect. If this is a brand-new venture and you do not own your domain name yet, go to GoDaddy or another domain registrar and search for your desired name. Once purchased, save the username, password, and 4-digit pin. We will need this information to launch the website.
Choosing a Professional
Just like trying to be your own Realtor when selling your home, it is advisable to hire a professional. Sure, you can see if your cousin’s, boyfriend’s son is available on the side. The cost he quoted sounds affordable. If this is a side hustle, then the chances of your project getting finished promptly, or even at all, is unlikely. This is a get-what-you-pay-for scenario. Many times, these people end up coming to Grateful Web Services frustrated and out some money. Hire someone that you can build a long-term partnership and whom you have a good rapport with. Someone who returns your calls and emails. We have several businesses that have used our services for over twenty-plus years. Check out what some of our clients have to say.
Initial meeting and plan
Understanding what you need your new website to do for your business is important from the start.
What is the purpose of your website?
Who is your audience?
What pages will you need?
Who is responsible for content?
What functionality does your website need?
Are all requirements spelled out and accounted for in the proposal? This is a must so that there aren’t any unforeseen charges. We often hear of companies not vetting the project thoroughly and then adding extra charges. This may be an oversight or perhaps purposeful to get someone to sign the contract. A no-surprise cost policy is what we strive for. Of course, if there are new requests then we may have to add an addendum to the contract.
Timeline
When do you need the new website? We try to work within a client’s timeline if it is realistic. It is better to underpromise and overdeliver. Some companies will promise a quick launch and when it can’t be achieved, it leads to disappointment and losing faith in the web company. We do our best to work within your timeline but we can only guarantee that we will do our best. Many times the main reason that a launch is delayed, is not getting all of the needed content from our client.
Design Phase
Once we have a logo (do you need one? If so, let us know) and basic design direction such as colors to use or not use, fonts, and the navigation (pages on your website), we can begin. An initial design will be presented to you for feedback and approval. If we need to adjust anything, we will do that and then wait for your approval. A design does not move forward until you have formally approved it. It is labor-intensive to bring the project back to the design phase after it’s been coded for development. We make sure that we have sign-off before we start development. If we need to, we can go back but this will incur extra time, which means an extra charge to do so.
Content Gathering
This is the part that the client needs to work on and send to us. We will provide a content document to help keep you organized. This tool will spell out the content that we will need for each page. It can feel overwhelming but if you start early and tackle one page at a time, it isn’t too bad. If you want to use any of the content of the current website, just let us know. Unless you want to use our copywriting services, we will need you to supply us with the content for each page that is defined in the navigation.
SEO Plan
SEO – Search engine optimization. We build all websites with SEO in mind. Certain design elements are important to keep within Google’s guidelines and we take that into account when building your website.
We will do keyword research and make sure that those words are targeted words and are included in the copy.
Streamlining the pages which are no longer necessary. We will redirect those old pages to a page on the new website. This way, if someone has an old link saved, it will still go to your website.
Setting up a Google Analytics account to track the traffic on the website. If you already have a current Analytics account, we will review and see the behavior of your users. We can see what pages are visited more often and a lot of different data that will help define the behavior of users that come to your website.
We offer monthly SEO tracking services. Please let us know if you want to add this to your proposal.
Development Phase
This is the coding process that puts your design into a working website. We integrate the approved design into the development site. Once the website is in the development phase, you will see the buttons working and the website is up and viewable but on a link that is not viewable yet to the public. This way you can track the progress but your users can’t just yet.
Testing
Before launch, we perform testing to make sure that we are ready to put the website live.
We check every button and link to make sure they are all active and working,
We check to make sure that forms are functioning and emails are sent to the right email address.
We check the website in different browsers.
We check the website in different screen sizes. It’s critical to have a mobile-friendly design separate from the desktop version.
We check the speed. Does it load quickly? This is important to retain your visitors.
We check to make sure that the copy is easy to understand. Not too long but long enough to be clear. Not too complex so that the average user can understand.
Launch
Grateful Web Services does offer shared hosting but if you prefer to stay with your current host, that’s okay too! We will need the username and password for your current hosting control panel. Once we have that, we will create a database and upload the website. Many times, it will show immediately in your browser. Sometimes, it takes a bit longer for the website to show. Once it’s showing, we will run through another series of checks to make sure that everything is working perfectly.
Maintenance
After a launch, it is customary for a client to opt-in for a maintenance plan. We can take care of any updates, changes, and WordPress updates as well as plugin updates as needed. If you decide to host with us, we do require mandatory quarterly WordPress/Plugins updates. When you sign up for a maintenance plan, updates are included. It’s super important to keep your website up to date to help against breakages or intrusions. If it’s not kept up to date, it leaves your website vulnerable.
Marketing
When your new website is launched, it’s time to share it with your network of customers, colleagues, and friends. Post it on social media! Include your web address on business cards, letterhead, email signatures, and anywhere else you can post it.
Our goal is to make this process as easy as possible for you! We want you to love your website and be proud enough to show it off!
Unfortunately, just like in the real world there are criminals online hoping to find a weakness and exploit it. You can’t turn a blind eye and just hope that you aren’t a victim. The same reason you put your seat belts on when you get into the car, just in case. You need to make sure that you have your cyber security addressed and safety precautions in place. Even with all of the precautions, it doesn’t mean that cyberattacks can’t happen. We should all do our best to make sure that we have websites, emails, and personal information locked down. Even large businesses and the government have been comprised. It can truly happen to anyone.
What is a cyberattack?
According to Wikipedia, A cyberattack is any offensive maneuver that targets computer information systems, computer networks, infrastructures, or personal computer devices.
Some of the most common cyberattacks
Malware Attacks
This is one of the most common types of cyberattacks. “Malware” refers to malicious software viruses including worms, spyware, ransomware, adware, and trojans. The attacker installs unwanted software or programs that intentionally damage computers. This could mean deleting files, stealing personal information, and also spreading it to other systems. There are lots of different forms.
Phishing Attacks
Phishing attacks are also widely used email cyberattack strategies. The attacker essentially impersonates someone else who is a trusted contact and sends the victim fake emails. It can look so similar it takes an extra step to verify. Criminals use these fakes to get money, passwords, and possibly even your account details.
Password Attacks
A hacker cracks your password with various cracking programs. There are different types of password attacks such as brute force attacks and keylogger attacks to name a couple.
Ransomware
Ransomware is malware that uses encryption to deny access to resources (such as the user’s files), usually in an attempt to try and get the victim to pay a ransom. Once a system has been infected, files are irreversibly encrypted and accessible.
Pharming
Pharming is a type of cyberattack that sends a user to fake a website that is designed to look like the real website. A hacker infiltrates a computer system and installs code that redirects the traffic to a bogus website The user types in the legitimate web address but it forwards to a fake website that looks almost identical. This way they can gain access to financial and personal information, They will infect computers with viruses, malware, or other malicious software. Always check the website address and make sure the address is where you intended to go.
Injection Attacks
This can happen on a database-driven website such as any content-managed website, like WordPress for example. When the hacker manipulates the code, it injects malicious code into a vulnerable website making the server (the computer where your website holds the files, AKA, the host) reveal crucial information.
Denial of Service Attacks
A Denial-of-Service Attack also known as a DDoS is a significant threat to companies. Attackers target systems, servers, or networks and flood them with traffic to exhaust their bandwidth and resources. This overwhelms the server computer and many times it can lead to a total shutdown.
Man in the Middle Attacks
A Man-in-the-Middle Attack (MITM) is an eavesdropping intrusion. In this attack, a cyber attacker comes in between a two-party communication. The attacker hijacks the session between a client and a host. By doing so, hackers steal and manipulate data. This is often done through a spoofed IP address, where the hijacker disconnects the client and requests information as if they were the host.
What can I do to help prevent a cyberattack?
Multi-Factor Authentication
Make sure that you enable multi-factor Authentication for all bank accounts, financial services, and anything that has personal information. This is also called two-factor authentication.
It requires users to provide two different authentication factors to verify themselves. This proves to be a vital step to secure information. Besides providing your password, a unique code will be sent to either a phone or email. This must be used in addition to your password. This provides an extra layer of protection.
Passwords
Make sure to use long and unique characters. Don’t use your kids or dogs’ names unless it includes different characters and numbers. Change passwords frequently! Don’t share your passwords or give them to anyone but a trusted source. Don’t just use one password for every online account, use different passwords for your accounts.
Update your browser
The latest browser versions have built-in protection that helps protect against fake websites and viruses. This is the biggest reason to keep your browser up to date. Do not use an old browser such as Internet Explorer. See the post on that subject here. As of June, it now redirects a user to Microsoft Edge.
Update both your operating system and applications regularly. This is a primary prevention method for any cyberattack. This will remove vulnerabilities that hackers tend to exploit. Use trusted and legitimate Anti-virus protection software.
Unknown email senders
Avoid opening emails from unknown senders. Scrutinize the emails you receive for loopholes and significant errors. Do not download anything that you were not expecting and make sure that it’s from a verified, trusted source.
Anti-virus, Malware detectors, and Firewalls
Install anti-virus software, firewall, and malware detection programs. Make sure to download the updates regularly.
Use a VPN
VPN stands for “Virtual Private Network” A VPN encrypts the traffic between the VPN server and your device. This blocks your identity and internet activity. You can go the extra mile and access your banking and financial account using this. Google offers a free one for Chrome found here
Don’t forget mobile devices
Safeguard your mobile devices as they can also be a target for cyberattacks too. Install apps from only legitimate and trusted sources, and make sure to keep your device updated.
Your Data
It is ideal to have three copies of your data on two different media types and another copy in an off-site location (cloud storage). In the event of an intrusion, you can erase your system’s data and restore it with a recently performed backup.
The takeaway
We have not discussed anywhere near the different types of attacks that are out there but these are currently the most common. The cost of these attacks is estimated to be in the trillions of dollars. Make sure that you protect yourself! Address your cyber security today!
The first web browser was just called ‘WorldWideWeb’ when it was written in 1990 it was the only way to see the web. It was also a browser editor. It could be used to create web pages as well as browse websites. It was eventually renamed Nexus in order to save confusion between the program and the abstract information space www, which is now the World Wide Web. In the early 90s, we used Netscape Navigator as a proprietary web browser. It was the dominant web browser in terms of usage in the 1990s, Around 2003 its use had almost disappeared. The reason why was, due to the fact that Microsoft preloaded Internet Explorer on every computer it sold and it was placed right on the start-up page! Genius!
Microsoft was a software company in the early days. It made money by licensing its operating system to computer manufacturers and by selling products that worked with that operating system. The most well-known are Word and Excel. In the early 2000s, Internet Explorer controlled 95% of the web browsing market.
Browser changed
Most people stopped using IE as their browsers years ago with the emergence of Firefox and Chrome. Of course, we had the diehard last holdouts. As someone who has devoted my career to the web, I had many conversations over the last many years with my clients letting them know that they need to switch browsers. Internet Explorer was no longer keeping things up to date and it was slow, prone to crashing, and vulnerable to hacks. It just wasn’t keeping up with the pace of competitors such as Google Chrome. Internet Explorer AKA IE.
Internet Explorer served from August 1995 to June 2022. It was a slow death but now it has dearly departed once and for all. It had a good 27-year run!
These days, Google’sChrome browser dominates the world of browsers with roughly a 65% share of the worldwide browser market, followed by Apple’s Safari with roughly 20%.
There are a lot of options to explore the internet these days. Below is the current top ten list. As all thing’s web-related, this could change tomorrow!
• Firefox • Google Chrome • Microsoft Edge • Apple Safari • Opera • Brave • Vivaldi • DuckDuckgo • Chromium • Epic
As always, Grateful Web Services is here to help you get your website on the World Wide Web or if your website needs updating, we are here to help take the chore off of your shoulders. It’s easy to forget that your website is on display 24/7. Even if you aren’t looking at it, potential customers could be.
You most likely use email every day and many of us do throughout the day. We now have to keep track of multiple email addresses and passwords! If you stop and think about it, email is a huge part of our daily lives.
The invention of email was a game-changer, especially in the workplace. It seems hard to even imagine the days of using just USPS otherwise known as snail mail. The only way to send communication with someone who is not physically with you back in the old days was through a horse-ridden mail carrier. For many years after, we just relied on our postal mail carriers in their little trucks. Now an email can be delivered within seconds. Close to instant! We are very fortunate to be living during the immense acceleration of technology.
Email technology
The very first version of what would become known as email was invented in 1965 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as part of the university’s Compatible Time-Sharing System, which allowed users to share files and messages on a central disk, logging in from remote terminals. All the info is here on Wikipedia
Early players in the email game were companies such as Hotmail (which was purchased by Microsoft), Yahoo, and AOL. My senior citizen father still uses his @aol address.
How does this all actually work? It is done through something called Email protocol. This is a method by which a communication channel is established between two computers and email is transferred between them. When an email is transferred, a email server and two computers are involved. One computer sends the email and the other one receives it. The mail server stores the email and lets the receiving device access it and download it if needed. There are four different mail protocols. IMAP, POP3, SMTP, and Exchange. These protocols differ in the way by which they establish connections and allow users access to emails.
IMAP and POP
IMAP and POP are most likely the way that you are accessing your email. IMAP is the recommended way to check email from different devices, like your phone, tablet, and computer.
IMAP
Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) You can access your email wherever you are using any kind of device with IMAP. You aren’t actually storing it on your device or downloading it. You are reading it from the actual email server. The nice thing about this is you can literally access it anywhere. If you are out of the country, at a friend’s house, watching your kid play sports, you can access your mail. More info at Wikipedia
POP
POP, short for the Post Office Protocol, is used to sync email from Gmail to any compatible mail client, such as Outlook, Thunderbird, or Apple Mail. Like IMAP, POP is not a Google product; it’s a standardized, RFC-compliant protocol that any email service or client can choose to be compatible with. This is what is used if you are using an email program such as Outlook from your PC and the emails are downloaded to your computer. The sent email is stored locally on your PC or Mac and not the email server like IMAP. Many Internet service providers give you accounts that use POP
More info at Wikipedia
Webmail
Outlook, Gmail, Hotmail, and iCloud are all using webmail. To access you use the internet and sign in to your email account via a link.
Outlook, Thunderbird, or Apple Mail are all also email apps, in other words, programs that you install and manage on your computer. You can add any email account to your email app to manage your email.
It is easy to add webmail accounts to your email apps such as Outlook. It will attempt to set it up as IMAP but if you are having trouble, it’s usually because the email account is set up for a POP. If this happens, you just need to ask your email provider the name of their POP and SMTP server information that will look like this
Incoming Mail (IMAP) Server: imap.<name of service>.com
Incoming (POP) Server: pop.<name of service>.com
Outgoing Mail (SMTP) Server: smtp.<name of service>.com
SMTP
The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol is an internet standard communication protocol for electronic mail transmission. Mail servers and other message transfer agents use SMTP to send and receive mail messages. See the Wikipedia page for more info
Grateful Web Services offers email along with our hosting service. Have questions, ask us about it!
This blog will be touching upon a few things that you will need to have in place, in order to open the door to your new business. Of course, we are not attorneys or tax professionals, so please refer to those experts for the official rules and regulations.
Your business
We love working with businesses! Non-profits, for-profits, any size business from small, medium to large. No matter what size of business, you will need to have certain things in place, in order to really begin. It may feel overwhelming and for some, a bit scary but focus on the excitement, hopes, and joy of starting a business.
Starting your business
There are items like city and county paperwork that will need to be done for licensing, permits, fictitious name filing if you aren’t just using your own name, and operations tax. If you have a brick-and-mortar location, then you need to deal with the landlords for leasing space and set up your services to that location. For a home-based business, you will need to have your city permit to operate out of your home. The city where you live surely has a website with information on getting started.
Market research and a marketing plan
Knowledge and expertise are critically important when starting a business. It is also very important to have some kind of marketing and business plan to establish a road map. This can be an ever-changing document but to start, you must map your direction. Of course, most or all of your research can be done online. There are still lots of book resources out there too. I have always enjoyed the straightforward way that’s Nolo Press presents its information. They have a great website with online forms and books to purchase as well.
You must also choose a business structure. Are you going to be a corporation, LLC, partnership, or sole proprietor? Talk to your tax advisor to help you choose the best one for your needs.
Your Business name
Make sure to do your research in picking the best name for your business. Will people know what you do? Buy the domain name and make sure that you keep paying it yearly or however long the period you purchased it for. This business name is many times your online URL (the address that you put in the search field in your browser). This is best practice but sometimes a business was started without checking to see if the domain name is being used already. You can put it in your search bar and see if it’s available. Also, domain registrars like GoDaddy for example have a search tool that allows you to check if it’s available and it gives you alternatives if your name has already been purchased by someone else. There is a great tool called WhoIs that you can check the domain name and it will give you information like who owns it and when the registration will expire. Also, another resource is the official ICANN website(Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) and many other similar websites that you can use to find useful information.
The logo
This is the face of your company and it’s going to be used on all of your document’s letterhead, website, social media, and anywhere else that your business needs a “picture” If you have the budget, then a professionally designed logo is really your best option. If you have a product that you are selling, you will need a custom logo. If you don’t have the budget at least, to begin with, there are lots of tools online that can help you for a fraction of a custom logo. Although, this logo is not custom and can be seen if another business is using the one that you chose for their business already. The only way to have one that no one has seen before is to hire a graphic designer to do this for you. Ask us about this and we can help to point you in the right direction.
Website
This is many times, the first glimpse of your business that someone sees. Whether we want to admit it, we all judge and you want the first impression to look sharp and professional. Some people on a budget try to save money by setting up a website themselves. There are tools like GoDaddy site builder or Wix with the promise that it will be easy. The problem here is, unless you are technical, you probably won’t be able to put a good enough product out there even with these tools. Not to mention that they are very limited on how you can design and edit. Also, you may not know, what you don’t know…. meaning your website may not be search engine friendly with some of these methods You will need to be found by Google and many of these options just don’t offer much in that area. What is a website worth if no one can find it? Just like you wouldn’t buy a home without a Realtor helping you. The same is true for a website. Hire a professional like Grateful Web Services.
If the website isn’t programmed correctly, doesn’t look professional, isn’t easy to navigate, and isn’t maintained often, you may be missing out on a lot of business. A unique and custom design is really important to help your reputation. Keeping it updated is critical for Google to keep indexing your website in its ranking for searches.
Hosting
Your website will need to be hosted somewhere. As explained in this blog in further depth. We offer hosting services to make it easier for our clients to have all of their web services under one roof. Either way, there are lots of options out there but make sure that your host has the latest software on their server!
Receiving payments
Hopefully, you will be able to start receiving money for your product, services, or donations for our non-profits! Of course, you must set up a business account at your bank to receive payments to your business name. A sole proprietor can use their own name. It is also suggested that you set up a PayPal account and Venmo account since many people prefer the ease of paying through these methods. Grateful Web Services can also set up your eCommerce, so your website can take payments and our non-profits can receive their donations. Sometimes people can find all of this overwhelming. No worries we can help you navigate all of this and even maintain it for you if requested.
Ready, set, go!
Take time to be happy and to appreciate the process. There is always going to be stress but this is an exciting time and don’t forget to step back and enjoy the accomplishment.
Resources
These are a just few very valuable resources mentioned in this blog
We are Grateful Web Services. A website design and website development company that also offers contract, per project, project management services. We have been involved in the website industry for over 20 years. We are located in Northern California but we don’t limit ourselves and can work with companies, anywhere!
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