<h1>Planning an Online Business</h1>

Many businesses have an online presence; if not most, nearing all. And many are purely an online business. Planning and implementing an online business isn't difficult, but there definitely are some key things to keep in mind before just rushing in with the attitude, "anyone can do this!". Cos, really, though 'anyone' can; many do not.

My example business is gonna be an iPhone repair shop in Prague, cos that's where I live. I'm gonna go through the process of choosing an appropriate domain name, structuring your site and optimising it for search engines.

• Choosing a Domain Name

  This is important: you want something simple that describes your business. Ideally, your domain name would just be the name of your business. of course, this is not always possible... especially if you want a .com TLD. If the name of your business is a word you made up, then your chances of obtaining that as your domain name are much higher - but, you won't get much traffic from search engines (not at first, anyway), cos no one's gonna be googling a word they've never heard of. The other thing to keep in mind for your domain is the TLD (top level domain, the .com, .net, .cz...) -- who are you gonna want to be targeting? Is your customer-base worldwide, or just in the US? If so, then .com would probably be best. If you are targeting people who are solely from your country, then use your country's TLD. Being recognised as a local business can be more appealing to the customer, and finding the domain name you want is also more likely with your country's TLD rather than a .com. The last thing to keep in mind for your domain name are trademarks - make sure you are not ripping off someone else's name, especially a well-known company. This is more trouble than it's worth, as you will probably end up having to build your site and name all over again.
  
  So, for my iPhone repair shop I am going to choose www.iphone-repair.cz (this is just an exercise, this website does not actually exist). It is direct and to the point. The domain is available (I checked on active24.cz, a Czech hosting service provider - if you are wanting a .com or other generic TLD, you can go to namecheap.com or godaddy.com, just as an example). I chose the .cz TLD, as I would probably not have any customers outside of the Czech Republic; I doubt someone would come down from France to have their iPhone fixed.

• Site Structure

  There are many sites out there that are poorly organised and laid out. The website to the right is an example of one. The kicker is that the website is for a company which is in the business of organising! I would definitely not want these people helping me organise anything...
  
  You certainly do not want your potential customers' first thought to be that you would most be suited for a job opposite of what you are advertising. That is a bad sign. You want your website to be clean and easy to use. You want your users to feel comfortable as you lead them through to their final destination. And you gotta know where you want that to be. If you have a website, then you must have a reason for it. What do you want people to do once they get there? Do you want them to call you? Fill in a survey? Buy something? Give feedback? Whatever it is, let it be known and push them toward it. There is nothing worse, as a user, to come to a website and then think, 'now what?'.. I dunno about you, but I leave, quite promptly.
  
  So, be sure to plan out your site and draw up a wireframe. For my example (to the left), a one-page site acting as an advertisement will do just fine. Try not to over-load your site with information. More is not always better. If all the noise is causing confusion, then your site will not have the intended affect.
  
  I added sharing icons, as word-of-mouth is a great way to gain exposure. There are language icons, for the website to toggle between Czech and English as those are the customers I am targeting. I have a table with the services offered, along with their price for each iPhone version, as that is the main thing potential customers will be searching for. A map is also included, with the nearest tram/bus/metro stop and lines which go there, along with the address and any added notes for the directions (we want to make it as easy as possible for people to find us, right?). Finally, a phone number is included, inviting any inquisitions and offering service to their door. I would probably add an e-mail address, too. The mission statement tells your customers what your purpose, aims and ideas are behind your business. A slideshow is at the top of the page, next to the logo - a picture is worth a thousand words, right? Adding a slideshow to your site is far more interesting than a paragraph of text. All the information they need is on this one page; there is no need to spread this information out amongst several pages.

• Search Engine Optimisation

  So, you have your website up and running, now how are you gonna get the traffic? Cos, really, what is a website without it?
  
  There are many factors that go into the optimisation for search engines, some of which you can't control - such as your website's age. The older your website is, the better. Which makes sense. If you've established yourself and maintained your site and regularly updated it with new content for half a year, it is much more likely to be within the organic results of a user's search (on the first page) than a website that has only been online for 1 month.
  
  The Google adWords Keyword Tool is a useful tool for finding out how many other websites out there are using specific keywords, as well as how many google searches are made for those keywords a month. With this information, you can pinpoint which keywords are searched through google a decent amount of times a month with the least number of website competition. For instance, when I typed in 'iphone repair' and selected the Czech Republic as the location filter, I was shown that the competition was low and is searched locally (within CZ) an average of 720 times a month. Google also gives you some other keyword ideas beneath your initial query. For mine, they have listed 'unlock iphone' with low competition and local searches at 6600 a month. Now, my iPhone repair shop would most likely unlock iPhones as well, so it would probably be a good idea to include this text in the body and title, to make it searchable.
  
  You can also advertise on google search pages with Google adWords. For my iPhone repair shop, when I type in 'prague iphone repair' into the google search engine, I get almost 15 000 000 results, and there is only 1 ad at the top of the page. Advertising here is optimal, as it brings you right to the top of the search page and is displayed to users who are querying your keywords. If you have a new site, especially, this is a good way to get traffic, as the ads are effective within hours of signing up. With adWords you can let google automatically adjust your CPC (cost per click) bids, so that you can get the most clicks possible within your budget, or you can manually set your bids for individual or groups of keywords.
  
  In order to optimise your searchability, it is very advantageous for your business to specialise in a niche. Businesses that offer a myriad of services or products are more likely to get overlooked in searches, unless, of course, they are a well-established business with a customer-base. When internet users shop online, they usually know what they are looking for - and type it directly into a search engine. The broader your company's services/product ranges are, the harder it will be for a search engine to fit you with their query.
  
  Search engines like content. If your website is a medley of images, videos and ads - you're gonna be ignored. My iPhone repair shop example has a table with services and prices, text within the mission statement and an h1 tag behind the logo. Content is important, as search engines cannot 'read' images.
  
  Of course, the more traffic you have coming to your site, the higher it will be indexed. Which is kind of a catch 22... But, I suppose more traffic = good SEO practices and vice versa. Including sharing icons or a facebook like button on your site is a good way of advertising through word-of-mouth.