
	“Catch22 brings 'web talk' to a human level. The results speak for themselves but it is the clear way that it's done that's the selling point for us." T Miklausic - TGSki

Website Start-up Guide

This website start up guide is a collection of useful tips, advice and free online tools that will hopefully make your online life and business a whole lot better.

5 Golden Rules Of Designing A Website

Follow these guidelines for your website and you will have a significantly more successful website. It will attract more visitors, get more conversions and more people will return to it and refer it to others. By the fact you are reading this right now is largely proof they work.

It's not about you! It's all about the visitor. This is a paradigm shift in thinking for a LOT of business owners but you need to think carefully about what your visitors want and how they want it. Once that concept of being "user focused " is fully understood it will affect the design, the navigation and all the content of your website to massive benefit.

Don't put Google first! It sounds like heresy for an seo web design company but website optimisation should (still) be the hidden magic behind a successful website. Seeing a site that is blatantly trying to please search engines is like noticing a product placement in a film. It can distance us or even worse - create distrust. Once that bond is broken with the viewer or user you've already lost.

Write benefit orientated copy! The difference between "We have been around for 12 years and we're brilliant at...." and "Our 12 years of experience means you'll have peace of mind of choosing a company that knows exactly what you need..." is absolutely HUGE.

Optimise your website! Sounds obvious to the 'converted' but many many business owners are unaware of the fundamental need for top class SEO and the potential it carries for their business. It's not just about getting more search traffic, it's about quality of visitors, diversity, salespotential and the implied leadership and expertise that comes from sitting at the top of Google.

Think long term. In an increasingly impatient culture it is sometimes hard to convince clients to take a longer term view of their website development. Successful web design is not the cheap option but it is the most effective. Those that are willing to invest time, thought and money before regulalry monitoring and improving their website will be successful for years and years.

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Did You Know? "There are over 500 million documented searches done every day online. The UK online audience is already vast, diverse, willing to spend money and searching every day for every type of product and service. If you are not able to be found online you are simply missing out." Cameron Clark - Catch22 Marketing

Tips For Choosing a Web Design Company

Ask questions! If they're initially helpful that's always a good sign - plus you'll get lots of free advice and tips even if you don't end up using them!
See examples. Proficiency is the key. Even if it's just 2 examples not 20, if it's good, and you like what you see - then it's enough to know.
Are they experts in optimisation? SEO is arguably more important than the website itself. You can always outsource the website optimisation but you can't beat seo web design built from the ground up - and that's a fact.
Make sure you get on! It is so important. Your web design company is going to get inside your business and sell it to the world, so understanding each other is critical to success.
Decide who is driving? Sometimes it's the client as they know exactly what and why. Typically for startups the client has less clear cut ideas and experience of the online market - so the onus is on the web design company to be creative in design, features and marketing ideas.
Be prepared! You don't want to have to repeat the same conversation with web designers over and over. Write a brief with as much detail as possible - listing ideas, inspirations and website objectives.
Free Example Website Design Brief (Get latest version )

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3 Fundamental Steps Of Starting a Website

Visit is www.start.biz - find out if your company name is available, and register a trading name.
Get a domain name. "Keyword based" url's used to be the fashion and can be useful for seo like cheapflights.co.uk but it's also good to go for something quirky and memorable like Froogle or Opodo.
Next is website hosting. We use and recommend a business hosting package from 1&1 Internet - it's affordable, includes lots of free start-up tools and has 24 hour technical support.

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Website Start-up Tools !

Skype is the greatest thing ever. Free calls over the internet, conference calling, instant messaging, transfer files, video calling...and wait for it...100% Free! We love Skype!

You Send It! Anything over 10MB is a lot to email so this free online service allows you to send anything up to 100MB to people (via email) with little fuss. Really handy for sending photos or large pdfs to your web design company!

Central Desktop was created for business teams not IT departments - and provides a simple project collaboration platform. Perfect for start up businesses with members not all working in the same office.

Linked-In. Find old work colleagues, network, find a job, and get answers to business questions from industry experts. Invaluable tool for start-ups and entrepreneurs.

Firefox. The best way to browse the web - fact. All the new features Internet Explorer now has are due toFirefox. Come on join the movement...

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Search Marketing Tools!

Adwords can do so much for your business. Use it to get potential customers, a testing tool for your site, a seasonal marketing tool - the list goes on. Also check out our Google Adwords Master Class

Yahoo PPC (formerly Overture) is Yahoo's version of Adwords. PPC adverts will appear on search engines as well as popular sites Yahoo is partnered with like Alta Vista, Bebo etc.

Microsoft Ad Centre Having split away from Yahoo to concentrate on it's own pay per click product MSN has been very popular with small business and start-up advertisers.