Advertising the tangible bricks and mortar of a retail shop has changed to the intangibles of an online store. And there is so much jargon to learn. Instead of foot traffic you’re hearing about page impressions and click bait, and everybody keeps mentioning acronyms like SEO, HTML and URL. Your digital presence typically begins with a website and having a dedicated email address that is composed of your company’s name. There is also the matter of whether you decide to even have a website. The technology of social media is such that you could exist solely on social media platforms and still maintain the functionality offered by a website.
Web hosting
Don’t be fooled into thinking for anything to exist you simply have to upload it. Regardless what you choose, for content to exist on the internet, it needs to be published, and in order for it to be published, there must be a host. You can pay for a web hosting company to do this for you or, if you’re okay with having other ads and pop-ups appear on your site, your hosting can be free. This can often annoy your customers and deter them from coming to your site. So, if you have the cash, rather opt for web hosting. But, how do you know who the best web hosting in Australia is? Do a Google search to see who comes up on top of the search results. Speak to other business owners. Ask Google for recommendations. It costs money to have a website hosted.
Security
Once you have read and decided on who sounds credible to you, go one step further and look for reviews online. Treat your website like your bricks and mortar, there is valuable information on there that you want to protect and don’t want to have stolen or misused. Because of this, make sure that the web hosting company has a good reputation for security. Ask questions about what measures they have in place to protect your information.
Using templates or pre-existing platforms
Another way of building your online existence quickly is piggy-backing off template websites, apps or pre-existing social media platforms. There will be a fee associated with doing it this way, but the benefit of doing is that it saves you time and it has been created by people who specialise in this. It could take you months to learn how to build a site, integrate payment portals and create online purchasing links. And then, even if you’ve managed to teach yourself, your work could still look poorer quality than your competitors because you don’t have that professional edge. There is also value in scale. If you as an individual are trying to negotiate charges with your bank for having an online store, you might be charged more for each transaction and for the back-end admin. But the companies who have built the templates sell it on mass, they’re able to negotiate cheaper charges and rates which in the long run, saves you money.
