Gone are the days when website is for specific industries and large scale businesses. in this 21st century and ICT driven age, you and your business at whatever scale its operates can not afford to maintain balance in business world without a website that give you online presence and access to your business beyond physical location.

What is Business/Official Website?
Simple put, its a website that gives detailed information about a business and makes it easy for prospect or existing clients to navigate through, products, services, facilities, promos/offers, contacts, vision and mission of the business without the need to speak with any one and amazingly at any point in time even at 12 mid night.
Sample website for a client (school)

What are the Benefits of Business/Official Website?
<> Online presence
<> Presentation of facilites to prospects/clients from far distance
<> Consistent brand awareness
<> Increase in prospects/clients relationship without direct contact with staff
<> Reduces stress of explaining the same thing to tens,thousands or millions of clients on phone or sms.
<> Makes Digital marketing (Adverts on Nairaland, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google, etc.) more productive with high RIO compared to business advertising without website. people only need not to forget your website and they can catch up with any missed information from the adverts through your business website.
....lets keep it there for now while we go into the business of the day.


How to Create Business/Official Website on Shoestring Budget Professional?

There are basic things that makes up a website that intending business website owners must know;
1) Domain name : [/b]that is the name of your company online e.g Foskaay Enterprises group is represented online as www.FoskaayGroup.com

[b]2) Hosting: Like your PC that store data/information for future use, there are special computers that are called servers that stores/save all your website data and makes it available to users anytime they call it using the domain name as described above.

3) Design/Development: after you have access to the first two, you need to design the website to look more professional and attractive to users and also include features peculiar to your products and services. most cross platform design should includes e.g contact form etc.

4) Admin/Management: As an experience web design/dev and digital marketing consultant, I could say boldly that most Nigerian businesses with website ignore this part and thus only last online for the first year or even get hacked. After design, you need a reliable seasoned professional to monitor the platform for you monthly to avoid hackers from destroying the website (hackers are like offline thief/armed robbers/kidnappers robbing people of their valuable resource at night and even in broad day light). thus, there is need for police, army etc. to secure the website from those online vandals.

5) Social media: [/b]At least have a Facebook page, twitter and Instagram account to showcase your products, services, facilities etc. and you can have Youtube for short videos. An could employ or give it out to freelancing social manager/firm to manage them for your business.

[b]6) Adverts/Digital marketing [/b]Advertise your businesses on platforms like Nairaland etc.


[b]NOTE: The first two requires yearly renewal and you only touch the design when you desire or needed to upgrade the feature which could be in 2,3,5 or more years after the first design while the last option (4) should always be intact especially if your business deals with retaining prospects/clients information (sensitive, confidential or not). the (5) and (6) remain constant year in year out.


STEPS:

a) Buy domain name on website like Godaddy etc.
b) [/b]Buy Hosting from websites like Godaddy, namecheap etc.
[b]c) Install Wordpress using CPanel easily
d) Get a professionally designed Theme/templates
e) [/b]Follow the instruction to install and customized the website to your business taste
[b]f) Show it to one or two clients for feed back and stick to it if positive feed back received
g) Open social media accounts (Facebook, Twittter, instagram and Youtube etc.)
h) Do SEO to make Google index your business website so that when people search e.g web design company in lagos, best School in oworo etc. you website comes up and you get more patronage
i) Launch your platform for use.

That is how you can have your own website on shoestring budget and still meetup professional standard.

Am;
OLASUNKANMI AYOMIDE FAKEYE,
Web, digital Marketing and VAS Consultant,
Foskaay Enterprises Group
www.Foskaaygroup.com
www.TelecomsAdvocate.Foskaaygroup.com
I blog at [/b]www.informationvilla.com
[b]Design Portfolio: www.safehandschildcareng.com ; www.ibdimpexltd.com , www.camarang.com etc.


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Thanks and God bless ;DNairaLand for this wonderful platform to share my though as a consultant.