Business Writing

Lesson 5: Extending your Writing Skills

The World Wide Web

In this day and age, most businesses have websites. Advertising your business on the world wide web can be very cheap (from as little as US$19.00 per year), and it makes your details instantly available to millions of computer users around the world. When casually researching business information, most people turn first to the phone book, which only lists businesses within their immediate geographic area, and then to the web, making it the leading source of international business leads.

Some business websites consist of only one page which briefly explains the products and services offered by the company and provides more traditional contact details (usually an address and telephone number). This is adequate in some situations, and may suit those companies which wish to maintain a strongly traditional image, but, by and large, all it results in is the customer ignoring the site and looking for another, more informative one.

It can cost a lot of money to hire somebody to design business web pages for you, but there are a number of alternatives. The web design site recommended by this course offers template kits for putting together web pages which are much cheaper and quite simple to use. If you search the web, you'll find other similar systems available. Another option is to buy web design software from your usual software supplier. There are a range of such products available, including ones which are easy to use for complete beginners. These products will do the coding for you, so that all you need to do is click on icons to dictate what you wish your web pages to look like.

If you are interested in designing your own web pages from scratch, there are numerous guides available on the web and in bookshops to tell you how to do it. Some of the guides on the web are free, though, as always when using free material, it's polite to give credit to the source with a small notice (and perhaps a link) at the bottom of your main page. Coding in html is really quite simple, and you can produce a nice looking page without having to learn other scripts like Java or Perl.

Most of what makes a website effective is the information it contains. It doesn't matter how stylish your site looks if customers can't find what they want there. Sites which contain a lot of fancy graphics can even put customers off by taking a long time to load. Remember that not everybody interested in doing business with you will be using the most up to date software with a first class internet connection. You should also remember that not everybody reading your site will be using the same family of software. This won't create any problems with simple website design, but it can be an issue if you add lots of extra features.

People who visit your website because they are interested in buying your products will usually want to see pictures. These should be provided in either .gif or .jpeg format, as all modern software can handle those image types and they're not so bulky as to slow page loading down a lot. Make sure that it's clear what each picture represents. Short accompanying descriptions are a good idea. Try to avoid using background images which make text difficult to read.

It is advisable to provide ordering information on your website, even if this consists only of directing interested readers to telephone you.

Legally, a website counts as an official company publication. If there is any information which your government or local legislature requires you to provide on letters (eg: company number, registered office address, etc.) then it should also be provided on your website.

There is no point in creating a business website if nobody knows it's there. The best place to advertise is on the web itself, in search engines, in relevant directories, and by getting other pages to link to yours. There are a number of agencies out there who will take care of this sort of thing for you, but their services can be expensive. If you do choose to use an agency, you would be wise to negotiate with several of them before deciding which one offers you the best deal. Reputable agencies should be able to provide you with examples of other companies for which they have provided services, enabling you to check how well-connected those other companies are.

Advertising your website in search engines is easy to do. Simply visit the main search engine web pages (Google, Yahoo, Lycos etc.) and follow the instructions given there. You will be asked to provide keywords for your business. Keywords are the words which people are likely to type in if they are looking for a company like yours. You should include your company name, your geographical location, and the names of your primary products and services.

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