| The six steps to achieving your Internet presence |

Designing and building a web site is the main step toward achieving your Internet presence. However, there are a few other steps necessary to see you on your way.

Step 1: Domain name www.yourcompany.co.nz
Step 2: Design and build your website
Step 3: Find a host for your website
Step 4: Submit your website to search engines
Step 5: Monitor the visitors to your website
Step 6: Maintain and update your website

Step 1. Register your domain name - www.yourcompany.co.nz

This is often the first step because once you've made a decision to have a web site it's a good idea to book your web address before anyone else snaps it up. The cost is variable depending where you register but can range from around NZ$40+ for a .nz name and NZ$50+ for a .com name. Once you've paid the registration fee for a domain name you have the use of that address for the next 12 months (or longer depending on your registration period), after which you get first option to renew your registration.

There are a number of variations for the suffix of your web address depending on your company's business. For example, government departments have www.yourcompany.govt.nz, not-for-profit organisations use www.yourcompany.org.nz and so on (.net, .gen. maori, etc). The .nz part generally signifies which country you've registered your domain name with, although the US has .com as a suffix. You can have a .com domain name even if your company is not based in the US. In fact many New Zealand companies use a .com address for marketing purposes as they consider it supports a global look.

In New Zealand The Domain Name Commissioner (DNC) is responsible for the day-to-day oversight of the .nz domain name registration system and for authorising all companies who are allowed to take domain name registrations. Each registrar company has their own pricing structure so it pays to shop around. The DNC site has a full list of domain name registrars.

Webbit will register your .nz domain name for NZ$50.

Step 2. Design and build your web site

This is the procedure described on our Home page where you, with our assistance, will decide what information should be available on your site and how it should be presented.

Step 3. Find a host for your website

Once your site is complete it must then be placed on a reliable computer/server that enables 24-hour Internet access so people can visit your site at any time. The computer is generally called a server or host and requires special software to ensure your website is secure and that it operates correctly.

Using any of the major search engines you will find a number of host organisations ranging from free to hundreds of dollars per month. (We haven't yet found a 'free' host that offers a reliable service. Let us know if you do.) Paradise customers get around 10MB of free space for a website and Xtra customers can buy web space for around $25 per month, although Xtra does offer a free home-page service.

Webbit can take care of your hosting requirements from $200 per year.

Step 4. Submitting to search engines

There are a number of ways you can maximise the chances of your website address showing up in search results. Using key words in the development of your website pages is important and you can also increase your chances of being noticed by submitting your site address to search engines and directories. Most of the major ones such as Google, Yahoo, Alta Vista, MSN - not to mention the all-important New Zealand-only ones such as NZsearch and Searchnz - provide a 'submit site' link. Through this link you can add your site address and a brief summary of the content. You can also go that little bit further and buy a 'guaranteed' submission from around US$250 per month! There are also a number of specialist agencies that will register your name to search engines on a regular basis.

Webbit can submit your site address to the major search engines as part of the web development package.

Step 5. Monitor your visitors

Most host companies produce statistics on each site hosted. This information can be valuable in assisting you with your marketing plan. Usually there are a range of reports available listing which countries your visitors came from, what web addresses they used, how many times a page was viewed and which pages visitors exited your site from, etc. One thing to note is that many ISPs (Internet Service Providers such as xtra and ihug) have ways of inadvertently camouflaging this information. For detailed data on visitors to your site it may be worthwhile commissioning a specialist tracking company.

Webbit can help you with the general reports and advise on which companies offer the more detailed tracking/reporting services.

Step 6. Keep your website up to date

Visitors like to know that the information they are viewing is current. Be sure to maintain your site and update it as necessary. If you have monthly specials or news items it is particularly important to keep that information fresh. We provide a number of options for updating your site where you can make the changes without requiring additional software or we can take care of the maintenance for you.

Need to know more?

If you would like further explanation about any of the above steps feel free to contact us by telephone 04 565 1677 or use or email enquiry form.