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Weekly UpdatesManufacturing has seen remarkable advances in how products and goods are manufactured, especially since the introduction of the personal computer. It has fueled obvious advancements such as CAD and CAM, but also in the way vendors and customers communicate. It's important for a shop to establish a presence on the Internet. Here are some of the first steps to take even if your business isn't yet ready to maintain a web presence.
Often, in visiting a shop or talking with a potential customer at a trade show, I'll find the company has no website. Moreover, they maintain a client e-mail address through a provider such as Yahoo or Google.
There's nothing wrong with that, but creating and maintaining an e-mail address that includes the company name is much more professional. It's much better to have joe.smith@superiormetal.com than jsmith@ generic-email.com.
Today it's necessary for a business to have a distinctive company website name. The first step in establishing a website is buying a domain name that tells the world where your site can be found. It's important to get your company's domain name registered as soon as possible, even if the building of a company website is a distant idea.
Pioneer Stock
Every pioneer looks first for land before they build. The same is true for Internet "real estate." Don't assume that a shop must buy a domain name and have a company website up in the next week. There's nothing wrong with establishing a domain name and then waiting for the right time to build a site. Even free or low-cost basic websites with a shop's contact information can establish a web presence while a more-extensive site is planned.
Determining the site's name is important as well. Many shops are lucky to be able to register their exact name without finding it's been used already. Others will have to be a little more creative since the domain name might be taken. Here are some guidelines for choosing a memorable site name:
* Keep the name as short as possible. Haas Automation uses www.haascnc.com as opposed to its full company name.
* Avoid dashes and underscores. These characters can cause confusion if they are not communicated properly and increase the risk of pointing a customer to the wrong company.
* Get the *.com version of a site name and avoid a *.org suffix. A website with a *.org suffix is most often identified as a non-profit organization. Stay away from less popular website suffixes--known as a third-level domain--such as *.tv, *.mobi, *.us, *.info, or *.biz. A *.com suffix provides the strongest branding.
* Be descriptive. If a shop's company name is simply "Smith", try for smithmfg.com or smithmachining. com. A memorable domain name helps people find a business more easily through a web search.
* Can't decide between two good names? Buy both. They're inexpensive and it's possible to forward one name to another.
Low-cost Investment
Once the decision is narrowed to a few domain name possibilities, see if they're available. One way is to use www.instantdomainsearch.com. Use the site to see if the *.com or the *.net names are available. If the names and preferred suffices are available, there are a number of companies, such as www.1and1.com or www.godaddy.com where it is possible to purchase your name for less than $10 annually.
With a claim staked in cyberspace, a shop is a few steps away from setting up customized e-mail addresses and a basic info web page. When the time comes to build a more detailed website, the perfect "lakefront" property will be available.
Jay Pierson
President
Pierson Industries
Jay Pierson is president of Pierson Industries, a manuracturer of spercialized workholding products. He serves as a small business startup consultant and hosts a podcast at CNCReport.com covering topics in the maching industry.
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