Can I get a free website?

A lot of clients want a free website. So...can you get a free website?

Sure! Sorry to say, though, you will not get the free website from QW Consulting.

I get asked this question a lot, especially by small business owners who are looking for a cheap way to market their business. As a small business owner, I get the desire to save money. That said, the free website solutions, such as Google's site creator or Yahoo's Geocities, might be okay tools for the family photo website but they aren't great website solutions for your business.

For your business website, you want something that will be a tool to market and sell your business. That means, at minimum, a professional design customized to your brand and functionality on your website that services the needs of your customer. Additionally, your website needs to be optimized for top performance in search engines. Plus, you need to have the ability to change the content on your website whenever you want, instead of relying on me to make updates. That kind of tool for your business will not be free. Instead, like any other good tool, it is an investment in your business. At QW Consulting though, it doesn't have to be that big of an investment.

For the budget conscience client, QW Consulting suggests limiting the size and scope of your website to the essential things you need. In general, those basic essential items include:

• A simple, but fully customized, website design that is branded to your business.
• Peak CMS, a content management system, will allow you to add, edit and delete your own pages and content. Peak CMS also comes with a blog and photo gallery.
• Website hosting.
• An SEO Audit, including keyword analysis, and an initial search engine optimization to make sure your pages and images are found by search engines.
• Setting up Google sitemaps to help Google (and other search engines) better understand your pages.
• A brief website usability review to make sure your website is easy to use and understand.

Granted, these items aren't free. However, high quality website solutions will not come free. The question is: will that investment in a website be worth it for your business? In other words, most free websites will not help you. However, spending the time and money on a high quality website can significantly help your business grow via your website.

If you'd like to get started on building your website, please contact QW Consulting today.