The Educated, Confident Consumer

Knowledge of the Internet will build confidence in your ability to make smart decisions about a website for your business. In this article, I am including answers to frequently asked questions related to websites that I have received. It is my hope that these questions and answers will help those of you who feel confused about funeral home websites. We want you to become an educated, confident consumer.

Dealing with the unknown for most people tends to be uncomfortable. We are fearful we will make a wrong decision based on a small amount of information. Buying a website for most funeral directors falls into this unknown category. The language is different with websites and the Internet. Products are purchased differently and that can feel strange. In addition, there is nothing physical to touch or look at as you might when you buy a new car or piece of clothing. To move from the unknown to the known requires knowledge. Knowledge can translate into confidence when making a decision about websites and your business. Below is some information that might help you to expand your knowledge base and aid you to become an educated, confident consumer.

My Domain Name - What Is It? Who Owns It?

A domain name is like the address on your house. People find your house by the address. The same applies to your website address. People find your website address by using a domain name such as www.beyondindigo.com. When you "own" a domain name, you have paid for the right to use a particular name for a certain amount of time, usually two years. You have the entitlement to sell this domain name to another company or individual during the time you own it. However, as soon as you stop paying to "own" the domain name, someone else can purchase the right to use it.

If you are with a vendor (a business that sells and makes websites) who has control of your domain name, the name is listed through the vendor and not through your company. In order to change the ownership of the domain name from your vendor to you, paperwork will have to be filed with the register where the domain is held. Both parties have to sign the paperwork. I recommend that all domain names associated with your company be under your own company's ownership and not that of your chosen vendor.

he best place on the web to purchase or host your domain name is through GoDaddy.com. A domain name purchased through GoDaddy.com typically costs less than ten dollars a year. I recommend to all my clients that they buy or transfer their domain names to GoDaddy.com because they give the best service for the best price. If you are thinking about purchasing a website, go to www.GoDaddy.com and secure your domain name soon--before someone else snaps up the one you want to have!

What Should My Domain Name Be?

The best rule of thumb is "call it like it is." How do people currently refer to your business? One of the advantages of being on the Internet is you can have more than one option or more than one domain name. For example, with Beyond Indigo, we own www.beyondindigo.com, www.death-dying.com (our former name), www.death.net, www.grieving.com, and www.grieving.net. All these names/websites lead the inquirer to our Beyond Indigo website. If you have more than one website with different names, each location can have its own domain name and have it point to the same website. Sometimes it is a good idea to have several different names, as people looking for you might think to find your website using a name slightly different than the one you think of having. In addition, if you "sew up" domain names that are close to yours, you eliminate your close competition. You can see that nicely illustrated above with the Beyond Indigo names.

Shorter is also better than longer. The shorter words can fit on a business card more easily. They also make a tidy closing for an obituary. For example, Abriola Parkview funeral home chose www.abriola.com as their primary domain name that they place on stationary. However, they also have www.abriolafuneralhome.com and http://www.abriolaparkviewfuneralhome.com as domain names that all point to the same place (site).

Where Does My Website "Live"?

Websites can be a strange concept because they seem "intangible". It is hard to hold a website, touch it, or feel it as you would with other products connected with your business. Even though you cannot not physically "touch" a website, it still needs a place to "live." [Of course, you can view a website at any time]. The space where it resides is called a server.

In basic terms, a server is like a piece of land and your website is equivalent to your home. A home needs a piece of land to rest on or it would float in space. A website needs a home to rest on or it too would float in space.

Your vendor most often will take the responsibility of maintaining the server and its living environment such as protecting it from hackers (people that want to cause harm and destruction to your website) and virus attacks (methods that ruin your website). In some cases, people want to access their server without the vendor as a go-between. However, if you do access the server directly (using an FTP gateway) you will need to have an understanding of how the system works. Be aware that what you manipulate on your website could drastically change your website. In addition, it could cost you large sums of money to have your vendor fix it. In this case, a little knowledge could cause you more work than your original bargain.

What Is Data Transfer?!?

When a person visits your website they are taking the data from the server and downloading it to their personal computer. This is called Data Transfer. Data Transfer fees are generally included in the monthly or yearly fees you pay to your website vendor. However, if your website gets a sudden increase in traffic due to a popular ad (or celebrant death) beware you might incur more charges for the data transfer.

When you are shopping for a website vendor make sure to ask how much the server fees and data transfer fees are going to be so you can set your budget or do some comparison-shopping. Be sure to sign a contract, and make sure that your website will continue, even if your vendor goes out of business. Websites can be a great benefit to your business. Understanding how they work can be a huge benefit to your satisfaction, save you money, and give you creative power.

Is There a Way to Measure If My Purchase/Website Is Working?

Most people that use web terminology refer to web traffic to a particular site as a "hit". This measurement for site traffic (how many people come and view the site by clicking onto its web address) is an inaccurate way to measure how many people view your site. Let us look at why this is the case.

A Hit Means�

The term "hit" is the short version of "page hit". A hit means either a graphic or a page has been moved from a web server to your computer. For example, if there are ten graphics on a page then there are eleven hits. Ten of the hits are counted for the graphics and one for the page. A graphic is usually the buttons, the pictures and the logo on the page. The more accurate term to use for measuring web traffic is "pageview".

A Pageview means�

A pageview means one entire page that is viewed by one visitor. A pageview can have one or an unlimited number of graphics on it. To use our example from above of ten graphics, there would still be only one pageview. It compares apples to apples and oranges to oranges regardless of the number of graphics.

Next time a colleague states how many hits he or she has on their website ask them how many pageviews they have!

When talking to a vendor about purchasing or updating your website be sure you ask them some questions based on the information above.

What are my monthly/yearly server fees? Are these different then maintenance fees to make changes on my website? Will I be billed monthly or yearly?
Does the vendor charge for data transfer fees or is that included in the server costs?
Could the vendor buy my domain name for me? If so, will the domain name be in my company name? How much will the domain name cost?
If I have a domain name, will you transfer it to my new website?
Can I have more than one domain name point to my website?
Is a statistical package included with my website that will notate how many pageviews I receive as well as, or in addition, to hits?

Owning a website can be a valuable tool for your business that can bring many rewards. Some of the terminology with websites may be new to you. However, over time you will become comfortable with the way websites are similar in meaning and have the same effect that you find in the concrete world where we can physically touch the items we purchase. Having knowledge can translate into being an educated, confident consumer.

Please feel free to email me at kelly@beyondindigo.com with any questions concerning this article or with any other questions I can answer for you.