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E-Restaurant - The 21st Century Successful Online Business Story

The internet has brought about a phenomenal change in public awareness and has become the most sought-after medium of support by modern businesses

Author: Richard Jackson
Date: Mar 26, 2007 - 11:29:57 AM

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How business can boom through internet – Restaurant, an illustration

 

The internet has made a quantum leap since the early days in the mid 90s. These days, an average user spends about 4 hrs browsing the internet as compared to zero a decade ago. Whether the business is big or small, the meaning of the internet in promoting the business can not be downplayed. Despite this, it is really appalling to know that many businesses are still not using this medium at all. Those who do use it are not using it to its full ability. The internet has brought about a phenomenal change in public awareness and has become the most sought-after medium of support by modern businesses.

 

Prudent businessmen will always think ahead and try to keep up with the times in order to take full advantage of this growing medium. There are some key points that a well informed businessmen should know about in order to feel at ease with this technology;

 

Having a website is very inexpensive affair:

 

The cost of owning a website has become very affordable and costs any where from $300 and this includes domain name, emails etc. The monthly hosting can cost anywhere from $10 and upwards depending on the type of services. This indeed, is very minor expense as compared to putting an advertisement in the yellow pages.

 

Let’s say you are visiting a town and you are looking for a local Chinese restaurant. You have internet access in your hotel room and you do the natural thing and go to Google and type ‘Chinese restaurants in Minneapolis’. If your site is not listed on that page, you potentially lose a client and if you don’t have a website, you stand no chance. This is just a simple example.

 

If you have a website but it’s not working:

 

Remember - having a website is not enough. If it is not properly designed, it is just as good as non-existent. Don’t try to save money by putting up poorly-designed website by some novice web-developers. It might save you some money for now, but it will cost you dearly in the long-term. Consider the following points while putting up your website:

 

·         The site should be easy to navigate and it should contain all the essential information you want to convey to your visitors.

·         The content of the site should be search-engine-friendly so that major search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN can pick up you website when visitors search for the products and services offered by you. In a nutshell, the content should contain all the necessary keywords that visitors usually type in the search box.

 

·         Apart from putting up a good website, its promotion should also be taken care of. You can add links to directory services and other websites to drive traffic to your website. Besides, you can submit articles related to other websites and send out regular newsletter. Just make sure that these articles are relevant to your products and services. This is called link campaigning and it plays a vital role in attracting visitors to your website. It also builds and increases loyalty among people which only helps your business grow faster.

 

Don’t be complacent:

 

There are many businessmen who are making money at the present moment, and do not feel that the internet medium will offer them any additional benefit. Do not make this mistake, if you don’t stay ahead of your competitors then they would not only come up with better products and services but also leverage the internet to put them in an enviable position to beat. Hence, every practical businessman should understand the importance of internet marketing.

 

Although the above points are extremely crucial to the growth of your businesses, but the key is to find a vendor who is knowledgeable with ample designing experience and very knowledgeable about Google, Yahoo and other major search engines. Make sure that the vendor is also able to meet your future needs such as customization of the website and help with online marketing as well as adding additional rich-features helpful to your site.

 

Ferdouse Khaleque is an IT Director & Marketing Specialist for Semibase Inc. His company develops small individual websites to fully custom developed database driven websites. Some of Semibase services and products include the following;

1.       Semibase.com – Full array of services – Web design, web hosting, custom design, online marketing, ecommerce, online business development.

2.       MenuStation.com – Online directory of local restaurant menus with full online ordering capability.

3.       Communalmarket.com – Portal website for communities.

4.       Datingstage.com – Fully featured dating web-service with over 200K members.

View all articles by Richard Jackson

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