You want to have a website designed for your corporate company, but everyone you speak with tells you something different and mentions technical terms you do not understand. You are completely confused and unable to make sense of the situation.

Don’t worry, in this article we will try to clear all the question marks in your mind.

With our 18 years of experience in the industry, we will review everything you need to know about corporate website services, one by one, clearly and comprehensibly, without going into technical details.

The first thing you need to know is: a corporate website is nothing more than the virtual version of the business you establish in real life.

To establish a business, you choose a company name, rent a location for your business, design your office, place your desks and chairs, and if applicable, install machinery for products and production, and you set up a phone line for communication. On the internet, just as you choose a business name for your website, you select a domain name (such as www.neturk.com or www.neturk.com.tr), you rent a space to place your office, products, and machines — this space is called hosting, and within this area you build your website, which holds your desks, chairs, products, and machines. You can think of your phones as the e-mails you use within the rented hosting space.

As we said from the beginning, a corporate website is nothing but the virtual version of real life.

Now let’s look in more detail at the corporate website services we mentioned briefly.

Corporate Domain Name (Domain)

Corporate businesses usually use domain names with extensions such as .com or .com.tr. So, what do these extensions mean, and should we choose a .com or .com.tr domain for our corporate website? Based on our experience, we will try to guide you in the most accurate way.

First of all, .com domain names are global, preferred, and used worldwide. They can be purchased without any official documentation. Whoever pays first gets it, and they can be registered for up to 10 years. After 10 years, the registration must be renewed by paying the fee again.

.com.tr domain names, on the other hand, are local, meaning they are exclusive to Turkey. They can be obtained by businesses associated with chambers such as the Chamber of Commerce or the Chamber of Tradesmen and Craftsmen, or by individuals or institutions with trademark registration. They can be registered by presenting documents such as the Trade Registry Gazette, Activity Certificate, or Trademark Registration Certificate. In other words, not everyone can obtain a .com.tr domain name. They can be registered for up to 5 years, and after this period, the fee must be paid again to renew the registration.

Now for the main question: When purchasing corporate website services, should we prefer a .com or .com.tr domain?

Our recommendation is to purchase both domain names (if available). Since .com domains can easily be bought by anyone, purchasing them prevents someone else from using them. .com.tr domains are more reliable, so they should definitely be purchased. You can publish your website under the .com.tr domain and redirect your .com domain to your .com.tr domain. This way, your website will open from both domains, but it will be displayed under the more corporate-looking .com.tr extension. If you need to choose only one, preferring a .com.tr domain would be the better choice.

Hosting (Web Hosting)

We mentioned earlier that after choosing your business name in real life, you need a physical space. In the online world, after choosing your domain name, the space in which you host your corporate website is called hosting. Of course, there are different types of hosting, but to keep it simple, there are two main web hosting server types: Windows hosting and Linux hosting. The rest becomes technical, and we said at the beginning we would avoid technical details. Our recommendation is to choose the hosting type based on the programming language used by the person or company designing your website. In other words, this decision should be made by the provider of your web design service, not by you.

Corporate Website

Corporate website design is the process of collecting content and arranging it aesthetically according to certain principles in order to present information on electronic websites that visitors can access online via web browsers.

A corporate website uses many of the same basic visual elements used in all types of design;
- The layout of graphics and text content is very important. One of the most important goals on the internet is to help visitors quickly access the information they are looking for at first glance. The balance, consistency, and integrity of corporate web design must be maintained. In short, your goal should be to have a corporate website where users can reach accurate and original information as quickly as possible.

- The color selection of a corporate website depends on its purpose and the corporate identity of the client. It is very important to create a design that reflects the brand’s personality by using colors that match the corporate identity. A company with a red corporate identity should not have a website designed in blue. Designers generally base this on the logo. If your logo is blue and gray, your website should be designed in blue and gray tones.

- The graphics, photographs, and images used to develop the corporate website must be user-friendly. They must work harmoniously with the website’s colors and content, be optimized to prevent slow loading, and be placed appropriately. Your designer will handle this process. Websites containing very large images tend to load slowly.

- Using various fonts can make a web design look attractive, but most web browsers recognize only certain fonts known as web-safe fonts. Therefore, your web designer should use fonts that are widely recognized across web browsers.

- Written content must always provide useful and relevant information to avoid confusing visitors and to encourage them to stay longer. Content should be optimized for search engines, include relevant keywords, and be of appropriate length without boring the user. A page that does not contain the term “website” and does not provide information about websites cannot rank high for searches containing the word “website.”

Corporate Website User-Friendliness and Site Architecture

The elements mentioned above make a corporate website attractive and visually appealing, but a website must always prioritize the end user. The user-friendliness of a corporate website can be achieved by paying attention to the following factors:

- The corporate web design menu, site architecture, and navigational links should be created based on how visitors browse and what they search for. The goal is to help visitors easily and efficiently access the information they need and navigate the site comfortably. The longer a visitor stays on your site, the better it is for your search engine rankings.

- Video and audio content on a corporate website can help visitors understand information quickly and easily. This encourages users to spend more time on the website.

- A corporate website must perform equally well on different web browsers such as Chrome, Explorer, and Safari, and on all devices such as PC, mobile, and tablet. A site that works perfectly on a computer may not provide the same level of usability on a mobile phone, causing mobile users to have a negative experience.

- User engagement can be increased by adding comment or survey sections to the corporate website. Interaction with visitors can be improved through contact forms, information forms, and newsletter subscriptions.

Corporate Website Admin Panel and Updates

Websites are designed in two ways: dynamic and static. Static means fixed, and if you want to make any changes, additions, deletions, or corrections to the content, you need to know coding and design languages. This will be difficult for you. A dynamic corporate website gives you the freedom to make updates without requiring coding knowledge.

Ask your web designer to prepare your corporate website dynamically and to provide an admin panel for the areas you need to update frequently — such as Products, News, or Blog pages. This way, you won’t need to call your web design service provider every time you need to update content.

Additionally, regular updates help your website achieve higher rankings in search engine results. Imagine you are searching for a mobile phone. You type "mobile phone" into the search engine... The regularly updated website has the latest smartphones; the outdated one does not. You cannot expect a search engine to recommend a website at the top of the results if it does not list the latest models. And if it did, you would question whether to use that search engine again. Therefore, search engines try to recommend websites that provide the most up-to-date information. Likewise, we must strive to offer the most up-to-date information to users on our corporate website.

Corporate E-mail Usage

The e-mails you will use for electronic communication with your customers must be chosen appropriately. If you do not have many employees, it is better to create e-mails according to departments rather than changing e-mail addresses every time an employee leaves (e.g., sales@domain.com.tr, accounting@domain.com.tr). If you need to assign e-mail addresses to individuals, using a dot between the first and last name gives a more corporate appearance.

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) – Security Certificate

Corporate websites are always at risk of cyberattacks, usually carried out with malicious software. These harmful programs access files and information on websites and can cause these files to be stolen, deleted, or altered. Therefore, website security is essential. The most common way to ensure security is by installing an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate on your website.

After installing the SSL certificate, your corporate website will no longer open as http://www.neturk.com but as https://www.neturk.com. This ensures that the data on your site and your visitors’ information remain protected.

Google, the world’s most widely used search engine, has announced that it will warn users when they access websites without an SSL certificate (you may notice that secure sites show a lock icon next to the URL, while sites without SSL show a "Not Secure" warning). Google also stated that websites without SSL certificates will not rank high in search results and cannot run Ads campaigns. With Google’s announcement, SSL has become almost mandatory.

Therefore, when having your corporate website designed, you must ensure that an SSL Security Certificate is installed.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

The work carried out to ensure that your corporate website ranks higher in search engines is called SEO, or search engine optimization. SEO is essential for improving your corporate website, ranking higher, and therefore reaching more new customers.

It is worth noting that if you are building a site for the first time or redesigning your website, this is the best time to receive SEO service. This way, your corporate website can be built with the technical structure and content that will help it rank high from the beginning.

An SEO expert first analyzes your industry and competitors, examines your site’s content and infrastructure, identifies the search terms frequently used by users in your sector, and prepares a technical and content roadmap that will help your site rank high for those target keywords.

A good SEO expert improves your site technically and content-wise, but there are so-called SEO experts who can harm your site’s reputation with harmful practices. For this reason, we recommend that you research thoroughly before choosing your SEO expert.

Always meet with your SEO expert in person, get detailed information about the work they will do, and review their previous references. Contact the businesses they refer you to and ask whether they were satisfied, whether communication was easy, and how long it took for results to appear.

If your SEO expert GUARANTEES that your corporate website will rank at the top of search results, thank them and begin looking for a new SEO expert.

If possible, research SEO basics online beforehand so you can gain at least some knowledge. This will help you identify unwanted technical practices and intervene when necessary.

Some methods that search engines forbid can push your corporate website to the top temporarily but will cause your site to drop significantly in rankings shortly after — and your site may even be completely banned by search engines. These deceptive methods include writing text the same color as the background or registering for programs that simulate high traffic. Such practices may temporarily boost rankings, but they eventually harm your site by pushing it far down in search results.

Therefore, we strongly emphasize the importance of being extremely careful when choosing an SEO expert.

Google My Business

After your corporate website design is fully completed, you must register your business on Google My Business. Google My Business is a tool used by businesses and institutions to manage their presence on Google, including Maps and Search.

Google My Business is very easy to use and completely free.

Once you register your business information on Google and verify your details, keeping them regularly updated will help customers easily find your business, access your address, phone number, location, call you directly, and view your working hours.

What Are the Advantages of Google My Business?

You can easily manage the information users see when they search for your business, as well as your products and services. Businesses that verify their information on Google My Business gain more credibility with their customers. When visitors find your business on Google Maps and Search, they can access important details such as your working hours, website, and business address.

You can respond to customer reviews on Google My Business and upload photos that clearly show what your business does.

Businesses that add photos to their Business Profile receive more clicks to their website and directions requests on Google Maps.

You can learn how customers search for your business and where they are located, and see how many viewers contacted your business directly through your Business Profile.