Planning your first website

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When you’re launching a new home-business or simply want to get your business online, building an online presence is crucial, but it doesn’t have to be a big ordeal.

Making the vital elements of your website align with your company goals is the perfect recipe for a successful website launch. First you need to start planning, so let’s take a look at what to start with…

Discovering your website purpose

The purpose of your website and the aims of your business should correlate. Start by bridging the gap and the link your website will hold between your consumers and your products or services. Do you want to just sell products, or just promote existing products?

Conduct some market research and explore how your competitors are using their websites to attract their target markets. What can you do differently but effectively? No consumer knows your product like you, so make sure it is clear to all target markets.

It is very important to remember that the website you are creating is as much for your client as it is for your business. Make sure your descriptions are comprehensive and directed solely to your desired consumer.

Choose appropriate Domain/URL names

Everything about your website should be custom designed around your business and branding. That includes logo, colour scheme and the technical stuff such as your domain name and URL. Ensure you conduct proper research to find available domains and suffixes. Wix and GoDaddy can help prevent you from wasting time by choosing an occupied domain name and having to start the process again.

Choose safe and functional web hosting

Web hosting may sound complicated but it’s actually really simple. All you need to ensure is that the hosting provider is protected and dependable.

If you’re looking for maximum security for your web hosting, then be sure to choose external web hosting as this not only ensures your data is protected but also gives your website recovery a better bounce-back time than with cheaper hosting options.

Form your content

When planning and designing your content then timing is everything. Your first option is to design the content yourself using free tools online, however this is time consuming and you may not get the results you want without the help of a professional.

A popular choice for most businesses is web developers, who are external to their company and can create content with a business plan objective given to them from yourself. This ensures that you’re ticking all the boxes in the online world. Web developers are agencies who are skilled in setting-up, running and maintaining your online presence. Set up and monthly running fees are incurred however, you will see the benefits from knowing all your online problems will be solved instantaneously and you can change your website as and when you would like to.

Select products to push

If putting your products or services up for sale online is one of your objectives, it is important to make sure you have the correct features achieve this purpose.

Ecommerce and Shopify are incredibly powerful online shopping tools. Not only do you consumers get to spend time interacting with your website, but you can use that as a chance to promote your most popular or latest products and catch your audience’s attention.

There is also an option for if selling products is an added extra but not the focus of your website. Use Shopping Basket gives you the platform to do so but leaves the rest of your website free for information.

Conduct a test run

Once you’re happy with the run, layout and design of your website it’s time for a test run. A test run not only ensures the technical functions are in order, but that everything from image display to full stops are in place.

You will save an incredible amount of time by conducting this test prior to your website going live. Bringing in a candidate who is not already familiar with the website will ensure you test is being conducted with a fresh pair of eyes who will spot errors you may have missed. First impressions are everything, so make it count.

Market, market, market

So, your website is live – what now? It is time to market your website. Treat your website like any other product and make sure URL is located on all forms of advertising and contract platforms such as; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, even your business cards.

Marketing your website ensures traffic is continually driven to it, even when you’re not consciously monitoring it. Stockport website design can offer your business decades of experience in web development and SEO management, not to mention a repertoire of clients who are individually catered to based on their company’s objectives. Responsive web design can significantly improve your Google rankings, which in turn means your products and services are seen before any of your competitors. Don’t waste any time, get online today.