Follow this checklist to ensure that your website is setting you up for success.
Identify the main purpose of your website – websites can be used for many different purposes, so it’s important to understand your goals early on. Do you want an e-commerce site to sell your products online? Are you using it to improve brand awareness and provide information on what you do? Or maybe it’s a combination of many things.
Identify your target audience – Who are you trying to reach, and what are they looking for? Depending on your industry and who you are targeting, it can have a big impact on how you create and design your website.
Conduct competitor research – what are your competitors doing? You want to make sure that you are living up to your industry standards, while also standing out from your competition. It’s a great way to fgure out your do’s and don’ts, while fnding inspiration for your own site.
Plan your content – you don’t need to have all of your content ready to go right away, but it’s going to make the process a whole lot smoother if you plan out what content you want to appear on your website early on, that way you can design and plan accordingly.
Establish your budget – h ow much are you able and willing to spend? If you have a large budget, investing in a custom website designed by a web developer is great. However if you’re on a budget, you may need to go with an alternative, such as a template.
Choose how you’re building – Do you want to use a Content Management Service that comes with pre-existing templates, or do you want to code your website from scratch?
Hosting and maintenance – Hosting makes your website visible online by others, while maintenance is necessary to ensure the longevity of your website. Choosing your hosting and maintenance service early on is a good idea to avoid any issues later down the road.
Domain name – You want to make sure you have a web address that is easy to remember and search. Having your business name is pretty standard, and helps you continue branding yourself.
Plan SEO Strategy – Your Search Engine Optimisation strategy is a massive part of building your website, right from the beginning. This can include anything from your coding, your keyword research and implementation, as well as obtaining an SSL certifcate so your website is more secure.
Design/choose template – Depending on how you have chosen to build your website, you will need to either design your website, or choose a template. If using a template, you want to make sure that it is user friendly, with fast page speeds, and industry relevant features.
Add graphics and branding – Your website is a representation of you as a business, so you want it to be visually appealing and engaging. People should be able to easily navigate your website, while also picking up on your brand identity.
Add content – It’s time to add content to your home page, as well as any other pages that you decided to create. Many websites will have an about us page, sections for their products or services, terms of service & policy pages as well as a blog section.
Integrate apps, plugins, extensions – Y ou will want to make sure that you integrate any apps or plugins that you want to use. These apps can be used to create contact forms, connect to social media, offer a live chat or any other function you want to offer on your website.
Launch – It’s time to publish your website!
Check everything works properly – Once you’ve published your website, you want to make sure that everything works properly before you start sending people to it. Having a website with broken links or error pages can cause people to lose trust and discredit your business.
Continue updating your content – regularly updating the content on your website is going to help you improve your search engine ranking, as well as establishing trust with your audience. This should be both on-page and off-page.
SELL SELL SELL – Follow these steps and you will have a website that is designed to sell for you 24/7.
