Launching a website for your business can be an exciting but daunting step. To make things smoother, this to-do list of steps serves as a guide in preparing the foundation to build your website as needed:
- Define what you want from the site. Prior to beginning work on choosing your website platform, it’s essential that you identify the purpose of the website – are online sales or information about your businesses services the goal? Knowing these objectives will dictate how to shape the design and material going forward.
- Get the content you need to make your website stand out. To ensure that visitors get a clear and accurate representation of your business, gather company history, products or services information as well as contact details before building your website. You can also add visuals like images or videos for greater impact!
- Pick a domain name with visibility in mind – it should be easy-to-remember and represent what you do best. Make sure this is available first by checking its availability online beforehand.
- Decide on a website platform. Crafting a website that meets the needs of your business is an important task. Narrow down to one platform, exploring options like WordPress, WIX and Squarespace while considering budget restrictions and taking into account technical abilities.
- Find a web designer or developer. Skip learning code if it’s not in your wheelhouse – enlisting the help of a pro versed in creating websites for organizations such as yours can take much-needed strain off those already stretched resources.
- Plan your website’s structure and layout. Once you have all the content and information needed, it’s time to begin mapping out your website. Consider which pages would be most effective to bringing in specific types of traffic that match keywords you want to be ranked for, then organize them in the order that best meets user needs.
- Set a budget. When creating your budget for this project ensure you factor costs associated with any domain name purchases, web platform or external designers/developers into consideration also.
- Test and launch your website. Thoroughly test your website for the best user experience. Invite a few trusted people to help you validate its performance and usability before taking it live — a great way to ensure success when launching!
By following these steps, you can prepare for building a website for your business and ensure that your website is professional, functional, and represents your business accurately.
