The need for building your website online would arise for many reasons. You may want to start a career as a blogger. As a business owner you need visibility. You want to host your portfolio of work. The process might seem very difficult. But it is not, all it requires is planning and understanding.
Step 1 : Planning
Set an objective to your website. What do you want to achieve by having your website online? Are you looking to sell a product or a service? How would anyone get in touch with you from the website? What do you want your customers or readers to see first? What are the topics you are covering on your website?
Setting up a website is easy. But getting people to see it is difficult. You don’t need a web developer to go online. Yet to stay online and creative you need proper assistance. It’s about understanding the niche your website works towards solving. If your website is not informative for its readers, it will fail. You need to decide on the different pages you need.
Step 2: Domain and Hosting
The domain is basically the name that you want for your website. There are many companies that provide Domain and Hosting services. While they all may seem attractive, check the fine prints always. Many companies offer you a domain for FREE yet at renewal they charge you double. My company Electro Curve Marketing Solutions offers Domain and Hosting Services, and you are free to check the same HERE.
Simple tips to follow while choosing a domain name are:
- Keep it short
- Make it easy to remember and spell
- Make it relevant to either your company name or what your company does/is
- Consider using a location in the name of your company is a local business
- When in doubt, go with a .com domain (known as a top-level domain)
There are many other Hosting Companies that offer various offers. Many times small companies might not match these and you can take advantage of them. GoDaddy and BlueHost are two of the biggest players in the market. As an affiliate, I can offer you a FREE Domain and SSL Certificate on your hosting at BlueHost by following the link below.
Step 3: Building Your Website
Building a website can scare many people. But thanks to technology we have many easy to make options like Wix.com. This website helps you build a simple site in minutes. These types of platforms generally work on a WYSIWYG (“what you see is what you get”) interface. Mainly keep in mind to choose a responsive design. A responsive design adapts to any screen size (mobiles, tablets, and desktops). You also have ready programs in your hosting. These programs like ‘softaculous’ allow you to install WordPress in seconds. WordPress is one of the best Content Management Systems for blogs. Other programming languages while developing a website will be HTML, PHP, JAVA, and ASP.
There are many programming languages that are accepted. You will require some technical expertise for the same. This can be got with the help of any developer in your vicinity. Give a shout out on your social handles and you will find plenty. Some tips while choosing a developer are as follows.
- Understand developers expertise and style of work
- Make terms and conditions clear before start of work
- Have a proper framework of requirements
- Check developer portfolio before assigning work
- Have clarity on costing and be open to negotiating
Step 4: Write Good Content
Selling an idea is about telling the right story. Is your website not performing at its best? It will in most probably be because of the wrong tone in content. The content is king on any website. Right from the words, you use to the images you share. The colors on your website should be in sync with your brand image. Check my article about branding here: The Brand, The Branding, The Branded.
In my content development I use a free software called ‘Grammarly
‘. This software has helped me immensely in understanding the tone of voice. The software also auto-corrects spelling mistakes. The browser plugin allows me to check on any online platform I post. Check the software here ->Instant Spelling And Grammar Checker
Step 5: The Selling Process
If we revisit step 1, we have to achieve an objective by building your website online. You should visit your website as a customer and check if your objective is fulfilled. Can your website be accessed on mobile? Today 90% of your traffic will be from mobile devices. Can your text/font be read clearly? Is your website user friendly? In technical terms we call this UI and UX. UI stands for User Interface and UX stands for User Experience. There are many designers who specialize in this particular work.
Go through the process of visiting the website and checking if you would end up buying. The products and services need to be described clearly. The contact form needs to be easily accessible. Every website has a CTA (Click to Action) which will determine your conversion rates. If you are a blogger, check if your content leads customers to make an opinion or decision. Building a website online has one major objective, that is selling a product or a service or an idea.
Step 6: SEO and SMM
SEO stands for Serch Engine Optimization. Search Engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo etc have to scan through billions of pages. SEO is made up of multiple different elements, and knowing what they are and how they work is key to understanding why SEO is so important. In short, SEO is significant because it makes your website more visible, and that means more traffic and more opportunities to convert prospects into customers.
SMM is Social Media Management. We today have many social media platforms. Most of these platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn allow you to hold business accounts. These accounts allow you to even publish advertisements and boost posts. Having a strong social media presence allows you to reach a wider audience. This in turn drives traffic to your website.
Step 7: Maintain Your Website
Just owning a website will do you no good if it is not regularly updated. The website is your business identity in the virtual space. If your website is not updated for ages, it just reflects badly on your brand. Building your website online is one part of the game. Staying online is the next part of the game. Domain and Hosting is usually an annual expenditure that you need to consider. Every hosting provider has different plans for the same. Most web development companies offer Annual Maintainance services based on the requirements of the client. Taking one of these packages allows you to stay updated on all platforms.
Step 8: Promote Your Website
Promoting a website may be as simple as mentioning it on your business profile. If you run a blog you can share the link to your social media profiles. Getting more serious methods will involve reaching out to a Digital Marketing Professional. You can also learn the tricks yourself by taking a few freely available courses on Google Digital Garage or LinkedIn Learning. I have personally learnt the trade from these two platforms beside an Udemy Online Course.
Understanding few small concepts for Digital Marketing will take you a long way in reaching to a wider audience. Concepts like SEM or Search Engine Marketing will help you bid on particular keywords. These ads, often known by the term pay-per-click ads, come in a variety of formats. Some are small, text-based ads, whereas others, such as product listing ads (PLAs, also known as Shopping ads) are more visual, product-based advertisements that allow consumers to see important information at-a-glance, such as price and reviews.
If you don’t go out and spread the word about your website, no one will visit it. You can send out Emails to your past customers announcing the launch of the website. Reach out to friends and family over Whatsapp or Messenger. Whatever be the medium, you need to take the first step in sharing this news.
Domain names and Websites are Internet real estate.
Marc Ostrofsky, American Entrepreuner
