Creating a website
Setting up a website requires a number of partial steps. You need to know whether you can implement these yourself or will need expert help. If you've never set up a website before, here are some tips:
• Register a domain name. Give your site a unique name which is easy to remember. Register the domain yourself; don't leave it to a developer. This site introduces you and your company. You must own it and be the person listed as registrant, administrator and billing contact.
• Decide how to create your site. Will you do it yourself or hire someone?
• Select a web hosting service.
• Have the web hosting company set up a domain with the web host.
• Set up (or have someone else set up) WordPress or some other content management system (CMS) that allows you to make minor changes and add pages on your own without a knowledge of HTML.
• Decide what to put on the site. What information and graphics will engage visitors and get them to take the action you want.
• Plan your website architecture (in other words, how people will find the information or products they want on the website).
• Design a website or select a ready-made template.
• Write web content and product descriptions for the web.
• Create original graphics or photos, or use other available resources to purchase licenses.
• Think about appropriate call-to-action suggestions for parts of your site and content to get visitors to take action.
• Adjust and crop photos to the correct size for use on your site.
• Make sure your site is well optimised for search engines (SEO).
• Create a shopping cart that allows visitors to shop intuitively (If the main purpose of the site is sales, the entire site can be set up on an external shopping platform, such as Shopify.)
• Consider using PPC or other online advertising to drive website traffic.
• Maintain the site on an ongoing basis.
If you find you lack the skills, time or patience to create a small business website yourself, you need to hire a professional to help you. No matter who you hire, you will still have to get involved in the project.
The third part in the series will look at preparing website content.
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