You need a website to develop your business, direct brand awareness, and convert data into sales. The new year is here, and it's more crucial now than ever to have your product services shown off online.
Based on our agency's over 5-year experiences, we can identify 7 steps you need to think about before you decide to start your site build. These 7 steps will help you put things in order, understand what's needed so you don't have to start over or go from amateur web design agency to professional.
# 1 Define Your Goals
· Ask yourself what you are going to offer on your site.
· Why do you need a site, why did you start your business? Force yourself to have a clear idea of your short-term but also long-term goal. (Force yourself out of your comfort zone and entertain the idea of having your business online.)
· Do not underestimate the importance of consumer input. Understanding who you are talking to can help guide your site design and will help you create your content as well. Although it's your site, you want to tailor it to your consumers.
· What will your site be used for, how will it be the tool of your company?
· Ask yourself if your site will help you:
Inform
Communicate
Interact
Generate sales
# 2 Write Your Website Content
This one's simple. It's your site, your business, and no one is better suited to express the mission, goals, and passion but you. Prior to signing any contract or even looking for an agency it's important to at least have something on your PC expressing your companies purpose. The tricky part of this is, to do your best to keep it short. You may pour 4+ hours into writing what you want, but what we can promise is most people won't even read 10 minutes worth.
If you have images or videos you want on your site have them ready to be delivered to a designer. This is important not only for the design but also so an outside professional can tell you if the quality of the files is something that can leave a bad taste in a viewer's mouth. We want them to stay not go!
# 3 find a name and a server
Usually, finding a name is not a problem, but YOU also need to buy the domain and put the website on a server. In the development phase, we don't need the server yet, but you definitely need to start the buying process so that the final site can go live easily once it's ready. We of course can do this for you but expect a markup from most agencies. Take a look here: namecheap.com we can just about guarantee you'll find a cheap 10$ or so price, whereas other agencies will make that seem as if it's 50+. DON'T GET PLAYED!! It's very easy.
# 4 think about the features you need
Once you have the main design idea and where you host the site, you'll need to figure out what features to integrate. This could mean, an online store, integrated coupons, a quiz, contact forms, questionnaires, pop-ups, member login, newsletters, etc.
It's much easier to estimate the budget if you know this and can express these needs to a professional. Knowing what features are needed to be integrated into the website is key to getting an accurate quote, without tacked on fees.
A simple WordPress plugin can be a solution to many ideas. But some of them need to be configured or programmed separately, which means you need an expert.
# 5 Set a budget
Remember that a site is an investment. There will inevitably be recurring costs to consider that are worth planning from the start.
Think about the recurring costs: hosting, domain name, maintenance (there are updates to do, bugs to solve, wrong steps to correct, hackers ...)
One-off costs: a theme, a font, a graphic element, a specific plugin.
Additional costs (depending on your needs): marketing, like Google or Facebook ads, etc.
Creation cost: if you hire a professional (web designer, graphic designer for the logo or images, digital marketing professional, blog editor, or other texts, photographer, etc.)
Try to include these costs in your business plan to account for planned expenses during the year.
# 6 Professionals = less stress, more security, traffic, and sales
You might want to save some money and sign a contract with the cheapest deal. But, as with all other services, it does not always pay off. Find a web design agency that has experience in the style you want to follow, a team that can help you in the long run. Sit down, (or Zoom these days) with them to see if you speak the same language. If you don't see a common path, don't bother choosing another, or asking them for a reference.
# 7 On-Page SEO
On-page SEO is the foundation of your business's SEO journey. Here Meta Tags are set, headlines matter, target audiences are well-targeted, and viewers turn to buyers. There are so many benefits to starting your SEO journey in the design process.
Having a site built without this foundation is like driving a Honda instead of a Ferrari.
Here are just some benefits to SEO to ponder.
With a compelling SEO strategy, the company will improve its visibility and authority
SEO is an efficient way to generate more traffic to a Webseite and reach a relevant audience
By enhancing SEO, a business will rank higher on search engines, and it will be easier for customers to find your products or services and you have a better opportunity to convert to sales.
We certainly hope these 7 Steps assist you in your journey. But, why stop here!? We'd love to learn more, hear about your vision, and see about assisting in turning that into a reality.
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