A website is no longer a luxury that small business owners can overlook; it’s a necessity. Even if your business doesn’t sell its products or services online, it will still benefit from a website. A well-designed website builds credibility, helps customers find your establishment, and gives you an edge over your competitors. But there are a few things you should consider when starting a website.
Domain Name
One of the first steps in creating a new website is to choose your domain name. Assuming you already have a business, you should try registering your [yourbusinessname].com. Google has said that domain extensions do not affect search rankings, meaning a .com should rank just as easily as a .net, .org or .info. However, .com domains are more trusted and recognized by the general public, so it’s best to stick with a .com when choosing a domain name for your site.
Content Management System (CMS)
What type of CMS do you plan on using with your website? While there’s no rule requiring webmasters to use a CMS, doing so streamlines the process of creating, editing and managing your site’s content. WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS, as it powers an estimated 1 in 4 websites. Other popular web-building CMS platforms include Drupal, Joomla and Squarespace. Familiarize yourself with the pros and cons of each to determine which one is right for you. (If you can’t seem to choose, however, you really can’t go wrong with WordPress.)
Promotion
How do you plan on promoting your new website? From pay-per-click (PPC) marketing and banner ads, to social media, press releases and more, the possibilities are endless. Unfortunately, many webmasters overlook the importance of promoting their website, assuming that traffic comes naturally. While your site may attract some visitors without any promotional effort, you’ll need to invest your time and resources into marketing if you truly want people to know and recognize your site.
Navigation
Clear, functional navigation is essential when creating a new website. If visitors are forced to click around on ambiguous links just to find a specific category, it may discourage them from returning to your site in the future. Consider using several top-level, mid-level and bottom-level categories to enhance visitors’ experience with proper navigation.
Load Times
When you’re busy performing the countless tasks that go into creating a website, it’s easy to overlook load times. But load times will affect numerous aspects of your site, including sales/conversions. A study conducted by the e-retailing giant Amazon, for instance, found that for every 100ms increase in load times, it experienced a 1% decrease in sales. Google has also said that it uses load times as a ranking signal. So if your website suffers from long load times, you’ll have a harder time achieving a top search ranking in Google.
