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Let us set out on an exciting voyage building a website in order to advance your business. Unlike a regular voyage, this one never ends unless you decide to limit your activities or close your business. But like any other voyage we start from the beginning...
Choosing a domain
It is advisable that the domain name be short and to the point. The association between the domain name and the business should be very clear. It is quite a challenge to find a good domain name because most of the good names are taken. This process needs a lot of patience and creativity. If the business name is not set yet, then you have more flexibility.
There is another method to select a domain name: Build a domain name out of a collection of important keywords. This method is good for website promotion but not for your business brand.
It is very important that you alone buy the domain name and not a third party on your behalf. If not, you might find yourself running around trying to contact the third party when domain name is renewed or website hosting program changed.
Choosing a hosting program
A hosting program is simply setting up a server to store your content and serve your guests.
The more guests you have to serve and the more service you offer, the more hosting is required. - This translates into money.
The most important issue in a hosting program is the reliability. Additional issues are databases, email accounts, content management systems, SSL certificates, etc.
Design website structure
You should setup a structure of categories and pages according to your business activities and according to the business field. Usually a website structure is a tree starting with the homepage, categories, and several pages per each category including “contact us” page. Do you prefer to design the structure yourself or hire a professional?
No matter how much you invest in it, there will always be a need for change. Only during your work insights drop in.
Design website pages
Design the layout of each page requires a sense of style, aesthetics, and human engineering, Design of the pages layout is simply a sketch defining the location of every element on the page: Logo, title, banners, texts, forms, etc. Do you prefer to design the structure yourself or hire a professional?
No matter how much you invest in it, there will always be a need for change. Only during your work insights drop in.
Graphic design
Do you have a logo? If so life is easy. If not, start investing. There are companies and graphic designers that only deal with creating logos that will answer and match your business name and operation.
Colors and patters of the website may be derived from the logo selected. With the sketch of the web pages the graphic designer can actually draw the look of the website, purchase matching pictures and conduct several iterations with you till you get the final design.
Website implementation
Now you need a website developer to receive the website structure, the website page layout and the graphics.
The website developer is required to construct a website written in a correct HTML syntax, a website properly displayed on all relevant browsers and a website maintaining a good look and feel interface.
Content
Now you need to put in content: the content is intended to two types of readers:
- The human reader: They hardly read. The best they usually do is to read the first and last paragraph. Only if the content grips the reader right from the start will the reader actually read everything.
- The non-human reader: These are bots, small programs that scan your website and feed the search engines with info about your site.
The content must be written in an interesting manner and written in good SEO conventions. Are you able to write content like that or do you prefer a professional copywriter?
And the voyage continues... Maintenance and promotion
Maintenance and promotion of the website is a never ending work. You are required to set a monthly budget for these matters. The maintenance and promotion are a never ending series of activities:
- Add and update website content.
- Write articles and posts in various websites and blogs.
- Setting up and maintaining profiles in various social networks and websites.
- Setting inbound links from various websites.
- Setting up funded promotions.
- Setting up newsletters.
- Creating video content – Video Webmercials.
- Creating landing pages.
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