Your business needs a website, it’s an efficient tool to convey information to current and potential clients. But, understanding how to build your own website is often a daunting task at first glance. With the correct vision and plan of action, you can save a lot of time, avoid unnecessary stress, and find the process to be a rewarding one!
What Do You Need Your Website to Do?
Have a look at your business and identify what exactly you wish to convey to current and potential clients. Are you generating sales leads? Are you reporting on non-profit events? Are you creating a web-portfolio? Whatever the reason, you need an overall plan on where you need to go.
So before you start looking into domain names, web hosting, or platforms, get a solid grasp on what you want your website to look like, what you want it to do, and how you want it to attract business. You want your website to be a strong representation of your business.
“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail” – Benjamin Franklin.
Choose an Appropriate Website Builder
You have 3 options when choosing how to build your website:
- DIY from the ground up with web-design languages and technical know-how
- Recruit a web-design agency
- Make use of a web-builder platform
There are pros and cons to each method, but the most effective and least time-consuming option would be to use a web-building platform. What you sacrifice in personal freedom, you make up for in ease-of-use, support, and basic analytics and SEO features.
If time is of the essence and you lack the technical ins and outs of advanced web-builders, you can opt for other easy-to-use platforms that make use of drag-and-drop tools that can help you build a website that fits your vision.
Make Use of an Appropriate Website Template
Web-building platforms offer thousands of templates and themes for your business. Most templates are designed for a specific business, but there are no fast and hard rules on which templates you should use for your business.
Due to the customizability of web-building templates, you can edit and change various themes to suit your business’ needs.
Importance of Reliable Web Hosting
Once you have decided on the website builder and template, it’s essential to choose a reliable web hosting provider like Hosting Jump. Reliable web hosting is crucial for the success of your website as it directly impacts its performance, uptime, and security. Here’s why reliable web hosting is important:
- Website Availability: A reliable web host ensures that your website is accessible to visitors without any downtime. If your website experiences frequent downtime, it can lead to a poor user experience and affect your credibility.
- Speed and Performance: A good web host will have fast servers and optimized infrastructure, resulting in faster loading times for your website. A slow website can frustrate visitors and affect your search engine rankings.
- Security: A reliable web host will have robust security measures in place to protect your website from hackers, malware, and other cyber threats. Regular backups, SSL certificates, and security protocols ensure the safety of your data and your users’ information.
- Customer Support: With a reliable web host, you can expect excellent customer support whenever you encounter issues or have questions. Prompt and helpful support can save you time and minimize any disruptions to your website.
5. Scalability and Resources: As your business grows, you may need to expand your website’s resources and
Fill Your Website with Great Content
When planning your website you will have a pretty good idea of which pages to include and what content you want to fill your website with. Web-builders offer intuitive step-by-step guides on how to fill your website with relevant information and content.
Things to consider include; your brand image, logos, business color palette, and fonts. You also want to make sure that you have relevant industry-specific pages on your website. Also, since most web-builders have their own privacy policies, you will be using theirs.
N.B., it is imperative to note that most web-builders own your website, your content, and the intellectual property posted on your website as per their end-user-license-agreements. Be sure to read the fine print before choosing your web-building platform.
Finishing Touches
It is important to review your website before publishing it. Check for small things like spelling or layout, and big things like page responsiveness or efficiency. A great way to get good feedback is to ask friends and family to check the website before you publish it.
Ask yourself; does the website fulfill the business’ requirements? Did I meet my design goals? Did I perhaps exceed my design goals?
When you have analyzed and critiqued your website, hit that publish button!
Maintenance and Upkeep
Publishing your website is only the first step. Don’t forget to keep updating your website with relevant information and happenings in your business. Web-building platforms offer great basic analytical tools and SEO functionality. At an added cost, you can use premium versions of the web-building platform you choose, giving you access to great support, in-depth analytics, and greater SEO functionality.
Building your own website can be a rewarding experience. Having a vision and creating goals is the best way to stay ahead when building your website. There are many web-building platforms for you to choose from, it is important to revise each end-user-license-agreement before choosing a platform. The real work in having your own website is managing and maintaining it.