Where Do I Start?
You want to build a website, but you're not too sure where to start. Here are some simple steps to getting your new website underway:
1. Choose Your Domain Name
The best domain name is a combination of the following:
- Easy to remember
- Easy to predict
- Search engine friendly
Why are these things important? Not everyone will go to your website by typing the address from a flyer or advertisement. A lot of people will stumble onto it, either entirely by accident, or by mere fluke.
So, if you have a gift shop then try and find a domain name that is a popular search term in this field. The perfect choice might be giftshop.com or gifts.com.
Or, make sure the domain name is the same as the name of your business. Like known huge corporation Microsoft: microsoft.com or Google: google.com.
Of course the perfect domain name may have already been found and snapped up by someone else. There are many online websites that can help you find out what domains are still available. Here are some such websites:
2. Choose Your Hosting
Ok, you've chosen your domain name, now you have to register it and, unless you have your own hosting server, find someone who will host your domain and website for you.
There are many companies who offer different deals for hosting your website. Many even offer packages for hosting and building your site. Be careful to check what services they offer before choosing who to host your site with however as many of the very cheap hosting services do not come with many bonuses like databases and script support. If you want a dynamic, database-driven website, then these things are important.
Some hosting services websites include:
3. Design Your Website
Next you need to design your website. If you have a bit of a knack at design you can do this yourself or hire someone else to do it for you. Your website design should do the following things:
- Reflect the colours, style and logo of your company
- Reflect the mood of your website. Ie perhaps funky and colourful for a kids website or smart and professional for a business website.
- Be attractive and easy to look at
- Be simple and easy to use
- Be readable on different mediums and at different resolutions
Some professional graphic designers include:
Kiwi Web Works can also design your website for you. Contact me today for a free no-obligation quote: info@kiwiwebworks.com.
4. Build Your Website
Once you have designed your website, you then need to either build it. If you have the needed expertise you can build it yourself, or you can have a proffessional build it for you.
Kiwi Web Works can build your website for you. Contact me today for a free no-obligation quote: info@kiwiwebworks.com.
5. Populate Your Website
A lot of the work is done, but some of the most important stuff is left to do. Once your site has been built, you then need to populate it with the needed content. If you have built an online gift shop you need to load all your products, descriptions, prices, pictures etc. You need to supply company information, contact details and terms and conditions for making an online purchase.
Kiwi Web Works can populate your website for you. Contact me today for a free no-obligation quote: info@kiwiwebworks.com.
6. Optimise Your Website
My website is built and full of content. I'm finished, right? No! Now you have to make sure your website has been optimised for search engines. This is very important, if your website is not well optimised, it will not return good results in Google, Yahoo!Xtra or other search engines.
Kiwi Web Works can optimise your website for you. Contact me today for a free no-obligation quote: info@kiwiwebworks.com.
7. Market Your Website
Marketing your website is also important to ensure that it is found by as many potential clients as possible.
8. Maintain Your Website
Don't be mistaken, your website is never finished! You will always need to maintain it, update it and freshen the appearance now and then.
Kiwi Web Works can maintain your website for you. Contact me today for a free no-obligation quote: info@kiwiwebworks.com.