In this digital era, your business needs to be online as more people are engaging with brands and businesses online. And one of the ways to be online as a business is to have a business website.
Having a business website is similar to having an online store where people can visit and purchase from you. That's why it's important as a business owner you consider having a website as you can easily reach lots of customers who would visit, engage and buy from you.
Now its time to create a website for your business. But then there are things you need to know when building a business website.
We would be discussing 10 things you need to start a website. Here's a step-by-step guide to what you need to start a website.
Things You Need to Start a Business Website
A Goal
Now that you have decided to create a website for our business compared to other businesses who feel they currently don't need to create a website or see reasons why they should. it's time to create a business goal for your website.
Just like your physical business, you certainly have created a marketing goal for your business physically, such as creating awareness for your product/service, generating X number of store visit and setting a X number of sales a month. Same applies to the online version of your business.
When you are about to create a website for your business, it is essential to create a website goal just as you have created a marketing goal for the physical version of your business. Your website goals would entail what goals you intend your website on achieving, such as People requesting for one or all of your services by filling the contact form, People adding your products to cart and then making purchase or generating traffic to your website.
Whatever, your website goal is, you need to determine it before creating your business website as it would help with lots of things when creating the website such as the structure and design of the website.
A Domain Name
When planning on creating a website for your business you would need a domain name.
What is a domain name?
A domain name is your website name. A domain name is the address where Internet users can access your website.
Just as explained, a domain name is same as your business name but in form of a URL (www.yourbusinessname.com). This domain is used to identify your website on the internet so as people and search engines can easily find your website.
An example of a domain name is "www.tagetmedia.com" this domain name is our website domain and it is exactly same as our business name "TAGET Media".
Now you know what a domain name is and how essential it is, you could proceed to purchasing a domain name for your website through a domain name registrar such as GoDaddy
A Logo
A logo is a graphic mark, emblem, symbol, or stylized name used to identify a company, organization, product, or brand. It may take the form of an abstract or figurative design, or it may present as a stylized version of the company’s name if it has sufficient brand recognition. Read more on Investopedia
We are sure you now have a knowledge of what a logo is.
When creating your business website, your logo is essential in the creation part as it acts as a symbol identifying your brand. Your logo would be positioned in very strategic areas of your website so as to make it look more attractive, and most importantly boosting your branding as well.
Content Management System
You have provided the above three (3) points, now its time to determine what content management system you would be using to host your business website.
Before then, what is a Content Management System?
A Content Management System, often abbreviated as CMS, is a software that helps users create, manage, and modify content on a website.
These CMS helps you build and add content to your website. Some of the top CMS used by businesses worldwide to create and manage their websites are
Wordpress
Wix
Squarespace
Shopify
Weekly and lots more
Determine which of the CMS would suit your business when creating a website. Ask your website developer on what platform would be best to create and manage your website.
A Design
Once you have determined the content management system you would be using for your website, the next step is to look into the design of your website.
You would want to determine how your website would be designed in terms of attractiveness and structure.
A well-planned website can have a very positive impact on your business, as it would help your customers have a seamless experience on your site and likely to purchase from you.
Your website design should focus mainly on these two factors
Users Experience Design
Users Interface Design
Once you are able to focus on these two, your website is set for engaging users and encouraging them to take an action such as purchasing from you or contacting you.
In most cases you would need the service of a web design company to create and design your website
Content
When creating a website, you would need content in form of text that describes your product and services.
Every page on your website is meant to have content(s) on them, as they represent what that particular page is all about. For example, content written on HomePage is entirely different from content written on the About Us Page.
You would need to create content for your website while the website is been created.
If don't know how to create content or you are not good at creating contents, then you would need the service of a Copywriter
Pictures/Videos
While creating text content for your website, you also would want to create image and video content for your website.
Images and video passes a more visualised message and it helps to scipe up your content. Therefore designing unique images for your website based on the products you sell or services you offer would be necessary.
The service of a photographer and graphics designer could be needed when creating unique images for your product/services. While the service of a videographer would be needed when creating unique video content for your website.
The aim of this is to help pass a message about your product/service either in form of sales or information.
Google Analtyics
Once your website has been full developed and now functioning, you would need to understand how your users interact with your website. You can only do this when you track the activities of your website visitor.
But, you must be wondering how can i possibly track my website visitors to understand how they interact with my website. You can do so with Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. This can be done by installing a tracking code provided by Google on your website.
This report is what you would need to analyse so as to understand your website visitor's interactions and how to properly run marketing campaign based off of your result.
Digital Marketing Plan
You have created your website and have installed Google analytics. That is not all you need for your business.
Yes we know your website is your online store. And just like a vehicle, you would need to fuel it so as to power the car and someone also has to drive it. Same applies to your website, you would need a digital marketing plan to help promote your business online, so as people are aware of your website and you are able to drive traffic to your website.
So, creating a digital marketing plan is essential for your website and your business entirely. And this marketing plan could range from creating awareness to driving traffic to your website and retargeting users who visited your website but didn't take action.
If you are not sure on how to create a digital marketing plan. Do well to consult the service of a digital marketing agency
Reviews
Lastly you would want opinions from your customers about your website and its functionalities. How easy it was while surfing through and what they feel might have hindered their experience while on your site.
This isn't compulsory as you can determine how your users engage with your website through analytics.
But, if you are looking for a more human review or suggestions, you could ask for review from your users/customers how their experience was.
CONCLUSION
These 10 checklist is meant to determine what you need to start a website which would help you go a long way to creating a website that is user friendly, responsive and can track users behaviour for marketing purpose.
If you need to create a beautiful and user friendly website, you can contact us, we are a Web Design Company in Nigeria