Getting your business online has never been easier, or more affordable. From domain registration and web hosting through to our highly experienced team of web designers, we can help you get started with a new website.
This blog is written for anyone wanting to launch a new website and can be used as a short guide to help to achieve this goal.
Here are 5 essential requirements you will need in order to begin building your website and your brand online.
1. Define The Goals of Your Website
When you’re building a website from scratch, it can feel like a lot of work. But don’t worry—we’re here to help!
First off, let’s define the goals of your website and business. What do you want people to do? Where do you want them to go? What information do you want them to share? And what needs to happen before and after they do those things?
Once we know what we’re trying to accomplish, we can start thinking about what kind of site will best serve our purposes. Do we need a blog or an e-commerce store? Should it be mobile-friendly? Do we want it to look modern or traditional?
The next step is figuring out how much time and money we have available for design, development, and maintenance. If this is your first time building a website from scratch, then we’d recommend starting small—just enough so that users can navigate without getting lost or confused. You can always add more features later on down the line!
These are just a fraction of types of websites you can create to help bring you and your brand online.
- An e-commerce store to sell your physical or digital prodcuts
- A professional company website that represents and promotes your business
- A portfolio website that showcases your work as an artist, musician, photographer etc.
- A restaurant or hotel website to assist your business with bookings and payment.
- A blog post website allowing you to create and share written articles with the world
- An event website for concerts, weddings or entertainment venues.
Once you have clear defined goals on what type of website you want and how this website will function for you and your clients, its time to choose a domain name.
2. Choosing A Domain Name & Registration
Websites are the backbone of your business. They’re how you communicate with customers, share your story, and sell your products and services.
Setting up a website is easier than ever and doesn’t require any coding knowledge. But if you don’t have one yet, it’s time to get started!
Choose a Domain Name
A domain name is the web address that people use to find your site, like https://www.google.com or https://www.facebook.com/. It’s important to choose a domain name that reflects who you are or what you do. For example, if you’re a yoga teacher, consider something like https://www.yogaforall.com/.
If you would like to check whether your idea for your websites domain name has been taken or not use this link: https://who.is/
A domain provider will generally ask you to submit at least five different domain name variations incase your first choice is already in use, so be sure to have a few written down.
Once you have found a domain name that is available you need to register that domain name with a provider such as Xneelo.co.za or Domains.co.za or any other domain provider and purchase your domain.
Once you have successfully registered and purchased your domain of choice, congratulations are in order, you are one big step closer to launching your website!
Next you will need to choose a website hosting provider to run your website on.
3. Choosing A Website Hosting Provider
Deciding on a Website hosting provider can be a daunting task. There are so many to choose from, and they all seem to offer the same thing. But if you’re serious about your business, you’ll want to make sure that you get the best service possible.
Here are some things to consider when choosing your Web hosting provider:
– What kind of support do they offer? Do they have 24/7 customer support? What languages do they cater to? Do they provide email support? Are there any additional services such as phone support or chat capabilities?
– What kind of websites can you host with them? Do they offer eCommerce, blogging, media streaming or other website types? If so, what is the cost for these different options? Are there any limits on file sizes or bandwidth consumption for each type of website hosted with them?
– How much does it cost per month? Do they have any special offers available at certain times during the year like Black Friday or Cyber Monday weekend sales events where prices will drop significantly on those days only (which would be great if that happens because then it’s even more affordable than usual).
-What kind of server do they use? Make sure it’s fast and reliable.
-How long has the company been in business? Do they have a good track record?
Once you have signed up with your chosen website host, you are now in the design phase and this is where the fun begins!
4. Hiring A Website Designer and Developer
First things first: what’s the difference between a website designer and a web developer? And why should you care?
Websites are made up of many different elements, including graphics, text, and video. Website designers create the visual elements of websites—the ones that people see when they visit them. Web developers build the underlying code that makes those pretty pictures function.
Sometimes it can be hard to tell who does what, so here’s a quick breakdown:
Website designers create the look and feel of your website. They work on things like color palettes, typography (fonts), and layout design. They also write content for your site if you need it!
Web developers build the back-end code for your website so that it runs smoothly on different devices and browsers. They may also set up analytics tracking so you can see how many people visit your site every day or week!
The first thing you have to decide is what type of site you want. There are many different types of websites, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. It’s important that you choose something that fits your business needs because a poorly designed website can hurt your brand reputation.
Here are some tips for hiring a web designer or developer:
1. Ask for references and check them out carefully
2. Make sure they have experience with your industry, product or service
3. Ask about their process for getting things done, (do they use project management software, etc.)
4. Discuss with them the goals that your website needs to achieve as well as any potential features you would like your website to perform so that you can rely on them with your online business.
Big ideas need direction
So you’ve got a great idea for a website. You want it to be eye-catching and easy to use, but you don’t know where to start.
We do.
Here are a few quick points to keep in mind regarding the look and feel of your website.
- Choose a maximum of 3 fonts that will be used across your website. Ensure that they are easily readable and clear. You will want to use 1 font for all your main headings, often referred to as H1’s. Font 2 can be used for sub-headings (H2’s) and body font could be a different font or the same font as your sub-heading. There are no hard rules here as long as it is consistent and readable.
- Choose a color pallet that will be used on different sections. We highly recommend sticking with a maximum of 3 colors as to keep your websites design clean and simple. These colors should follow the format of your logo and brand.
- Ensure that you have all your logo’s, partners logo’s, images and banners available and rendered in a high-quality format such as PNG.
- Keep the information about your brand and business as concise and to the point as possible, you don’t users spending too much time scrolling and reading an abundance of information before they learn about what you have to offer.
A small bit about us.
As a website design and developer company, we can help you build out the framework for your site so that all of your content can be added in easily and quickly, and we’ll even make sure that it works on mobile and tablet devices.
We know it can sometimes seem overwhelming when you think about all those little details that go into making a website work well—and we want you to know that we’re here for you every step of the way.
Visit us at www.wesbsitesolutions.co.za, send our team a message and we can walk you through the process of getting website up and running.
5. Organizing Your Content & Media for Your Website
As you create your website, you’ll need to organize the content and media you have available. The first step is to take everything that you’ve gathered and put it into a single place. This will help you see all of your content together, so that you can easily see what’s missing or what needs to be changed.
The next step is to organize your content into categories. You may want to include sections for “Services,” “About Us,” “Contact,” etc. You may also want to have one page for each of your products or services, with additional pages for each individual product or service. If this is the case, make sure that each product or service has its own unique URL on your site so that visitors can easily find what they’re looking for!
When organizing your content into categories, be sure that they make sense and are easy for people to understand. It’s okay if some categories are larger than others—that’s just a reflection of how important those topics are!
We highly recommend using cloud storage websites such as Google Drive or OneDrive where you can upload and store all your media and content. This not only helps you keep everything in one place makes it easier for your staff or website developers to access your content from anywhere at any time without the hassle of sending E-mails.
In Conclusion
Building your first website should be a fun and exciting experience as it gives you the creative freedom of representing your brand in your own space on a world -wide platform.
If you are stuck on any of these steps or have any questions regarding website’s feel free to contact us via our website www.websitesolutions.co.za or e-mail us at [email protected]
