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25 points every business owner should know before developing the website
As a Business owner, it is really important to be aware of certain business & technical elements before you commission an agency to build your website. It can start with your domain name and go on to your fonts.
But wouldn't it be great if you tick things off a checklist and be assured that you got it all covered?
Trust us it would be nice.
So before you start building your own website either by yourself or with the help of a web designer or a company, just go through these things in the order we suggest.
1. Domain
This is the fundamental thing you need to consider. A domain name should be easy to remember, catchy and highly relevant for your brand name or brand values. Choose appropriate the ".com", ".net" or ".org" or ".blog" or any other relevant domain for you.
2. Hosting
Check for the uptime commitments and the capacity you need or being offered. See if it is what you need or is it over the current requirement (this is usually the case) and if so try to get a better offer just for your current needs.
3. Tech
See and learn the pros and cons of various technologies such as HTML5, CSS3, etc. Check with the website development company or the resource on their skill level for the same. Take an informed and well-thought decision based on the above.
4. Purpose
It is quintessential to define the end goal of the website you are building. Is it to get more leads? Or is it for getting more sales? Is it to just distribute information?
5. Layout & colour
If you have a physical store, then you can take a clue from the store layout & colour patterns. The same can be used or replicated on your website.
If you are building a new brand, then it is essential to agree upon a set of few brand guidelines before starting work on the website.
Internet users favour neat and simplistic layouts.
6. Sitemap
Having a clear sitemap is essential and helps you plan out your content and architecture of the website.
7. Content
Content is the king for your website. It should be emotionally connecting to your audience. And it should have all the main terms, used in relevant sections.
8. Audience
Collect as much information as possible about your right target audience. It can be from your old sales records or from your competitors or from your old website or from a local data vendor, etc.
Getting as much relevant information as possible such as the age, gender, locality, the profession of your audience can help design your content, website navigation better suited for them.
9. Advertisement
Most people give slots or space on their websites to advertisers. This can be due to various reasons such as lack of funds, to get more revenue, etc. But avoid it as much as possible and to the maximum extent.
10. Pop up message
We prefer using exit intent pop-ups to help increase retention and engagement on the website. But in general the less the number of pop-ups, the better the performance of your website. Just use them for your key landing pages and hence, it's good to have a sitemap before to help decide faster.
11. Design
Simple yet professional designs should be your focus.
12. Buttons
Having interactive buttons helps build user navigation and time spent on the website. The longer the duration visitors stay on your website, the better would their trust level be on your brand, products and services.
13. Background
Prefer simple and soothing backgrounds
14. Image
Carefully select images which follow your brand style/guidelines.
15. Navigation
Make navigation easy and natural.
16. Unique
Making your website stand out in terms of design and navigation will make it an instant hit amongst your audiences.
17. Fresh
Decide a cycle time and keep updating content + images on your website on that basis. A regularly updated website performs much better than one which gets yearly once refresh.
18. Optimised
Your website should be SEO & Mobile friendly. Else it is tough to stand with the competition and gain traffic
19. Cross-browser
There are many different browsers used by people. A website should look great in all of them. Plan ahead for this, allocate time and resources for cross-browser testing.
20. Screen resolution
Previously web designers used to build websites for 900px. But now they need to account for 1230 px which is the current norm.
21. Social media
Integrate social media sharing to your website so that people can easily share content about your brand, product and services.
22. Typography
The fonts you choose should be legible and connect with the brand values.
23. Registration
Explain a clear set of advantages for registering or creating an account with you on the website.
Explain a clear set of advantages for registering or creating an account with you on the website.
Please add Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, etc. code on your website to analyse your website traffic.
25. Security
Planning for HTTPS should be done right now. And then at a later stage shift to HTTP2.