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Over the last 12 years I have built hundreds of business websites and there are some basics that will help you in how to build a website.One of the things I notice a lot is people tend to spend 70% of their time on how the website looks and 30% on content. This should be reversed as people and search engines come to your site for content not on looks but we will get into this later.
How To Build A Website – Theory
A good website need to have 4 major components:
1. It should be neat and tidy and easy to navigate.
When developing your website think about what people are coming to your site for and the type of information they will want to look at. Make it easy to find what they want and that the site loads quickly. A simple design will always outperform a flashy site with complicated graphics especially for business.
2. It should be mobile compliant.
In todays marketplace your website should also be readable on a mobile phone or device. There are literally millions of people today using their phones to look at websites and if yours is not easy to read you will loose potential clients.
3. It should have updated content.
Remember that people and search engines are coming to your site for one reason. To get information about your business, products and services. Having a system like a blog to continually be able to add the latest news and stories about your business is essential.
4. Should have a call to action.
Adding things like contact forms, phone numbers, fax numbers etc is all part of making it easy for customers to contact you. You should have a link and call to action on each page and post to let them reach you easily.
NB Never put your email address on any pages as you will get lots of spam. Use a form so they cant see your email address initially.
How to build a Website – Practical
Lets now have a look at the physical things you have to do when building your website. The actual building is quite easy. It is the gathering of all the elements which is difficult.
A. How to build a website Step 1 -Domain
The first thing you will need to do is register a domain name. It will be the address of your website; the information after the http://www that you type into your browser. We recommend Crazy Domains for Australian domains and Namecheap for .com domains.
B. How to build a website Step 2 -Hosting
Getting good hosting for your website will mean it will load quickly and also have good support. It does not necessarily have to be local as we are talking digital so can be located anywhere in the world. We recommend Hostgator.
C. How to build a website Step 3 – Content
We have talked a lot about content and so you should gather together all the elements for your website. The text and graphics. Make sure all the graphics are optimized for the web so they load quickly. The test is what you will put on each page. You will also want some text for your blog which could break down your products and services into each separate component and will be added over time.
D. How to build a website Step 4 – System
The easiest way to now add all those elements to build your website is to use a system. One of the best systems is WordPress as it is user friendly, search engines love it and you can add functionality with plugins. WordPress can be developed as a straight blogging platform or as a Content Management System which we use for most business websites. A CMS also can contain a bloggingare with little extra effort.
E. How to build a website Step 5 – Blogging for Business
Now that the foundations of your website are all established use your blogging system to add regular content so visitors and search engines keep coming back. These are called posts and should be all about your various products and services. WordPress will allow you to add your own content, have good navigation and by adding a plugin make it mobile compliant.
Look at this site on your smartphone to see the mobile layout.
How to build a Website – Summary
While I cannot cover everything in this one post you now have a plan on how to build an website for your business. You can use Google to delve deeper into each section.
Once the foundations are laid you can now add eCommerce, multimedia and so much more to make it an exciting experience for your visitors.
Of course if you would like help we are able to do all this for you so just use our contact details to get a Quote Today. We can do some or all of the processors above and provide with a complete self managed website or manage it all for you.
How To Build A Website For Your Business
