Taking the time to properly plan your website will not only help when it comes to design and build stage, but will help you achieve your website goals!
Your website is one of your biggest marketing tools and time should be spent in getting it right.
Top 3 things to think about when planning your business website
- Domain & Hosting
- Platform
- Content
Domain And Hosting
Domain and hosting are 2 separate services, but they come together to make your website possible. They can be bought from the same or 2 different companies.
Domain name is the address of your website that people type in the browsers URL bar to visit your website. eg zcmdigital.com. A domain name should match the person or business it represents.
Web Hosting is the place where all the files of your website live. It is extremely important you chose a good host for a number of reasons, so always check on speed, backups, security, SSL and support.
I highly recommend SiteGround (affiliate link) – I have used 3 previous Hosting companies and I find SiteGround to be fast, secure and their 24/7 consistent and fantastic support is invaluable.
Top Tips For Choosing Domain Name
- Keep it short, concise & clear
- Ensure it relates to your brand
- Consider use of keywords in name
- Avoid hyphens & double letters
- Ensure it is easy to type & pronounce
- Use ".com"
Top Tips For Choosing A Host
Always check for
- Speed
- Security
- Provide Good Support
- Offer SSL Certificate
- Include Back up
What Platform should you choose for your website?
There are many options for creating website on the market today.
Rather than go through them, I am going to explain why you should use wordpress.org for your website.
WordPress powers 42.3% of all websites worldwide (W3techs), this statistic alone shows that nearly half of all websites in the world are built in WordPress. Therefore, there is a lot out there in terms of help and support.
Why WordPress?
- WordPress is Free
- It is flexible
- User Friendly
- SEO friendly
- Secure
Why You Should Plan Your Content
Content is one of the most important things for your website, Design is more a secondary role to ensure your message is clear. This is why it is very important to ensure you carry out research and plan your content, or your website will be doomed to fail.
When planning your content, you need to think about
- Purpose of your website
- Your Target audience, their pain points
- Keyword research - what are people searching for that you want to get found for
- Wireframe of your website
- What is the purpose of each page
- Do you want to hire a Content writer or write the content yourself?
Ofcourse, content isn’t merely just text, you can have supporting images, icons and videos.
Now You Are Ready To Plan Your Website
A well Planned website will help you know your goals, it will help with content and it will help with designing the perfect website for your targeted clients.
