Website design is not done that often and that is why you need to pay good attention first to what you want to present on the site and then to the design itself.
Here are some tips to help you prepare when you make a website or have someone doing it for you.
Plan Your Budget in the Beginning
The price for a complete site design usually includes hosting for the site (Internet space), domain (site address), professional design, and working hours of the developer. It all costs around $ 500 to $ 800, so make sure you prepare your budget for that.
Here is the calculation we made and which can help you estimate your expenses: hosting packages cost $ 35- $ 600 for a year; add a domain registration of $ 12 to $ 60; there is also a professional WordPress theme that costs about $ 200 (there are more expensive and cheaper ones); it takes about three business days to build a site. Inserting content on a site takes on average the same amount of time but it requires additional costs depending on how much the copywriter values his services. This can be over $ 1,000. If you create an online platform yourself, the developer will not cost you a dime but make sure to calculate these other costs that we have listed.
Choose Good Hosting for the Site
This is a basic thing because a lot depends on the hosting on which your future site should be located. When choosing the hosting for your site, a few items are essential.
For example – for blogs, presentation websites, and smaller Internet stores you can start with shared hosting. For more serious projects, such as e-commerce platforms that have thousands of products and sites that require special software environments, you should plan a VPS or dedicated server. If someone else picks hosting for you – for example, the agency that makes your website – you may eventually inquire where they plan to place your site and what they know about that particular hosting provider.
Where to Register a Domain for a New Site?
It is recommended that you get both hosting and domain from the same provider. All providers usually have both services, and it will be easier for you to have everything with the same company because you will not have to take care of payments for the renewal of these services.
Otherwise, if your hosting is with one provider and your domain is with another provider, you may forget to renew one of the services. This will cause the site to stop working until you determine where you went wrong, which sometimes can take a while and during that time you can jeopardize sales, traffic, etc. If someone makes a website for you, you can mention that due to future updates it will be easier for you to have both services with the same provider.
Register Services in Your or Your Company Name
This is important if someone else is creating a website for you, ordering, and registering services for your website. Keep in mind that the domain (and therefore the online presentation itself) is registered on the person whose info is on the domain. In case the cooperation with your developer is terminated after a few years, you will be pleased to know that the hosting and domain are owned by you.
So, you just need to check and arrange for all services to be registered on your or your company name if you are a legal entity. If you make a site yourself, you do not have to worry.
Choose the CMS That Suits You Best For Maintenance
WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, or some other – each of the CMS has its own way of working and needs to be maintained regularly. Choose your content management system carefully because the future of your site may depend on it.
We always recommend WordPress because it is well supported and has a large community that works to improve it, is easy to maintain, and is flexible (if you know what you are doing). Additionally, WordPress does not require you to be a programmer to maintain it, so once someone builds a site for you, you can enter new content, update, and administer it yourself. Anyway, inquire about the benefits of different platforms and make a decision.
Prepare Material on Time: Texts, Pictures, Videos…
Whether you are creating your own website or someone is doing it for you, you need to have texts and images, i.e. content that will be posted on your new site. It is good to have videos as well if that makes sense for what you want to show on the Internet.
Depending on the agreement with your developer or the agency that makes the site, failing to meet deadlines due to your delay in submitting the material can also increase the cost of creating the site, so pay attention to the deal you made and prepare the material on time. If you do not present certain products on your site, you can use free material from the Internet (free pictures, videos, and music for your new site, design, or blog).
The Site Needs to Be Signed up and Optimized for Google
When creating a site, you need to sign it up to the Google Search Console so that Google can slowly start indexing the new site. However, that is not enough. The content that is placed on the site should be seen correctly by Google and should be seen in the way that best suits this search engine. In general, it is necessary that there is no interference that will prevent Google from coming and loading everything you have on the site.
If you make a site yourself, search the Internet for SEO guides for beginners and optimizationof text, images, and links in posts. If someone else is making a site for you, make sure this service is included in the price. If it is not included, then find out what it takes for your site to be better positioned on Google from the start.
The Site Should Be Nicely Displayed on Phones and Tablets
More than 60 % of online searches and purchases take place on mobile phones and tablets. This information is enough to allow your potential customers to find you right from the start, even when they are on the go. The site needs to be adapted to different screen sizes and to do so automatically depending on which device it is viewed on.
If you use WordPress to create a new site, you can count on easily finding a theme that is already customized. If someone is doing a site for you, this needs to be one of your main requirements.
SSL Certificate Is Obligatory
This is important for two reasons. The first is that SSL helps keep the information on your site encrypted to protect your customers/visitors. The second is that Google gives a better chance to rank sites that have SSL certification high because HTTPS has been a ranking factor for some time.
There are several solutions for SSL certification, and good thing is that with many agencies you get a basic SSL solution for free with website development or hosting.
UX Is Important
User experience is not a complex science. Don’t make complicated websites. A split second separates the visitor from whether he will become your client or go looking further. Everyone needs to be able to navigate your website. Keep in mind that your potential customer has already typed something into Google to find you, so don’t force them to type something on your site again to get what they need.
If you have a large offer that is not easy to display, think of a way to present it nicely or so that the contact form and phone number are always easily accessible. If someone makes a site for you, stress it to them. Once you have created a site and want to explore how visitors navigate it, google all the tools for UX designers, their teams, and clients.
You Need a Good Solution for Tracking Visits
If you have a site for a company, you have invested money first in the site itself and then in maintenance (and there is also advertising), so it is perfectly okay that you want to see and measure the results.
Google Analytics is a free and good solution with which you can track what is happening on your site when it comes to visits, where people come from, and, most importantly, when is the moment they leave your site. If you are creating the site yourself, keep in mind that you need to open a Google Analytics account and link it to the site. If someone else is creating the site for you, please emphasize that you want to use Google Analytics and need to connect it to the site.
After Creating the Site, You Need to Maintain It and Insert New Content
Once you complete the site creation, regular technical maintenance is required for the site to keep up with the web standards and innovations that come through the update. If you do not do that, the site becomes vulnerable in case of hacker attacks. Website development agencies usually offer site maintenance as an additional service. The price for such services usually depends on what will be covered by the maintenance and how many working hours will be spent on it.
In addition, you will need to insert new content to keep your story up to date. No one likes neglected sites, and anything new you add helps both your customers and Google search better understand what is going on with your site.
Finally – By Advertising to New Customers
At the very beginning, when the site starts working, you need to invest in advertising in order to set off the story. People still don’t know anything about you and don’t know what you are offering because they simply haven’t heard of you. So, you have several solutions, and the most commonly used are Facebook ads (although Instagram marketing options take precedence) and Google Ads.
You can also run a social media marketing campaign for promoting your business on platforms like Instagram, Facebook and others. All you need is to create business flyers that include all your services and contact detail, then just run advertising on the social media platforms, and boom!! Everyone will start noticing your presence on social media.
Facebook is good if you want to present something so that as many people as possible can see it – for example, if you want to signal that you exist. Google Ads is good because it gives you the chance to position your site on the first page (or even first place) on Google search when someone searches for exactly what you offer on the site. More serious agencies that deal with the development of the site often offer these services, so if they make a site for you and do advertising, you can get all-in-one at a discount.