Every day hundreds if not thousands of websites are launched. Blogs, stores, lead magnets, businesses and personal brands no matter the kind they all fall into the same category, an idea someone wants to visualize. So you want to create a website, here are some of the things you should know.
Start with a Plan
From a one page simple design to a labor-intensive database requiring many man-hours of development. Without a plan, you will spend unnecessary money and waste a great deal of time. Having a plan will save you and yourself, your designer or developer many moments of anguish, anger, and aggravation.
Do it Yourself?
There are many options out there for those that are ambitious and want to create their website themselves. From drag and drop website builders like Weebly or Squarespace to a bit more involved frameworks such as WordPress or Joomla, there are also custom options if you are comfortable with coding as well. The real question is are you saving money by doing it yourself? Or would you be better off to pay an expert to ultimately save you time and headaches? which would, in fact, save you more than just money in the long run.
You are Your Brand
I cannot tell you how many people get stuck trying to find just the right logo or custom URL and never get started. The best logo you have is your head-shot the best URL is your name. Okay so the first part you hopefully took with a grain of salt, but your name in a logo could work just fine. Yet, your name is the easiest brand you have to promote so if you can grab a vanity URL as it go for it! People will remember who you are long before what you do or sell.
Pick a CMS
If you are like me and you tried your hand at MLMs, you would know the first thing they teach is the value of your “list.” Same goes for your website just don’t spam people and lose your friends and family over it. Of course, as primarily a WordPress agency we would be remiss to not mention that has a fantastic CMS built right in. There are others as well such as Weebly, Squarespace and the like and while we are biased any would work, and we will be happy to move you to WordPress when you are ready.
Integrate your email
Once you have a list, even if it is just your mom, you will want to be able to notify them when you have a new blog post or perhaps a sale or special event. We recommend Constant Contact as we are certified partners and can help set you up with robust emails that get opened. There are other options as well and while we can help, you likely won’t be as happy, but that is just our own biased opinion.
Hosting Matters
There are hosting options for well any budget and need. We use and are agency partners with Flywheel which is built solely for WordPress and nothing else and we think that is awesome! We also can now offer domain and hosting options for other services as well and would be happy to share with you which hosting solution works best for you. Some things to keep in mind are things like SSL, CDN, level of support, backups, malware scanning and more but we will leave that all for perhaps another blog post or conversation.
So What is Next
Creating a website can be intimidating and a daunting task for even the technically-abled. Whether you choose to take it on yourself or choose to hire a designer, the best thing you can do for your brand is to take it online. If you are already online, perhaps it’s time to give it a fresh new look. Either way, if you need some help or just want to see where things stand, we are here to help.
Whether you want to create a website, redesign your current site, get some quality hosting solutions, email marketing, or check out your reputation online shoot us a message, send us an email or give us a call or text we are here to serve.