Checklist to Building a Website

Nancy M. Hernandez — Wed, 09 Jan 2019 13:38:38 +0000

An Easy and Effective Checklist to Building a Website

Building a website or updating your current website can be an intimidating endeavour, but with the right tools and help this can be a seamless process. If this process is not planned and managed properly it can be both time consuming and expensive. One way to create an effective web site with minimum fuss is to start with a good plan. To get started, write a list of what you need on your site.

The following checklist to creating a website is a simple but effective guide to start:

Purpose

The first step in building a website is deciding on its purpose. Will you be using it for blogging, promotion, e-commerce etc? This is very important as this will determine the necessary features. For example, an e-commerce website will require a payment feature where customers can pay for their items on the site or be routed to a third party site like Paypal. Also, who are you targeting with your website? We recommend going thru a discovery process to identify pain points (aka problems) that your customer has and addressing them on your site to attract specific niche target that qualifies as potential clients for you.

Priorities

Decide what is critical for your website today. Can you start with a simple site and add more bells and whistles later? Write down what you need now, versus later.

Domain Name

This is the first thing that you will need. A domain name is your digital web address. It is what your potential visitors will use to connect to your website. For example, the domain of this website is adavenue.com. This is also called a Universal Record Locator (URL). Domain names can be easily purchased at hosting sites such as www.godaddy.com and www.namecheap.com. Each site has a feature that you can check if a name is already being used. The cost of purchasing and registering a domain name is approximately $10 - $20 per year.

Email Address

Setup a business branded email address, such as info@companyname.com. A branded email address builds trust and credibility. Using a free service like Gmail or Yahoo gives the impression that you are not operating a legitimate, professional organization or worse that you are a scam operation. The best option is to get an email address with your domain main. Again this is fairly inexpensive at approximately $5 per month.

Site Pages and Features

Develop a list of your website requirements such as:

Number of website pages
Amount of website storage (images and videos needs more storage space)
Tools such as online forms, blogs, customer reviews, maps, slideshows
Links to or integration with social media
Video and/or audio players
Shopping cart

Do-it-yourself or Professional Services

This is one of the most important decisions you will make when building your website. If you want to create the website yourself there are many easy to use website builder software such as Wix, Squarespace and Weebly. One thing to consider when creating the website yourself is the growth potential of your business. If your business outgrows your website, you may not be able to move your content to a new site. Another concern with DIY websites is that you may not be able to fully customize the site. When choosing a professional to create your website, make sure that they understand your business and your vision, that way they can offer advice and insights that you may not have considered.

Web Hosting

A web hosting service is an Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their website accessible to its visitors via the internet. A web host provides space on its server (storage) so that other computers around the world can access your website using a network or modem. There are thousands of hosting services available, ranging from free with limited options to expensive, specialized web hosting services. You choose your service based on how you plan to use it and how much you are willing to spend.

Plan and Develop Content

There is a popular saying that “Content is king” it is true as that is predominantly what will attract visitors to your website. Content includes blogs, articles, infographics, photos anything that your visitor will find useful and valuable. The content should be a clear indicator of what you do and who you are, whether the site is personal or a business entity. However, the most important content on your website is your business’ contact information such as your company’s branded email address, physical address if needed, and telephone number, as well as any required information your line of business may require such as a state license number.

Promote your website

Having an awesome website that nobody is aware of is a waste of time and money so it is important to promote your site. Think about how visitors will find your website. Promote your web address on business cards, social media, in online directories etc. Google and other search engines offer free Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tools that can help to organically boost web search ranking. Google analytics tool also tracks pretty much every bit of traffic you could imagine on your website; Analytics also shows many keyword insights as to which terms people use to land on your pages.

Maintain your website

You should budget time and effort to maintaining a website. Ensuring that you have backups, security and maintenance are crucial to not only the health of your site but your business. Regardless of the type of structure, you decide to build your site, you will need to do upgrades to CMS (e.g. WordPress), plugins, and/or extensions. Virus', malware or just plain human error can cause your site to go down and you should invest in systems that will keep your site running smoothly and ensuring that your customers visit is a stable one.

Whether you are building a website for a business or personal use of the above checklist will be invaluable.

Need help with your website? Contact us!

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Social Media Fundamentals

Nancy M. Hernandez — Thu, 01 Dec 2016 15:54:40 +0000

Fundamentals of Social Media Marketing

According to Statista, 82% of the US Population has a social media account. Social media for a business can be time consuming yet fundamental to the success of the business. You may be at a cross road where you know you need to do something, but you also know you can’t do it alone. While social media can be time-consuming, you shouldn’t let it overwhelm you, especially at the beginning. Perhaps you hire someone to set everything up for you in the medium of your choice.

For this example, lets say you open up a Facebook or Instagram page. You can start small and schedule an hour a day to post something. Not just anything, post something that is of value to your customers. And please don’t always ask them to buy your products, people get tired of being asked for their money. You must engage with your audience to address their inquiries and challenge, this is otherwise known as social media engagement. All social media channels allow both the organization and its followers the platform to communicate quickly and fluidly.

Be Social

For social media success, you need to be social. Discuss neighborhood events, provide pertinent information for your customers that they will find helpful. This will distinguish you from others and they will be looking forward to your posts. One thing to consider is having a fun post day, something that is uniquely yours and memorable. This will engage your target audience further.

Negative Feedback

One piece of advice that I would say is very important is don’t ignore or fight those that leave bad comments about your business. Those may be the ones that help you the most. Remember there are others out there that will be reading your response so be diplomatic and ask what you can do to change their mind. Most people just want to be acknowledged. You can turn a bad situation into a good one. Keep an open mind, you don’t always have to agree with a bad comment or troll but don’t make the matter worse. Be polite and curious and with an open mind try to turn it around.

We recommend you look into these online tools to help you audit and manage your social media advertising channels:

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