18 Steps to Setting up Your Website
Below are the steps to building a website.
- Find a good web developer
If you're committed to having a good website that will serve your business goals, spend some time checking out local and national firms or individuals. Look at their work, check with a clients and look for reviews. Question them on their availability to meet deadlines and be responsive to your needs. They should have a lot of questions about your vision and goals for the site. - Choose domain name(s).
Best case, a .com with a niche keyword or two keyword combination. Pretty good; .net or .org with same. Short of that, e.g. an 'ebay' type name that's short and easy to communicate via other media. Avoid excessively long or over-hyphenated names because of klunkiness and search unfriendliness. - Register or buy the domain name
If registering a new name, it's best to register it with the hosting company you're going to use. If you want to buy an existing domain, go to whois.net to find the owner. I can help with the ins and outs of domain name issues. - Set up web hosting
I have experience with several hosting companies, the requirements for particular types of sites, and the steps involved. - Modify nameserver information for the domain name to point to the hosting server
If you are fairly technical, you can log into your domain name account and modify the nameservers for the domain name to point to your hosting IP address supplied by your hosting company. I usually take care of this. - Setup email accounts
The hosting company should have control panels for setting up email addresses and passwords. Give me a list and of course we can do this. - Setup a Coming Soon webpage
Set up a decent "coming soon" page, perhaps with a logo, and your email address, so people can still contact you while your site is in process. - Design logo
Work with your web designer on this. I have helped many companies with creating and refining their brand and identity. I can also create a mini 'icon' to appear next to your web address in the url header. - Select a color pallet
Pick out a set of about 3-6 complementary and contrasting colors for your site. There are a finite amount of web colors to choose from. This web color palette will help you. - Design homepage layout
Work with the web designer to get the look and feel you want for your business. Spend time looking at other sites to emulate. - Design sub page layout
Will be based on the homepage colors and layout. Think in terms of interchangeable text and images. - Translate above layouts into actual web pages
This is where the developer will format and create the actual computer-coded html & css, set up the links, and size & process the images or other content. - Identify key words and phrases for the website
These are what you will use in the content of your page and the background computer code to help you get found. - Write the copy and capture or buy images for your pages
Early discussions with your web developer should include the tradeoffs as far as how much you vs. they will do in these regards. A good firm will have the depth and experience to write good copy, based on your existing marketing materials, and have the skills and knowledge to capture or buy good imagery & adapt it. - Test the site on various devices and formats
The developer can put up a non-live, test site to work out all the bugs. Have your friends or associates check it out. - Go live on the World Wide Web
- Continue to add more content and update your website
You should expect to spend time on your site weekly or monthly. People as well as search engines like sites that have fresh, renewed content and images. - Search engine submission, social media, and generating incoming links
Everyone will tell you they're an expert at "Search Engine Optimization". Your success in getting found will depend on a comprehensive, well balanced approach to a web presence. Good search results are driven by things such as your URL 'Name', site architecture, formatting, textual content (and refreshing it periodically), original & useful content, and links to your site from credible, preferably related subject matter sites.
