If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.
(Jeff Bezos)
All of your digital marketing campaigns revolve around a single point: your website. That is what makes your business website incredibly valuable. A masterfully built website allows you to enjoy unlimited freedom; a complete control to change, tune, tweak, manipulate and measure all of the activities associated with digital marketing efforts.
Your website should be effective enough to drive and convert traffic into prospects and customers. The success in digital marketing is all about conversion. And the user experience you deliver through your website will drive that conversion. Your business goals and needs of your target audience are two essential factors that converge to make an effective website for your business.
Now, let’s talk about the main steps of building a good website. No matter what are your needs or priorities, there are six fundamental stages every website project has to go through.
Define the purpose
Why do you need a website? What your website is going to achieve for you? Knowing the purpose of your website is essential in the development process. So gather all the information about your business, market, the nature of competition, target audience, content, and, of course, your goals. After providing satisfactory answers to these questions, you can move forward to the second stage.
Plan and choose your domain name
Now it’s time to plan in accordance with the information you gather in phase one. The process of choosing a domain name is said to be like naming a baby. Your domain name must represent your business so that people can easily find you in search engines.
For example, if you select a domain name like “www.ilovepets.com”, but your business name is Pet World, it would make difficult for people to find you. So, keep things simple and select a domain name such as www.petworld.com. If the desired domain name is not available, you can add a word like the location of your business. Moreover, do not go for a generic domain name. Choose an easy-to-remember and unique domain name that presents your business in the best possible way.
Who is gonna host your website?
After securing a domain name, you can go ahead and find a hosting company, a remote location where your website will be stored and made available for visitors. A website host is responsible for connecting your site to the internet. You can go for a less powerful hosting service or a powerful dedicated hosting. It depends on the number of visitors you expect to receive. Do your homework before buying a hosting plan.
It’s time to create your website
Now you need to figure out the site layout and design. You have to decide the number of pages you need to include and the way a visitor would progress through your website. Make sure your visitors get the desired information easily.
Developing a site map will help you to determine as to what technology should be implemented. Based on the purpose of your website, you can select among several CMS software available in the market. Magento and Opencart, for instance, are software solutions for e-commerce websites. Similarly, WordPress is an easy-to-use CMS solution that uses templates and add-ins to provide extra functionality.
When it comes to the web design, simple is better. Moreover, design a highly professional and good looking logo for your website.
Produce top-notch content
Adding quality content will complete the development process. Content is what makes readers and visitors stay or leave a website. I know you do not want your visitors to move on to other websites. For that, you have to realize the significance of content marketing.
Create engaging content capable of leaving a great impression on your website visitors. Communicate directly with your target audience through your content. Add images, videos, infographics, articles and other innovative forms of modern content to your site. Writing informative articles will establish your authority in the industry you are associated with.
Test everything
Nothing will tarnish your online credibility like a website that looks bad. Before making your website live, test everything, make sure everything works as it should. Make sure it runs smoothly on all kind of web-enabled devices.
Conclusively speaking, think of user experience before doing anything. Your website should be a conversion engine for traffic, a powerful tool that you can use to increase visitors, leads and sales online.
