What is takes to create a website

Posted by Felix Okoli on Sunday May 18, 2014 at 13:4:59:

Now that you’ve realized you need a website, it’s time to change realization to action! First things first though, there are a whole lot of things to consider before creating a website.

Domain Name: A domain name as described in an earlier article is like an address for a house. You can’t talk about a house to a person and expect them to know where it is; you have to give a description or they wouldn’t even know what state to look in! Get it? Your domain name must be short, to the point and memorable. That is key if you want your visitors to remember it. The best way to do this would be using one or two words that completely describe what would be on the pages of your website.

A Web Host: A web host makes your website files available online by making them live. You should look for a good web host with at least 99 percent uptime and 24 hours customer service. You definitely need customer service that is always available so any technical glitches you experience is fixed without affecting the performance of any of your campaigns or your website traffic at the very least.

A Plan: You need a plan! As obvious as this is, it is still worth mentioning. To create a plan that will have positive and lasting impact on your website ownership journey, you need to ask yourself the following questions: What do you know? What are people searching for? What can you give them that they might not already know? The key here is quality content. Quality content will always reel in that traffic you need. Ask yourself what your expectations for the website are. So you can know what to start with, what to do after you’ve started, what to do when xyz has been accomplished etc. This is very important because it determines the future of your website and how you take advantage of your traffic once you start getting it.

Logo: A logo is great for branding especially if you are a small business owner. Branding is very powerful and it is important to start from the beginning no matter how “small” you think you are. You never know how big you’ll grow. It is much better and easier to start professionally then changing course after a while. Think positive people! It never hurts.

Images: Images are great for enriching your searching visitor’s experience. Be sure to include an image in every post or article you put up if you can. The key here is using royalty free pictures. If you use other people’s pictures, you can be sure the long arm of the copyright law will catch up with you no matter how long it takes. Your blog or website might be a basic one with minimal traffic but there is no hiding place on the internet once you’re live, so be very careful as it can be damaging.

Website content: This is the most important aspect of your website. If the content is of low quality, it can put off your first time visitors making it quite difficult to convert them to “returning visitors” which is absolutely important when you are trying to be build some sort of authority site. The key is having quality content that is readable and very informative. You need to be aware of the fact that copied content can get your website de-indexed by Google. This means no one will be able to find it in the search engines. All your hard work would be literally and cheerfully poured into the de-index drainage by the stickler-for-rules big G. Be warned people! Easy come, easy go.

Professional web design: this is very important. Think great colours that go well together and are not chaotic to the human eyes. If you cannot do this yourself, it’d be best you employ a professional to do this for you. It might cost a pretty mite, but you’ll definitely be glad you did.