Have you ever wondered what goes into developing a website? It’s not the same as writing a document in Word or Google Docs, a bit more goes into it. Actually, there is a lot more to website development than just some text and images, maybe a video, a couple of pages, and a newsletter signup link.
The Process
Hosting and a domain name are no longer the first steps. Your brand is. Once you know your website name (hopefully it’s the same as your carefully planned and researched business name), then it’s about how you want your business to look (colors, fonts, images), who your target audience is (everyone is not the correct answer), and the products and services you offer (the most important part of your business).
Next, do you want a Microsoft based business (Office 365 and Azure), a Google based business (Google Workspaces, Docs, Sheets, Ads, etc), an Amazon services business (AWS and all the tech they offer), or a custom technology solution combining two, three or more online platforms and services to market your business.
Now we get to hosting and domain names. What domain name do you want? You best have at least three domain names and no favorites because they go like hot cakes once you start searching for them. And be careful which platforms you use to search for domain names. Many times we have searched for a domain name on a web hosting company’s website and then the next day it is gone.
Once your domain name is purchased, next you have the multitude of hosting options available. Some provide web hosting separate to email hosting, others combine it. Some are specific to WordPress only, others allow you to purchase disk space and install your own website system. It comes down to how much control you want over the website, and how much you trust your web development company to provide a solution.
It’s at this point that we should mention we now offer web hosting solutions for businesses. We build WordPress websites and provide monthly reports on the state of your website and ways to improve it. We can also provide you with a weekly, fortnightly, or monthly blog post and share it across your social networks.
Next, your web development team will start designing your website. It will either be based on your own thoughts and plans, or if you are not sure, they can come up with something from scratch. When we build websites, we like to ask which websites you like the look of. This gives us an indication of how you would like your own website.
Then, after the template has been applied, the plugins installed, the email notifications in place, the website is demonstrated. When ready, the website prototype is made live. Depending on the number of changes a client makes, this process can be as quick as a week.
Does it end there? No, because now we need to promote your website. So your development company should help you set up a Google Ads account at least, along with ads accounts on all the other major social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc).
Once your ads are set up, and your target audience matches your businesses target audience, and you have your daily max cost in place, and your ads are approved, there is one more thing to be done.
The most important step
Creating content, and providing the products and services you wanted to. For the content part, this is creating blog posts on your site, adding pages to your website for specific services or topics, and regular posting on your social media platforms.
Setting up a website does not have to be something you do yourself. We can help you.
We build websites, mobile apps and custom software solutions for you and your business. And we create content for you as well.
As you can see there is a process, but we make it simple. We have an online or in person meeting about what you want to achieve, and then plan out a weekly, fortnightly, or monthly advertising campaign using Google, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and every other social media/network platform you can think of. But it all starts with a website.