Now you have created your new business you need to quickly create a professional and attractive website or a landing page? You only have a small budget? You want a website that you can easily update by yourself? Here are a few tips to help you get started….
Before publishing
1- Check the availability of the domain name you wish to buy. Use dedicated websites such as www.domize.com rather than Google to prevent hackers from buying the domain before you.
2- Set clear objectives. What is the role of my website? What functionalities do I need? What will push me ahead of my competitors?
3- Organize the information: titles, pages, paragraphs, navigation…and then write (and proof read) all your texts with Word, it will save you a lot of time
4- Create a nice design for the pages, menus, colors, fonts, illustrations*…browse the internet and get inspiration from websites you like.
5- Create a “mind map” for your site (see example below)
6- If you are in the EU, you must include the legal terms and condition as well as the privacy and cookies policy for your website. See more at : http://bit.ly/2j5oPbo
* Attention you must always make sure the pictures, cliparts… you use are free of copyrights!
Publishing you website
7- Carefully choose your online website editor. There is a wide choice of editors, more or less simple to use and with different options and applications. To help you chose the best one for you take a look at this interesting comparison chart http://bit.ly/2kjOWAh If you want a very simple website with no online shop I highly recommend www.wix.com, very easy to use even for “non geeks”, and with amazing possible designs.
8- Check the display on different devices (smartphones, tablets, laptops)…some text and images might “move” depending on the screen.
9- Have all you texts proofread by someone else, you are highly likely to miss wrong spelling if you have been working on your documents for hours!
10- Do not forget the SEO (Search Engines Optimization). Make sure your customers can find you on Search Engines and add relevant descriptions and keywords to your pages and images.
After you have published your website
11- Install Google Anatlytics (free) to get statistics (number of visits, origin of your visitors, most visited pages…). It is a good way to be able to track and monitor the impact of your marketing and communication actions to reach your audience.
12- Tell the world your website is online! Share it on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram...), email your contacts, add the address to your email signature, business cards, …
13- Update your website regularly, check the information are still valid, post new content (blog articles, images…) to encourage your audience to visit it again and again.
Creating your first website is really easy, but might require a certain amount of work. If you need help for the copywriting, graphic design, publishing or promotion of your website, please contact me to talk about you project !
Find the article in French here
Communication Consultant, with over 15 years of combined Communication and Marketing experience, bilingual in English and French, I can contribute to your communication projects (networking, newsletters, advertising campaigns, media planning, market surveys, PR, promotion, product launches, events management, graphic design, social media).