I need a Website! Where do I start?

Deciding that you need a website or that you desperately need to update your current website is often the hardest step.

And delving into the ocean that is web design can sometimes be overwhelming, but there are really only a few things that you need to know before starting.

IDEA

Whether it be a website allowing customers to find your business address, or book appointments online or the new Facebook… but for dogs. The idea is the first step. And it needs to be clear.

We so often get clients approach us and say, “I need a website. But I don’t know what I need on it or what I want it to look like, can you tell me?”.

Sure, if you’re a small business, the goal is a bit clearer, but if you want to start up ‘Facebook for Dogs’, you need to know exactly what you need and want.

NAME YOUR WEBSITE

For a new website you’ll need to purchase a domain name. This is the URL address of your website. For example: Joe’s new restaurant, Delish Burgers could have www.delishburgers.com or .com.au, www.delish.com or .com.au, delishbrisbane.com or .com.au and the list goes on. Remember, purchasing the .com, .com.au, .net as well as alterations of the domain name is smart to secure so that no competitor can poach your domain name. There are lots of trusted sites that you can purchase your domain name from cheaply and easily.

Register your domain name with Fireworks easily today!

PLACE FOR WEBSITE TO LIVE

Once your website goes live (for the whole world to see) you’ll need somewhere for the actual files to live. It is recommend that you decide this early on, to save you scrambling at the end to find a website host.

Fireworks’ hosting boasts:

• Unlimited email address/boxes
• Unlimited sub-domains
• Daily server back-ups
• Free technical phone support
• Robust protection
• Australian Owned and Operated .. and much more

FIND A WEB DEVELOPER OR COMPANY

Once you’ve sorted out the above, you can start to look for a web developer or company to build the site for you. It’s best to stay local, so try and find a company that has a real office in a suburb nearby to you. Then contact them and explain your project, not all companies specialise in the same things, so get two or three quotes and only sign on the dotted line if you’re 100% confident and happy with the quote. It’s important to have open communication with your development company throughout the build so make sure that they’re available on email, phone and even to meet.

The next steps, design, development, testing, changes, quality assurance and go live are all part of the website development process, and you should be involved at every stage.

MY SITE IS LIVE, NOW WHAT?

Now that your site is live, and hosted on a trusted server, you need to be seen. If you want ‘Facebook for Dogs’ to be the next big thing you’ll need to do search engine optimisation (SEO). This is the ongoing hard work that is involved with keeping a website up to date. It involves, updating content and images regularly, adding content to the site and using SEO techniques to help improve your search engine rankings.

For anything web related, Fireworks are here to help. Give us a call on 1300 660 160 and let’s start discussing your big idea.