Setting up your business online has never been more important to do than now. Everyone is having to rely on the internet to do everything because of the pandemic.
► You can listen to the audio or read the key points below:
This episode of Future Steps Creative is going to help you figure out some of the things that you need to consider when you decide to set up a website for your business.
The assumption is that you already have your business set up, as well as the following:
- You already have your brand foundation in place – target audience, messaging and personality, visual identity
- You want a custom website that’s owned by you (WordPress), NOT a site on a third-party platform such as Wix or Shopify
- You will be working with a website professional (Not DIY)
Here are the points mentioned in the recording:
1. Domain name
This is your website address. For example, google.com is the address for Google. Choosing a URL is a big deal. Make it memorable, easy to say and understand. You’ll need to register this name with a domain registrar on a yearly basis. If you stop paying for it someone else can purchase this domain name so it is important to renew it yearly or for longer. See below for my recommended registrar.
*Note that you can register any available name before you are ready to build a website.
2. Hosting
Where your website will be kept online for it to be available to the world. It is important to use good quality hosting for your word press website as it needs good hosting servers to run the application smoothly and reduce problems. Also better hosting services have much tighter security so you are less likely to get hacks or malware on your website.
I use high-quality cloud hosting servers for all my sites.
3. Business Email
This connects to your domain name and looks professional. You would then be able to create email addresses that include your domain name as opposed to using Gmail, Yahoo, AOL etc.
4. Site Planning
This is where taking the time to work on strategy is important as it pays off throughout the rest of the process. We’ll need to figure out what you need to have in place based on your business operations and customer needs as well as site structure.
5. Content
Text (copy), images, documents, brand elements.
Links:
Domain Name Registrar – Dynadot: https://www.dynadot.com
Video version: