How to Build a Website in 9 Steps
by Ben Wilson on February 20, 2018
A website is a vital part of operating a successful business venture, no matter your purpose, operational objectives, or industry. The gap between a great site and an okay site – or, worse, a bad site – is large indeed. It can ultimately determine the difference between success and failure in the market. When you want to build a site that ranks well, drives traffic, and boosts sales, here's what you need to know.
1. Set Goals
Before you jump into the web development process, you need to ask yourself one question: what do I want to accomplish? The goals you set will help you both avoid mistakes and determine overall design, guiding your creative process in the right direction. For example, if you want to emphasise ecommerce, a strong approach to sales should be high on your priority list.
2. Choose a Platform
Website platforms can come in all shapes and sizes, from straightforward and simple to complex and sophisticated content management systems. If you're not knowledgeable in web design or simply want to guarantee amazing results, a robust and dynamic option, like the tools available from Web Force 5, can help you achieve a site of which you can be proud.
3. Select a Host
The host you choose can affect everything from uptime to loading speeds. Web Force 5 offers premier hosting services, connecting clients with reliable, stable hosting that's up for anything.
4. Pick a Domain Name
Your domain name is a reflection of your brand, so choose wisely. Stick with your company name if available; if not consider adding in your location or slogan.
5. Plan Your Site
A website is more than a homepage. The internal pages, features, and functions you have in mind can dictate the success – or failure – of your website. The planning process will be discussed in depth during your consultation with Web Force 5, mapping out pages, navigation, layout and content from top to bottom.
6. Design and Construct Your Website
The design and development of your website can require teams of people spending hundreds of hours customising your website. At Web Force 5, we’ve developed a powerful yet easy to use website content management system that prevents these headaches. Once you let us know what you have in mind, our development team will put together a perfectly-crafted site designed around your wants, needs, and aesthetic preferences. You'll also have the option to write your own content – or you can let our professional writers craft optimised, SEO-friendly copy.
7. Publish Your Site
Once your site is prepared, reviewed, and approved by you, it's time to publish. Web Force 5 can handle this step with ease, pushing your site live so that you can broaden your web presence.
8. Promote Your Page
As soon as your site goes live, search engine crawlers will archive your page for appearance in search engine results. However, this isn't always enough to get the visibility you need. A targeted approach to promotion from Web Force 5 can elevate your site and help you see success, utilising strategies like SEO, Google AdWords, and social media marketing to attract attention to your page.
9. Maintain Your Site
You may think your page is finished once you've gone live, but this isn't the case. Website maintenance is essential in everything from preventing viruses to protecting against hackers, ensuring your site stands the test of time. At Web Force 5, we’ll help you keep your site up to date, constantly monitor for suspicious activity and have developed robust solutions to protect your website from attacks. We’ll even help you to keep your content refreshed and ready with our convenient website content management system and dedicated account manager.
Whether you're overwhelmed by all the web development services out there or are confused about how to build a site by yourself, Web Force 5 can help you find the resources you need. With proven processes, customised development, affordable website design, and a leading website design company in Australia we can help you bring your brand-new website to life. Drop us a line today to see what we can do for you!