8 Important Things To Know Before Creating A Website

Having a professional, high-performing website is fundamental for almost any business today. It shapes how you are perceived and trusted, enables core business functions at scale, provides a platform for marketing and sales, and supports strong search results to attract target audiences. A website you're proud to stand behind and one that achieves a balance of credibility, functionality, engagement, and search-friendliness will set the right impression, drive impact, and support both short-term and long-term business gains.

A website allows you to create a consistent digital presence for yourself or your business. You can establish yourself as an authority in your industry and build trust with your audience. It provides a base camp for all your online activities and content. It is a central hub where people can easily find and navigate all your information and assets.

A website gives you a platform to create and share blog posts, videos, podcasts, online courses, design assets, and more. You can build an audience around the value you provide. Creating high-quality content and optimizing your website gives you a better chance of ranking higher in Google and other search engines. This means more visibility and traffic.

Here are 8 Things to Know Before Creating a website

1. Set Clear Goals and Objectives

Why are you creating the website? What do you want to achieve? Having specific goals will make the whole process easier. Setting clear goals and objectives for your website is essential. Without direction, you won't know if the website achieves your desired goals.

Things like raising brand awareness, selling products, building an audience, lead generation, etc. List the main objectives you want to achieve with your website.

Turn your objectives into measurable goals. For example, increase website traffic by 25% in 6 months. Convert 5% of visitors into lead database subscribers. Generate $10,000 in monthly revenue from product sales. Make your goals as specific and realistic as possible.

Who is your ideal customer? Think about the different groups of people you want to reach and connect with on your site. Tailor your content and messaging to your key audiences.

2. Choose a Website Template or Hire a Designer

Unless you have experience with HTML and CSS, a template or website designer is easiest for beginners. They handle the visual design and build process. Choosing between using a website template or hiring a designer to custom-build your site is important.

Website templates are typically very affordable, often just $50-500. Hiring a web designer/developer typically costs $5,000 to $50,000 or more for a custom site. So templates are usually much more budget-friendly. Using a template allows you to launch a site in days or weeks with minimal setup time. Depending on the scope and resources, a custom site can take 2-6 months or longer to develop. Templates give you a fast solution.

Building or managing a site with a template requires minimal technical ability. You need to make some basic customization choices. Working with a web designer/developer inevitably requires managing more complex workflows and technical specifications. Templates are easy to use with little technical skill required.

3. Pick a Domain Name

The domain name is essential as it becomes the web address for your site. Ensure it's available, easy to remember, and fits your brand. Your domain name becomes your web address and helps establish your brand. It's one of the first things people will see about your business, so it should reflect your brand identity memorably and professionally.

Search engines like Google use your domain name to determine what your site is about. A good, relevant domain name can improve your SEO and rankings in search results. It helps position you as an authority in your industry.

The domain name contributes to your brand's overall perception of trust, expertise, and credibility. A simple, clean domain name in your industry or keyword niche reinforces that you are the go-to resource.

Hence, choosing your domain name is an important strategic decision for your website and brand.

4. Select a Content Management System (CMS)

A CMS like WordPress allows you to edit and update your website content without any coding easily.

A good CMS makes it simple for non-technical users to create and edit the content on their site. This allows you to manage content updates internally without relying on developers. Users can update pages, posts, images, and more with little technical skill.

A capable CMS will scale with your needs as your content grows and expands. It should handle large amounts of content, taxonomy, pages, posts, images, and more without performance issues. Some CMS options are designed for very large enterprise websites and databases.

Most CMSs integrate well with key tools like SEO plugins, ecommerce platforms, social sharing buttons, comment systems, and more. The ecosystem of integrations available for different CMSs varies quite a bit. Consider what additional tools you need to choose a CMS with strong integrations.

5. Determine the Website Structure

Figure out how you want to organize the pages and the navigation flow between pages. A simple structure is best for a new site.

Your site structure defines the navigation schema allowing visitors to explore your content. An intuitive, logical structure makes it easy for visitors to find information and discover additional useful content on your site. Confusing navigation frustrates users and leads to high bounce rates.

How you organize content into categories, tags, pages, posts, and menus reflects the themes and topics of information on your site. Visitors can easily understand what your site is about based on the content structure. Related content is grouped together.

As you add more content over time, your site structure must expand accordingly while preserving easy-to-follow navigation and content organization. A rigid structure will ultimately limit how much content you can publish before becoming unmanageable. Scalable, flexible structures accommodate growth.

6. Create Useful and Engaging Content

Your content is king. Produce informative and optimized content like blog posts, articles, Case studies, videos, etc., that people will find valuable.

High-quality content that provides value to your audiences will drive more traffic to your site as people search for and share that information. Engaging content also encourages loyalty by giving audiences a reason to return. Traffic and loyal audiences build awareness and sales.

Consistently publishing content that demonstrates your expertise helps to establish you as an authority in your industry. Over time, this builds trust with your target audiences and establishes you as a go-to resource for information and advice. Authority leads to more opportunities.

Content that provides value to readers also gives them a reason to engage further with your brand. This could mean subscribing to your email list, purchasing, signing up for a free trial, downloading a resource, and more. Engaging content converts visitors into leads and customers.

7. Optimize Your Site for Search Engines

To rank in Google and get traffic, follow SEO best practices like using important keywords, internal linking, content quality, and more.

Improved search rankings bring more qualified traffic to your site from search engines. Since search is how many people start their online research, higher rankings mean exposure to a larger potential audience. More relevant traffic supports business goals.

Exposure in search results raises awareness of your brand and business. Even relatively high rankings, like on the first page of results, gain more exposure than deep page links. Consistent visibility in search builds familiarity over time.

y optimizing content and gaining top rankings for important keywords, you establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry. High search rankings signal authority and expertise that wins customer trust. You become a go-to resource.

The traffic from search engines tends to be highly relevant to your offerings. When searchers find and click your listing, they actively seek the type of information, product, or service you provide. This targeted traffic converts at a higher rate.

8. Promote Your Website

Build awareness of your new site through social media, email marketing, search engine optimization, influencers, partnerships, and search engine submission. Encourage traffic and engagement.

Promotion brings more people to your website from other sources beyond just organic search traffic. This could include social media, email marketing, paid advertising, influencer outreach, and media coverage. Higher traffic supports key goals like lead generation, sales, partnerships, and raising brand awareness.

When more people visit your site, your brand and business awareness grow. Exposure to social media feeds, news articles, podcast interviews, and other promotional channels raises familiarity. Consistent visibility through promotion builds recognition over time.

Credible promotion adds validation to establish you as a go-to resource. Coverage from industry influencers, news outlets, podcasts, and more transfers trust and credibility to your brand by association. Listeners and readers perceive you as vetted and reputable.

Highlighting value for potential partners through strategic promotion creates opportunities for collaboration. Guest posting on other influential sites, podcast interviews, product features, or sponsorships are possibilities. Partnerships reach new audiences and boost authority.