There are millions of websites nowadays. If you are thinking of building your website, there are many things you should be aware of. This ranges from having a friendly SEO to attractive designs.
For starters, you should place yourself in the customer’s shoes and list what you would have wanted. It would help if you thought about the security issues regarding your website and much more.
To talk about all that in a little more detail, here’s a list of 10 essential things to know before building a website in 2016.
1. Domain name
It’s the initial step of web designing. It’s the name of your website. You must pay a certain fee to register for the right to use that name. However, getting a name doesn’t mean you will get a website. It’s just writing a business name.
The domain name must be short, easy, and memorable. In addition, a branding strategy should also be applied while choosing a domain. In other words, your domain name should represent your brand. However, it would help if you were careful not to violate any copyrights with your domain name, as you don’t want to be on the wrong side of the law.
2. Users
When you design your web page, you do so with a specific group of users in your mind. You must appeal to those users’ wants and needs to have a popular website. Otherwise, your website will be just another in millions of websites.
How can you know what your user’s need is? There are hundreds of analytic tools to answer that question. You can use one of those analytical apps to sort that out. These apps will help get a date in your user, ultimately leading to success in your undertakings.
3. Social media integration
In this age of social media, there is hardly anyone who hasn’t heard about social media. Social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and many others have millions of users, providing a great platform to market your website.
If you are thinking of building your website, you should make sure that your website has an option to share the contents of your website on social media. Most of the top website builders provide support for this.
Many analytic tools can track the ways and locations from which people are finding your website. This is vital for a successful website.
4. Security
Security is the biggest concern in the 21st century, even more so for the Internet. Technological advancements have led to different malware, viruses, and many malicious applications compromising the website’s integrity. Add the threat of hackers, and you have your hands complete.
To be more specific, if you are into e-commerce and require sensitive information such as your client’s personal information and credit card numbers, you need to ensure the security of your website.
These threats should be assessed at the beginning of webpage designing. Webpages must have SSL certificates, and security checks must be conducted regularly.
5. SEO
You have a website with exceptional design, exciting content, and fast-loading speed. Great, but what good will it do without viewers or just a few users? Therefore, search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the essential parts of webpage development. It will make sure that the targeted user will be able to access it.
Hence, it is crucial to have a clean and SEO-friendly code. For this, you can use certain CMS services. While some CMS services require you to have a piece of technical knowledge in coding, some services like WordPress require little technical knowledge.
6. Compatibility
Compatibility is one of the essential aspects of a website. A website page must be able to run in any browser from Firefox and Safari to Internet Explorer. Even the older browsers must not be exempt from reaching this webpage. If it doesn’t, we will lose many customers, which will be detrimental to the webpage’s infancy.
Moreover, the site should be supported on mobile devices as well. According to one study, 95 percent of mobile users use their mobile devices for online searching rather than their computers or laptop. This means a large chunk of your webpage viewers will be mobile users. Hence, the webpage must be supported on all devices and browsers.
7. Design
How your website looks is an essential thing to consider if you want it to stand out. Since it is the fundamental element to attract or distract the user, it is one of the crucial things to keep in mind before building the design.
For instance, if the design of any webpage is eye-catching, users will be more likely to spend their time surfing for the content on a page. Good design also affects the SEO of a webpage.
8. Hosting
If a site has a prolonged loading rate, people will not wait unless it is necessary. Since there are many web pages to choose from, there is no alternative for good hosting.
In addition, poor hosting is bad for the search engine ranking of a webpage. You should test your website and resolve hosting issues before the official release of your website.
9. Navigation
If you are thinking of building a website, let’s be clear that there is no substitute for good navigation. If a customer finds navigating your page challenging, they will lose interest and may never access it twice.
You can use the dropdown in the navigation menu for an excellent navigable site. This will ensure no confusion for a client while viewing your webpage.
10. Cost
After all the considerations, things eventually boil down to the ‘cost.’ Building a website requires money. You need to spend money to get a domain name. You will also need cash if you employ a web designer to design your webpage.
Furthermore, monthly maintenance must be done, which is also costly. Therefore, one should estimate all the associated costs before starting the project.
