The internet is still a dominate marketing tool, with more and businesses ensuring that they have an effective online presence. But also the number of websites increase on the internet, it is vital that you need to get the basics rights from the start so that you don’t get lost. So to make it easy, here are the four most important elements you should consider before setting up a website for your business.
1 Your domain name
Right, fine you think that picking your domain name is going too easy, right? Think again. Besides the millions of domain names that are already registered, with the good chance that your first pick might have already been taken. Feeling nervous already. You should. Since you can’t go now and make some slight changes to your first choice, because that name will never stand out and the name might be confused with another. That confusion could lead to legal issues, or even, if they have a bad reputation, then it might affect your business’ brand identity.
And that’s key: you should remember that your domain name is part of your brand identity. The domain name should reflect your brand.
The common rules to pick a domain name is to keep it short, keep it memorable and avoid dashes.
And if you think you are done, sorry, you aren’t. I told you this wasn’t going to easy. But you should also decide what domain level you want your domain name be. Here, you should think that the level you registered your domain name will be based on the type of business you are ruling. But, to keep it simple, ideally use a .com top-level domain. Otherwise be specific such as .org for a nongovernmental organisation.
2 Your web hosting
Fine you got your domain name sorted and registered, now you need to find a domain host. Let’s keep it simple, your best bet is selecting a website hosting package based on your own hosting needs. So, ask yourself what you want to accomplish.
Let’s make it a bit more practical. You will need a PCI complaint sever if you are going to operate an e-commerce website where there is a dominate need to accept debit and credit card payments, store and process highly confidential customer information.
But if the website is a simple website for a small décor shop, you would not want to spend too much and a hosting like WordPress could work just well. This will be based on what your needs are, and that kind of website you are building. More so, if you want something common like WordPress or a custom site. All keep in mind the potential web traffic you might need.
So, once you find a hosting package that matches your needs, particularly the issue of reliability. But if you really wanted to discovery how good a web hosting company really is, then you should, ask the actual users of some popular hosting platforms what their experiences are, and do some testing yourself on multiple hosts and measure the performance you’re getting. Just some suggestions. Stay away from a hosting provider that can’t ensure uptime.
3 Your website security
Great you are making progress now. You got your domain name and a host. Now you should make sure that the website security is up to par. If you think it’s not a big deal, wrong. If you are setting up an e-commerce site, you want to ward off hackers. Yep, hackers means bad news and potential losses, and one is sure you don’t want that.
You could consider purchasing a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate. In short SSL certificates are small data files that digitally bind a cryptographic key to an organization’s details. When set up on a web server, it triggers the padlock and the https protocol and allows safe connections from a web server to a browser. Characteristically, SSL is used to secure data transfer, credit card transactions and logins, and lately it is seen as the norm when securing browsing of social media sites. Therefore, a SSL Certificate connects the domain names, hostname or server name with the company name and location.
If you are a gaming site, punters will not consider you without one. But there are different types of SSL certificates. Which type to select will be dependent on the sort of business you are operating and the level of encryption you want to install.
Extended validation (EV) is the highest level of encryption and it verifies the identity of the owner. Plus, don’t just stop there. You should add different layers of security. And, a SSL certificate makes the encrypted message worthless to the hackers even if they are able to intercept a message. The message becomes unreadable because it appears as a combination of random hash in a string. But it does not mean that hackers aren’t able to hack them, they are.
4 Your content
You are winning. You are almost there, just the last stop – the issue of your content. You have all the administration and technical aspects of your website ready, now you need to ensure that it is populated with content that will enhance your brand. That includes graphics, images, text and information about your brand and products and services.
Now we enter the world of digital content marketing. In recent years this form of marketing has redefined advertising and changed how companies reach out to their customers. In fact, digital content marketing is a powerful tool to build your brand, to build your consumer base and enhance it.
So as companies fight to stand out against the masses it needs to develop a content marketing strategy. So, do research. And think quality links to improve your search engine rankings and by all means avoid linking or mentioning your competition. Rather use links to refer to your own content.
There it is – 4 elements that are key to creating a stellar website. There are many more factors to consider, but if you don’t have these 4 build in, then your foundation will not be solid.
