Your website represents your business online. Other than a tool to showcase your products and services, it is an online marketing platform that displays your brand’s value and credibility. Yet, simply having a website is not enough, it must effectively function – designed to cover all your customers’ needs.
Basic Necessities of a Website
If you don’t have a website for your business yet, here are the things you need first:
Domain Name
The domain name is your business’ online address and it’s uniquely made for your company. For instance, IH Digital’s domain name is www.ihdigital.com.
Web Hosting
Now that your business has an online address, where does it actually live? Web hosting is the location or the server of your website where your customers come to visit. It is a server that connects your website to people who search for your business online.
Business Email Address
Having an official business email address is especially important for businesses who are still starting. Having [email protected] builds more credibility than just using [email protected]. It also helps in maintaining the security of your presence online, keeping away spam messages and hackers.
Website Content
Surely, content is king. But what kind of content do you put on your website? Having pages about your company, your products and services, and your contact details are not enough. You must determine your target market, know their wants and needs, and integrate content to media that gets them interested – blog posts, images, videos, or GIFs.
Maximize Web Design & Development
Build a website that your business needs, not a website that you personally want.
Since you’ve already set up a basic website from the notes we’ve given above, be your customer and ask yourself, is it enough? Website design and development is more than just how your website looks, of course, it is part of it, but there are other factors to consider as well. The standards on a well-developed website for 2018 are as follows:
Load Speed
In online marketing, everyone is a consumer and what do we hate the most? Time wasted. Having a page view is already a milestone but for one to stay and browse through the pages of your website, it must load quickly. Nothing is more frustrating than waiting for a blank screen on your mobile or laptop to load. Avoid losing customers that hit the close button once your website loads slowly.
Mobile-Optimized
Websites that are not mobile-optimized, meaning browsing on your phone and seeing the same layout as that of a computer’s, are hard to navigate. Our phones are designed with smaller screens and your website’s design should adapt to it. This way, users will be able to browse through your website smoothly.
Compatible with Multiple Browsers
You can’t control what browser people use when viewing your website. Make sure they can view your site properly and it functions well in various browsers such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Safari. We suggest that you do a multiple browser check.
CMS-Enabled
Content Management System or CMS is a software where you can input and modify the design, content, images, videos, links and even the codes on your website. Before any of your content goes live, you can preview those using CMS. You can make the necessary changes before people see it. Choose a CMS software that’s easy to navigate. WordPress and Joomla are examples of a reliable CMS used by website design companies.
SEO Friendly
With good website SEO, you’ll put your website on top of search results on different search engines. Write useful and informative content for your customers and use the right SEO tools so your website can be seen easily. Know more by reading the basics in integrating SEO marketing to your website.
Social Media Integration
Include social media icons that your website viewers can click on your website. Since social media presence gives you a wider reach, incorporate your website content marketing by also sharing them on your Facebook or Instagram pages.
Google Analytics
Track and analyze the activities done by users on your website. With Google Analytics, you will acquire a detailed report on how many people actually go to your website, what they do, what page they spend most of their time on, the least visited pages, and more. By knowing all these, you will know how to improve not just your website but your products and services as well.
Email Marketing
Building an email network is another effective way to drive traffic to your website. By sending out valuable content to this network that you have, you can display information about your products and services, discounts perhaps? According to 2018 Radicati Group Study, there will be almost 4 billion email users before 2019, meaning, there are a lot of opportunities for you to convert email marketing to actual sales.
Website Security
Eliminate your website’s security risks. After putting all these efforts to create a well-functioning website for your business, you don’t want to lose everything you’ve built, do you? Viruses and hackers are everywhere but there are numerous ways to protect your website. You can use a tight firewall, antivirus protection, SSL security, and IPS/IDS. You can talk to our experts to know what security you need for your website.
If you want to go through the nitty gritty of creating an effective online marketing website for your business, IH Digital offers website design services. We’ll make sure we cross out everything from this website design and development to-do list.
