Planning to have a website next week or next month or even a couple of years from now? This article will guide you on what you need to have or what you can be doing in the meantime to make the process easier. These points are meant to get your hands dirty if you are not sure where to start. They are not arranged in any particular order:

1. Start writing the text content

These are words or writings people who visit your website will read. In my experience many companies and individuals looking to get a website get stuck whenever they are asked for text content or they postpone the job for later.

They may end up rushing the process which can lead to copy-pasting text or just having incomplete text/information. This can then lead to your content not being original (problems with search engines), or facing legal issues when it comes to copying content from other websites.

If you can have this in place earlier, coming up with a website will be a breeze.

In the following paragraphs am going to show you what you can be writing or where to get inspiration on what to write. Open a word processing document or any text editor and let’s start.

a. Your services or products

Assuming your business offers services, you could start by listing all the services down. Then you can describe each service with a paragraph or two (or an entire page – the more information the better).

For products it can vary. If your products are custom such that you are the only one producing them, you could write about what inspired coming up with them. You could speak about their quality, what they can do, or anything else to get buyers on board.

If it offers general products, sort of like an E-commerce thing, then it can be a bit easy since you can get the details from the companies that produce the product. More on this later when I’ll be drafting info about e-commerce websites.

b. Case studies/success stories

Once you have accomplished a task to one of your clients, you can write some sort of story to showcase the challenge and how you handled it. Think of it as something you would want a potential buyer of your services/products to read and buy into what you are doing/selling.

The major mistake many people/companies do is to try and compile all they’ve done in a day so that they can come up with a website faster. If you start it early, you will have enough detailed information and won’t feel rushed. By the time you are developing a website you can have up to 5 or even 10 of these. That’s enough to make your website win clients for you.

For example, let’s say you offer repair and maintenance of electronics, then you happen to help a client fix a broken TV which the client had taken to many other repair guys and was almost calling it quits. You can showcase this and explain how you came through for your client. You can include things like the process you took, or what you did that was extra from the norm etc.

c. About yourself

You can include the following in this section:

• Who you are: this can be your name, profession, the number of years in the field, academic qualifications, or it can be your company name and description.

• What your company is about: i.e. what problems are you trying to solve.

• History: from where you started to where you are.

• Possible contacts: How guys can reach you.

d. Testimonials/What your clients say about you

Once a client has bought your product/service, ask them via an email (or any other source) for a testimonial. If you have a Facebook page or your business is on Google-Businesses you can ask them to put it there. Just make sure that when you ask for the testimonial your client is okay with you putting it on your website (with or without their information).

When you’ll be ready for a website, you will not start rushing to former clients appearing desperate for their reviews.

2. Source for Images

This has been one of my biggest challenge with clients in need of a website. They want images but don’t have them. I once asked a client to send me an image from one of her brochures and she was like “just get one online”. Well am sorry to tell you but it doesn’t work like that.

Most images on search engines like Google and Bing are copyrighted. In simpler terms you can get sued for using them without the owner’s permission. Unless you use the royalty free ones.

While images are not compulsory for a website, they make your website more appealing and interesting to read.

If you start early you can just have enough by the time you are looking to build a website. Say you cook food, or you are into building houses, taking pictures after every successful delivery will give you an edge whenever you are ready for a website. So start now.

3.   Browse for ideas for your ideal website’s look and feel

It is ideal to have an idea of how the website you want looks like or functions. The easiest way to go about it is whenever you are using the internet, be aware of websites which you feel attracted to then bookmark them or have their list somewhere.

This will give you inspirations in terms of designs on what you feel will best represent your brand.

Doing this much earlier will rule out many possibilities so that when you are ready for a website, you’ll have already made up your mind and sure of what you want.

It’s like looking for a cologne or a perfume. If you decide to visit a perfume store to try out by smelling, most of the time you end up confused or getting a headache. But if you took note of different fragrance that came your way over time, you’ll already know which one you are looking for.

4. Money/Budgeting

It is good to have a budget for a website or at-least bear in mind you will need one at some point. Planning early is ideal.

A couple of things you need to know beforehand, that need to be budgeted for:

• Websites are hosted – (in layman’s terms) for your website to be seen from a computer browser it has to be kept (hosted) somewhere. The places where this is done is called a hosting company and they charge a fee based on the package you want.

• Domain name – while any hosting services come with free domain names, not all do. A domain name is simply what you enter on your browser e.g. www.jintinspired.com. This name is also paid for. Check out Hostpinnacle, a hosting company that gives you both the name and hosting services at a budget-friendly price with quality packages.

• Development and design – Price for designing and building your site, unless you will follow the (DIY) Do It Yourself approach.

Conclusion

If you follow these guidelines, chances are you will not have a hard time when you are ready for a website.

These are guidelines. One can choose none or all or even add things not mentioned in the list.

On the other hand, if you have a budget, you can hire out these services, like photography, content generation and copywriting. Still, thinking and doing them early in advance can save you money and remove unnecessary stress and makes life easy for everyone. Check out Photos By Amaze for amazing photography services

Approaching a web developer having all these in place will make his/her work easier hence fasten the process.

THANKS FOR READING!!!