As you likely already know, a high-quality website is arguably the most important thing for your business, one that will be the driving force behind your growth into the future. You may have one at the moment, though if you’re reading this then its likely dated and you know that it’s time for an upgrade.
Before you go ahead, have a read through these 8 important things that you should consider when building a new website for your business. As an example, we’re going to write it from the perspective of developing a website for a tree lopping company.
1 – What Do You Want to Achieve?
That may sound like a silly question, though many people rush into building a website without really thinking about wat they want to achieve in terms of functionality and capability. For example, do you want to be able to take orders through this website? Will it be e-commerce? Or is it simply going to be a place where you can find a source of information and book a consultation?
2 – Who Are Your Target Audience? What Do They Want from You?
Establish what your customers want from you. For example, as a tree lopping firm, a customer is going to want to have a clear view of your services and capabilities, perhaps some clear testimonials or ‘before and afters’ and an easy way of getting in touch and booking a consultation.
3 – Don’t Shy Away from Hiring a Professional
Building a website isn’t impossible, though it’s not a walk in the park either, particularly if you want to get it perfect. Understand that there are a lot of moving parts, with plenty of on-going maintenance afterwards. It’s good to have an idea about how it all works, though ultimately you should be focusing your time on what you do best and leave the more technical stuff to the professionals – just as you wouldn’t go ahead and cut a massive tree down if it were looming close to your home, you’d have someone with the correct equipment and knowhow to come in and handle it for you.
4 – Pick a Quality and Memorable Domain Name
A domain name is very important but bear in mind that someone may have already swooped in and picked your perfect one. Experiment with a few different ideas until you come up with something that sticks – but make sure that it is clear and evident to what you do! There’s no good in a tree lopping firm having a domain name which is entirely unrelated.
5 – Plan Your Sitemap
A very important step before building your website is planning out how you want it to be – not so dissimilar to an architect drawing up schematics. This step is vital, particularly for those of you who want to rank well from a Search Engine Optimisation point of view. Help the various search engines such as Google, navigate your website properly.
6 – Exceptional Design, Quality Content
Think outside the box when it comes to the design of your website! You want it to really stand out to your customers, but don’t go overboard so that it takes away from usability or functionality. Think about the way that Apple’s products are simply, smooth and easy to use – then begin designing your website from there. In addition to that, you’ll need an appropriate amount of quality content on your website.
So, from a tree lopping business point of view – they’ll need to focus on their related keywords, integrating them into the text on the website so that it flows naturally for the customer and that clearly highlight the benefits of hiring a tree surgeon.
7 – Take Your Time
Rome wasn’t built in a day and all that! Understand that these things do take time, and if you want to get the very best out of your website then you’re going to have to invest a great deal of time into it before getting it right. Just as a tree surgeon would take their time to assess the area surrounding the tree for any potential dangers, before going ahead and lopping it down – first impressions are important, so wait and be certain that you’re ready before opening the floodgates.
8 – Be Prepared to Blog, Use Social Media and Email Marketing
Understand that simply building a quality website isn’t going to be enough. If you want your domain to be more than just another stagnant website, you’re going to have to talk about it. This means adopting SEO, promoting it on social media, regularly blogging and looking at things like email marketing to get the word out there.
If you want to be found you have to make yourself visible, it’s as simple as that. So, build a blog on your website and regularly update it with industry related information.
