The internet is a growing phenomenon, and it's already becoming the ultimate tool to influence people's decisions. There are more than many times that people browse the web to get more information about their interest. The good news for businesses and companies is that making a professional website isn't as difficult or expensive.
In today's digital age, having a website is important to boost the visibility of your business. A professional website is just like a shop that promotes your business online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and accessible from any part of the globe.
As the window of your business on the internet, and just like any shop you seen in everyday life, it should be appealing. If not, your potential customers won't be pleased. And that results to a lost of trust and integrity.
A good website lends credibility to your business, and by not having one, you will give a bad impression to prospective customers. That fact highlights the need for having a professional website to further drive your success.
The importance of an online presence is neglected by some businesses because they don't intend to spend money in making one. If so, is there any other option that will make a cheaper online presence?
Budget is one of the important factor that can change someone's decision about something. If you're on a limited budget, you can create a website on your own using website builders that are widely available in the web. These builders provide easy step-by-step procedure with various templates you can choose.
However, these templates aren't custom made and neither are tailored to your specifications.
You can also opt to use WordPress, Blogger, or Tumblr, for example. These platforms are relatively easy to use by non-developer users, and are very popular.
Hiring professionals to do the work is also an option as these people can tailor your website to anything that suits your needs, with a price. But if you want to spend a little as possible without compromising quality, some web developers and designers may have a solution for you. Usually, your website will be hosted on a shared environment with limited space and computing power. Otherwise, your website may have limited page and not feature packed.
The cost to have a website created by professionals is not just about the payment to the creators, you have to have your website hosted somewhere, and have it maintained regularly to ensure it's working as good as possible.
Further reading: Building Your First Business Website
User Experience Comes First. Technical Terms Comes Later
No website is perfect. Just like any other human creations, anything on the web has flaws. As a business, what you need is to put the flaws to a minimum and put it out of your visitors' sight.
Your objective in having a website is to make it purposeful. There is no need in having one if it's not appealing. A proper website should raise awareness of our business, or create sales, and feed into what you want to include on your site in terms of contents.
Your homepage is one of the most visited place on your site. The key to make your website appealing is to put a lot of effort on your homepage to give the best first impression and pronounce curiosity. All of the design aspects should be visible and in place, all links should be working as intended, and the navigation should be properly made.
Beside contents that is the main source of curiosity, web design is the first thing that greet your visitors. This makes the interface of your website's user experience. Web design is what visitors see when they first land on your website.
You may add some additional design features with the help of JavaScript, for example. However, this is the technical things that come second because it's just cosmetic, and won't add up to the value of the information you're giving.
Eliminating some design aspects can decrease your website's overall attractiveness. But if cost matters great to you, be aware that scripts, database, animations, extensive use of CSS or scripts will add to the cost of creating your website. A proper planning is a must because if you want to have a product that comes from a specialist's skill, cost is attached.
After you have your website online, you should make sure that it is compatible in various browsers. And at least looks good in different screen sizes. These are the aesthetics that responds to user experience. You can try accessing your site from different computers and mobile devices.
Once you're happy with it, the next thing to do is promoting it. Make sure that you first promote it to your local search area before going onwards.
Never expect that your website will drive huge traffic in small amount of time if you don't put additional efforts to it. Any website that is put online should be regularly maintained. Furthermore, SEO is important to make your website appeal to search engines. Once people get to your website, you need to engage them, so update it regularly to keep it fresh and relevant. Since having a website is just one part of your online presence, creating accounts on social media is also necessary.
Websites can be as simple as you want them to be, or as complex as required. It is a key representation of your business on the web, so make sure you create something you can be proud of.
Further reading: What You Will Need for a Website