When you are planning to start an internet business, the first thing you need is a website. Of course a lot of people can have a secondary web presence with free blogs, social media accounts and other profiles in various forums. But let’s face it, if you want to be taken seriously, you need a real website with your own domain name and hosting. While any good designer can set up a website nowadays, adept designers work hard to make it truly professional. Here are a few points that you should consider, when working with developers to establish your perfect website.
Firstly, it is important to consider what framework and technology your developer should apply. This should be left to them, but you do have consideration if you know exactly why you prefer one platform over another. There are frameworks like ASP.net, Django, Ruby on Rails and CMS like WordPress, Drupal, joomla as well as eCommerce platforms like Magento, Zend, OpenCart, PrestaShop to choose from. You can find many other options and different purposes can be served by different systems. You need to find out what suits your website, but if this topic confuses you; listen to your developer and their professional suggestions. The needs of the technology will depend on just how unique and complex your website needs to be, and what functionality it will need.
Once your site is up, you need to create quality content. The written contents of a website are more important than the design in many regards, if your website does not solve a problem or inform the reader, it won’t be effective for its intended goal. If you have professional developers on the job, they should offer copy-writing services and search engine optimization for on-page at the least. Optimizing the content that your website contains, is indeed a part of professional web development. Off-page link building is always optional, and has nothing to do with a web design. However, with the proper foundation of keyword research and optimization of the on-page content, you will have everything you need to begin off-page link building.
The natural way to get discovered by potential customers is via the search engines. You may have a website, but people will never know about it unless you rank high on the major search engines. Always remember that there are hundreds of others like you trying to attract the same customers. So, it is not enough to just list your products and expect instant sales. Your presentation and content must stand out, as well as contain the proper keywords you want to target. Search Engine Optimization deals with the research of keywords that must be incorporated in the content of your whole website, and how to rank for them.
Finally, in this day and age, it is also important to be interactive and user friendly. Have a fully responsive design made, your website should look its best on any screen size. Include social share buttons and allow people to comment and rate your products and services to gain more credibility. Have a blog, even if you do not like writing. Share your experiences and visions with your target audience.