Checklist & Starter Guide for New Websites

Building a new website is like building a house; one needs a plan, one should know what should be the outcome and one should also have a set of steps in getting the job done right. Building something new can be a bit risky if you are on a limited budget or if you plan to do-it-yourself because changes anywhere during the process would cost additional time and money.

Do It Yourself Website Design

It used to be that you would have to hire website programmers and developers to build your own website. Not anymore. Software and the technology has changed so much in the last few years that you could simply build your own website, manage content when required, make changes, add new images and much more all from the comfort of your home or business. Unless you have a pre-determined budget in mind, hiring a professional website developer is also becoming harder to find because of the variety in specialities; website programming, database, graphic design, logo development, website marketing and much more.

Simple disclaimer: Building your own website can be quite time consuming and if you have the time and resources to do it yourself, take the time now to review a few items you may want to consider should you decide create your own website from scratch. By no means is this the end all- be all resource for building your own website; it is simply a few notes and points one should take in to consideration when deciding to take on their own website development project.

The following is a brief checklist when you and your website developer would normally work though when setting up a new website:

Step 1: Developing your website plan

• What will your website be about
• Who is your target market
• Do you plan to sell products or services online?
• How will you track website success?
• Who will manage website content? Staff, web developer or a branch within your company?

Step 2: Registering a domain name

• Places to register domain names
• Items to consider when setting up a domain name

Step 3: Setting up website hosting services

• Where and how to set up website hosting
• Does web hosting need to be expensive?
• What type of hosting account will you set up.

Step 4: Email

• How important is email to your organization
• Does your email need to be secure?
• How many email account will your business require and what volume will your email accounts require?

Step 5: Hiring a website developer or designer

• Developer, designer, programmer – is there a difference?
• Should I hire local or outsource overseas?
• How much are you will to pay and what budget do you have for website design?
• Top questions you should ask a website developer.

Step 6: E-Commerce

• Do you plan to sell products or services online?
• How do you plan to process payments?

Step 7: Internet & Website Marketing

Now that you have built a website, how do you plan to drive traffic to your website?

• Will you visitors come to your website from the Search Engines, Pay per Click Advertising or Press Releases?
• What strategies do you have in place to have visitors return to your website