10 things to consider when you are building a website

This is a short summary of the previous sections as it is not so easy as purchasing a domain name, setting up a site. I get asked this question so often, I thought I would help friends understand the process in simple terms.

The first question you should ask yourself is in today’s day and age do you really need a website? Can you achieve your goals via social media networks - many social media networks have changed significantly and offer a marketplace with higher traffic than you can ever hope to achieve with an old-fashioned website.

Are you really looking for a mobile app? The mobile phone is the biggest disrupter and it may be better to think mobile-first than traditional web services.

What is the problem you are trying to solve - does building a website really solve the challenge you face?

If you really want a web application, or website here’s my checklist - make your own as well as this is only a guideline!

  1. Choose a domain name for your site and purchase it - this is detailed in Part 1 of this series

  2. Sit on the domain name and do not buy hosting however tempted you are - decide what kind of site you want

  3. Make some key decisions - is this a static site of 1-5 pages - a more detailed action plan is in Part 2 of this series

  4. If that’s all you want, what do you want on the pages - decide the content (copy, images, logos, videos) - this is a process that will take time so, once again hold off purchasing hosting space. You do not need a designer or developer at this stage. Write down the copy you want, figure out the images and visuals as a back of the envelope job if you aren’t good at designing.Just put your ideas down and give them a skeleton to flesh out later. Nobody can do this for you it’s your idea and your content.

  5. Once you have got to this stage you may want to see how this looks - get a prototype built - you can use Figma and teach yourself Figma from their official website, or get someone who can take your ideas and put a design around it. There are several freelancer sites - Upwork, Fivr - where designers will work to your budget.

  6. If you like the prototype - this is when you decide to transfer the design to a web package - Wordpress/ Wix/ SquareSpace are all DIY services that you can attempt to use. Shared hosting services are fine as they are cost-effective. Make sure you have the original files and back them up. If you have used a designer request the source files, you will have to pay additional fees to your designers for access to your source files. This reduces the risk when you want to change your mind and move your site to scale it up as you have all your files and content backed up. What you will lose is all the SEO you have built up. In the initial stages when you are testing your website, or if it is just a calling card, this is not a significant risk.

  7. If you want to add subscriber services, e-commerce and scale up your marketing and increase traffic to your side. This is when you need to consider moving from a shared hosting service to a VPS or VPC. This is detailed in Part 3 of the series. The key decisions you are making now are commercial decisions of scale up and once again a proof-of-concept stage (PoC) is a good step to take before you scale up your hosting service.

    A PoC involves the same steps as you initially started out with - make a rough sketch of how you want your subscribers to register, sign-in and sign out of your service. What can a registered user see versus a user who signs-in to get premium services. If you want to add e-commerce what do you want sell, for how much and how will this integrate into your billing, invoicing and accounting services. If you want to start a social media campaign what are the goals of the campaign, what media will you use and what traffic shift do you expect. Answer as many questions as you can before you scale up or shift your hosting service.

    All of this really starts getting into hiring specialist frontend and backend engineers who will help you manage your infrastructure and costs.

  8. Reduce the risk and costs of migrating your hosting services by having all you need at hand - all your source files, all your content, all your images. If you have only 1-5 pages to migrate, you can start from scratch if you have to. Review the options of adding/ outsourcing the work to a developer team or agency.

  9. Site maintenance once you scale up is a major cost, understand these costs with your service provider and your infrastructure team.

  10. I go back to the first premise - it’s perfectly ok to purchase a domain name and do nothing. It is wise even if you decide against building a site to buy the domain name before someone else purchases the name of your business. This means you don’t have to repurchase the domain name from a domain-name squatter. I had a friend who purchased a celebrity name and sold the domain name for a little fortune…just a thought.