{"id":25890,"date":"2017-01-16T19:23:44","date_gmt":"2017-01-16T23:23:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.andysowards.com\/blog\/?p=25890"},"modified":"2017-01-16T19:23:44","modified_gmt":"2017-01-16T23:23:44","slug":"the-complete-newbies-guide-to-setting-up-a-website","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andysowards.com\/blog\/2017\/the-complete-newbies-guide-to-setting-up-a-website\/","title":{"rendered":"The Complete Newbie’s Guide To Setting Up A Company Website"},"content":{"rendered":"

It doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019re a solo freelancer or the boss of a hundred professionals, you need a website <\/a>if you want to turn your idea into money. Regardless of your other marketing efforts, having a single, dedicated information center where people can learn about your business is key to turning idle browsers into paying customers. Even if your business doesn\u2019t necessarily need the internet to operate, a website will be a powerful extension of your business card and other traditional materials. If you\u2019re trying to get a website up and running and finding yourself totally lost, here\u2019s a guide with everything you need to do\u2026<\/p>\n

Decide on the Purpose<\/h3>\n

Here, I\u2019m not just talking about \u201cto make the business more money\u201d. You need to have a clear idea of what value your website is going to offer your visitors. It may simply be to provide prospective clients and customers with information about your products and credentials, and therefore be pretty static no regular updates to content. Alternatively, you may want to use it as a platform for publishing articles and other information you\u2019ve composed, and ultimately guiding your target market to buy your product or service. It may be solely for blogging<\/a>, and engaging prospective customers as part of your larger social media strategy. It may be an online store, plain and simple. Whatever the purpose of your website, it\u2019s going to have a big impact on other decisions you\u2019ll need to make further down the road. Just bear in mind that no website is necessarily static, and even if you don\u2019t start off with certain features, it will be easy enough to add these in at a later date. Still, a clear purpose can be very helpful in planning out that preliminary version of the site.<\/p>\n

Choose Your Content Management Software<\/h3>\n

\"Guide
\nImage Credit<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

Depending on what you\u2019re going to use your website for, there are a range of different content management solutions you can choose from. The good news here is that many of them are free, and offer a range of add-ons which will give you full customization of the site. If your site is going to be an ecommerce store before anything else, then I strongly recommend choosing a platform designed specifically for ecommerce businesses. There\u2019s a lot of choice<\/a> here, so take your time weighing up all the different features and drawbacks you\u2019ll be able to choose from. Alternatively, if actually selling things is only going to be a small part of your site\u2019s overall purpose, then you\u2019re better off going with one of the two most popular content management services: Joomla! and WordPress<\/a>. Joomla! is a free piece of content management software, which may make it instantly more appealing to you. While you get a fair amount of flexibility in this CMS, you\u2019re going to have to deal with certain limitations on how your site will be structured. Having said that, the platform offers a wide range of templates spanning both the aesthetic appearance and the site\u2019s actual functionality. You\u2019ll probably find something that suits your needs and tastes. WordPress, probably the most popular CMS out there, will have similar flexibility and constraints, but it has one key difference to Joomla: it was originally designed as a blogging platform. If you wanted to have a dedicated blog page on your site, then WordPress is probably the most convenient platform for you. While both of this and Joomla are pretty accessible, WordPress is probably the easiest for a complete newbie to hit the ground running with.<\/p>\n

Choose a Host<\/h3>\n

\"Guide
\nImage Credit<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

Once you\u2019ve established the purpose and management software of your website, the next thing to worry about is the host. If you weren\u2019t already aware, hosting services provide remote locations where your site and any related software will be stored, and made available to your visitors. The website host you go with will hinge largely on the kind of content management software you use, but also on the kind of speed you want for your site, and the levelof traffic you\u2019re expecting it to get on a regular basis. If you\u2019ve already had a look at some dedicated server plans, then the prices tied to them may have made you shrivel up in your seat! Fortunately, you don\u2019t need to spend a small fortune to get a great hosting service. Options will run from a cheap VPS<\/a> all the way up to the most sophisticated dedicated servers on earth. With the wide range of options out there today, you\u2019re sure to find one that suits your budget and needs. Just remember that some solutions are going to be stronger in certain areas than others. For example, dedicated, in-house servers are going to have greater security, as it will be much easier to control who has access to it. Another big consideration is whether the host will provide installation of the content management software you want to use. Many of the most popular hosting services allow you to do this with a single mouse click. If they don\u2019t though, it\u2019s important to make sure the host\u2019s support services will have your back if things go wrong. There are all kinds of things that go into a good web host. Most importantly, don\u2019t believe the myth that all hosting services are more or less universal. What may seem like a minor difference in the surface can often end up having massive implications for your business.<\/p>\n

Pick Templates and Plugins<\/h3>\n

\"Guide
\nImage Credit<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

So, you know what you want your site to do, and you\u2019ve pinned down a CMS and hosting service that will accommodate for your needs. Well done, you\u2019re almost at the end! Your next step is to start thinking about the various other features which will make up your company website. The first thing to consider is a template. With a lot of systems like Joomla and WordPress, you can choose from countless different templates or \u201cthemes<\/a>\u201d that will instantly get your website<\/a> closer to the kind of look and feel you want. Some of these are going to be fairly generic, and will need to be edited heavily in order to make sure it\u2019s a good fit for your unique brand identity. Others will be designed for a specific kind of product or service, complete with background graphics and various navigation features which may be attractive to business owners in particular niches. For instance, let\u2019s say you wanted to set up a real estate company. You\u2019ll be able to find a designated template for real estate businesses, which comes with related graphics and a feature which allows you to showcase your property listings. It doesn\u2019t matter what kind of business you\u2019re running, there\u2019s almost certain to be a website template designed specifically for your purpose. Now, while there are a lot of free templates out there and many of them can be great for purpose, you shouldn\u2019t totally rule out spending a little money on premium templates, and getting something that fits your needs even more closely. Add-ons and plugins<\/a> are another important consideration you need to chew over when setting up your business\u2019s website. These can add more functionality to your site, or simply make existing functions easier to use. \u00a0Just like templates, you\u2019ll be spoiled for choice in terms of free ones, but there are many paid plugins which could be well worth the investment. By leveraging these extra features, you\u2019ll be able to do things like provide your visitors with social networking share buttons, incorporate videos, give people the opportunity to sign up to get free materials and handy downloads, create a portfolio of your work, and all kinds of other things. Take your time looking at all the different add-ons you can use on your site well before it goes live.<\/p>\n

Organize Your Site<\/h3>\n

Now that you\u2019ve acquired all the tools you\u2019ll need for a good website, the last thing you need to do is organize it, thinking about what it will look like and how your visitors will be using it. This will include the menu selections you\u2019re going to provide, your company logo and other visual features, and the kind of information you\u2019re going to publish on each different page. If you\u2019ve chosen an ecommerce platform for your site, you\u2019ll have a lot of different choices provided by the software itself, allowing you to present your store through a range of different formats and styles. The templates from services like WordPress and Joomla provide a fairly structured platform for customization as it is. They\u2019ll allow you to post traditional content on your website, alongside add-ons containing specific content and information you can place on the page, based on the given structure of your template. Whatever your preferences, it\u2019s essential to provide your users with a clear and easy-to-follow structure, as well as a user interface<\/a> that\u2019s going to be accessible to anyone in your target market. If there\u2019s one thing that will increase your bounce rate, it\u2019s bad navigation!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019re a solo freelancer or the boss of a hundred professionals, you need a website if you want to turn your idea into money. Regardless of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[109],"tags":[5148,5891,5145,3864,988,72,688,5895,2128,5765,1440,5923,6027,115,6037,848,5582,3713,677],"yoast_head":"\nThe Complete Newbie's Guide To Setting Up A Company Website<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019re a solo freelancer or the boss of a hundred professionals, you need a website if you want to turn your idea into money.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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