If you run a business, you’re probably fully aware of the importance of having a dedicated website for it.
But taking your business online can be intimidating if you don’t have any experience with web design, development, or marketing and advertising.
Fortunately the process isn’t as complicated as it may first seem, especially if you have the right support and partners.
To help you get started we’ve identified 5 steps that will take you to digital happiness
1. Choose a domain name
When choosing a domain name it is important to think about your target audience as well as marketing. Choose a domain extension for your market – .com for international businesses, .co.uk for UK based businesses, .fr for France and so on.
If possible, include some of your target keywords in your domain – if you run a UK plumbing business, you may want to use www.companyname-plumbing.co.uk for example. This will help visitors and search engines understand very quickly what you’re business is.
2. Website hosting
Your website pages need to be hosted on a server so that web users can access it, and for this you’ll need to find a hosting provider that will store and make your web pages accessible across the internet.
Our partner Host Nine offer a range of hosting solutions for all businesses
3. Develop your website
Developing your website is what is likely to take the most time when going online. A lot of thought needs to go into this process as navigation, content, architecture, technical infrastructure and design can all have an impact on your website’s future performance.
It is important to choose the right content management system (CMS) for your business, choose a suitable ecommerce platform if you plan on selling online and define objectives.
Thanks to partnerships with web developers and internal expertise, Mahon Digital can help you with your web development project.
4. Optimise your website
All along the development process, you need to ensure that your website is going to be as search engine friendly as possible so that users can find it when searching in Google (or Bing / Yahoo). This involves defining target keywords for your market, copywriting, technical setup as well as social media optimisation and content marketing.
Taking SEO into consideration as early as possible in the website planning process is the best way to achieve sustainable search engine performance over time.
With over 10 years’ experience, we help dozens of businesses with their SEO
5. Advertise it
Once your website is built and optimised, the last step of the process is to drive traffic to it and start generating leads and sales. Advertising your website can take many forms, from running paid search campaigns with Google or Facebook to display advertising and banners.
Our team of PPC and digital advertising specialists can help you find the right channels for your business.
These 5 steps should point you in the right direction if you’re considering taking your business online, but our team is always available to discuss your requirements and to ensure that your company achieves its full digital potential.
Posted by Etienne 26th March 2014
Etienne is a result driven digital leader with a strong business focus and over 16 years experience.
