If you’re a business owner with a brick-and-mortar business, and you’re thinking of taking your business online by getting a website. Whether you’re building it by yourself or trusting a digital marketing agency to take care of your website needs (which is always the best choice, I’ll tell you why later on in the article), there are a few unavoidable factors to consider. Let’s get straight to it.
Website Hosting:
If you’re not familiar with the term web hosting, I can explain it to you in 1 sentence: web hosting is the process of renting space to host your website on the World Wide Web (www). If you want to enable users to access your website via smartphone or pc, hosting is a necessity.
Depending on the web hosting company you’re going with, your website can either be successful from the get-go, or it can be a real struggle.
What do I mean by this?
Your website speed is a vital part of your website’s success online (we’ll cover more of this later in this article). Some web hosting companies offer faster speeds and more storage on their server than others. So be sure to do proper research on this. If you hire a digital marketing company to take care of this for you, you won’t have to worry as they already know which hosting servers will be best for your website.
Website Builder:
Now that the website hosting is out of the way, what’s the next step? Start with my website design? Of cause not.
The next step would be to choose your website builder. You can either go with Code or a CMS.
This step is one of the biggest factors in succeeding online with your website. Here you will have to look at several things, but most importantly, does it suit your budget? And is it easy to use?
Obviously, you want a website design that is compelling and that will have customers coming back to your website repeatedly, but at the same time be user-friendly and easy to use.
If you decide to go with a coded website you’ll have more control over each and every aspect of your website, but has a very steep learning curve if you’re planning on doing it by yourself. Self-coded websites are usually faster from the get-go. If you hire a developer to build you a website from code, the costs involved are very high depending on your needs, and completion time can vary from a few months to over a year.
Choosing a CMS as a website builder is a far superior decision if your goal is to make money and sell online. Learning to build a website on a CMS is easier with the right learning materials.
What CMS can I use? Depending on what you want to do, and your budget, this is an easy decision to make.
Do you want a website that can handle online transactions? But do you want to start ASAP as yesterday already? If you have the budget for it, you can go for a website builder like Shopify. If you already know what you want to sell, you can start selling today through Shopify. You just need a few hours to set up your online store. Shopify has always been one of my favorites, but the only downside is that they have a monthly subscription and take a small percentage of each sale generated online. So, it can turn out quite expensive at the end of the day. And as far as design goes, you’re very limited.
If you want a website builder that’s very customizable with web design and functionality, WordPress is the most superior decision. If you know what you want, a WordPress website can be completed in as little as 2-3 days and you’re ready to go! The best part is, it’s free, with no monthly subscription fees. The only downside of WordPress is that you need a lot of plugins to add additional features that you might want or need.
Web Design:
One of the biggest factors that people fail to realize when it comes to web design is the fact that they build their layout according to what they like, which makes a lot of sense, yes, but you have to build your design for your users. Questions to consider would be:- Is the web design user-friendly? Meaning is it easy for people to understand and navigate through?
- Is your website design mobile-friendly?
- And lastly, with all the above questions, is it still appealing to the human eye?
Generate Sales Through My Website:
You invested some time and money into the development of your site to get it where it’s at right now. The next thing would be to get a ROI (Return On Investment) yes? Of cause. What many fail to realize is that a website doesn’t make you money once it’s done. Why Not? The Obvious Answer: People Need To See It, And Know About It.How do I get people to see my site?
Customers will only be able to see your website through nothing other than digital marketing. There are 2 main principles of digital marketing which include Paid, and Organic marketing. Paid marketing is when you invest in platforms such as Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and many others to get in front of your target audience. Whereas organic marketing consists of SEO and unpaid social media strategies. Depending on your budget, you’ll have to decide which one would be beneficial for you. Are you seeking instant sales or long-term sustainable growth? With Paid Ads, you can make your first sale today, organically, probably in a year from now. The best-Paid Ads to invest in are Google and Facebook. When someone searches for your product on Google, you can pop up right on top, and if someone clicks on your ad they’ll land on your website and you might get the sale. With Facebook Ads, your target audience will see your ad unexpectedly when they scroll through Facebook. Depending on how appealing your ad is, when they click on it, they’ll land on your website, and you might get the sale. If you want to attract people with your Facebook Ads, invest in video marketing. Pro Tip: Make sure your landing page is optimized to get the sale. You wouldn’t want to spend money on ads, and when people land on your website, they bounce right off. Organic Marketing: The most superior organic marketing tactic is SEO, short for Search Engine Optimization, this is the process of getting your website to rank on the first page of Google. This is by far the best marketing strategy to build your business and ensure sustainability within your brand. The harsh truth is, that SEO is a very slow and steady process. It can take up to a year to get on the first page of Google with continuous hard work every day, and I can tell you why: Obviously, you are not the only one in the world selling what you are selling or providing the service that you’re rendering. With that being said, you, and all your competitors are fighting for the number one spot on Google. Google takes many factors into consideration when it comes to deciding who to put on the first spot such as website age, content value, website speed, and many more. But when you’re on top, you’re the King in your niche!
Keeping Your Customers:
If you truly want to grow your brand and business, keeping and maintaining your customers is an essential part of it. The customers and clients that you acquire through Paid Ads and SEO are the ones who are serious about your product or services, so keeping them happy and having a strategy to make them come back is a big part of your website’s success. The best way to do this is through email marketing. There are many web design and digital marketing companies that can assist you in this process.
Conclusion
If you truly want your website to succeed in 2023, practice and do research on the above principles. If you need assistance with your website journey, you can look at some digital marketing agencies and web design companies such as Deep Thought Media in Cape Town to help you grow your online business from the ground up.