So, you are a small business – still kind of new in the game. You have a small but decent portfolio of some of your existing customers, and now you are ready to leap into the cold zone (Meaning reaching out to prospective customers who are total strangers)
Do you Have a Website?
Do you have a Website? This is the first question your prospects are going to ask when you venture into the cold zone. Getting this question is a good sign, as it indicates that prospects are taking interest in knowing you. They have begun this process of checking you out, so they can decide whether they can trust you or not.
It is clear now that your prospect is going to evaluate your website.
The 13 Point Website Building Considerations Checklist
Your Website reflects who you are and what you do. To bring this out clearly to the world, it is recommended to get your website done by a professional. But before you even approach a professional for this work, you need to do some homework.
This article raises 13 Questions. Be prepared with the answers before you set up a meeting with your website development professional. These 13 website Building Considerations will ensure that you don’t miss anything and that there are no unpleasant surprises
1 – Am I Going with Individual Branding or Company Branding?
Do you want prospective clients to trust you as an individual, or do you want them to trust your company to deliver what you claim? In other words, do you want to build personal credibility or organizational credibility?
Since personal branding websites and company branded websites are built differently, your website development professional needs to know this right from the beginning.
For professions such as coaches, teachers, astrologers, doctors, dentists, beauty consultants, podcast interviewers, business consultants, financial advisors, etc. it is better to go with personal branding. In professions like IT solution providers, gyms, restaurants, marketing agencies, financial services, etc. it is better to go with organization branding. That’s a general rule, though. You can decide what best fits you.
Couple of important things to know here – First, once you make this decision, there is significant effort and cost involved if you want to change it. So, if you decide on personal branding and then switch to organizational, then there is a significant re-branding effort involved. The same can be said for the opposite.
Second – If you are open to the possibility of selling out your business in the future, then go with organizational branding. This is because a personal brand loses its value when the person behind the brand ceases to be the owner. This becomes an important website-building consideration when you look at it that way.
2 – What is My USP and Value Offering?
Your website development professional needs to know what your USP and Value offering are. So, be prepared with this before your first meeting with them.
Basically so, your website must answer this question prominently – Why should your prospect buy from you and not from anyone else? In other words, what’s your USP (Unique Selling Proposition or Market Positioning)? What specific services that you would be offering to your prospect is called your Value Offering.
I have a detailed article on Branding for Small Businesses, that will lay out these concepts in more detail.
3 – Which Pages Does My Website Comprise Of?
You need to decide the pages that your website is going to have.
For a beginner-level website, at a bare minimum, you should have the following pages:
Home, About Us, Services, and Contact Us, Terms and Conditions, and Privacy Policy.
The Home Page would bring out the USP and Value Offering, the About Us page would bring out the person(s) behind the brand, and the Services page(s) could be comprised of either one page or multiple pages based on different service offerings you have for your customer.
Let’s say that you are an IT company providing multiple services like – Consulting services, Application development, and Customer Care Services. In this case, you might consider having 3 pages inside of the main Services Page detailing each of your offerings.
In addition, your website should have the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Pages. The Terms and Conditions page explains the rules for using your website. The Privacy Policy Page explains how you are going to use the personal data of your visitors, and what you are going to do with that data. You just need to be aware that these 2 pages exist and leave your website development professional to take care of these.
For most beginners, this is all you need in building an identity for yourself, and one that evokes trust with your prospects and website visitors.
4 – Who Will Plan My Website’s Content?
Once you have decided on the pages, then you need to craft content for each of the pages. The question here is – Who is going to create that content? Some website development professionals would just use the content that you provide them. On the other hand, there would be some who would work with you to bring that content out.
In any case, you have to have an idea of what content are you going to present to your prospect. This is important homework you need to do before building your website.
- Home Page: This will communicate your brand. I have an article that describes Branding for Small Businesses in detail. The essence of that brand will come out here. The Home page is also where you can showcase some of your work and testimonials. Testimonials are HUGE when it comes to building a trustworthy brand. So keep these handy before you approach a web developer
- About Us Page: Introduce yourself and your team. Include pictures. Bring out who they are, what they do, and how their unique personalities contribute to your success. Showing the human side goes a long way in building trust.
- Services Page(s) – Keep the Services Pages brief, to the point, and simple. Visitors should understand, what you do for your prospects.
- Contact Us Page: Keep an inquiry form here, so people can fill in the inquiry form and connect with you. Some websites also give out a WhatsApp icon. Other websites go on your face with pop-ups. Decide whether that is a preferred way to receive communication from your prospect.
These are some decisions where you can leverage the experience of your website development person. But it is important to raise these during the meetings.
5 – How Will I get My Logo Done?
An important part of your branding will be your logo. One option is to simply hop over to Canva and make one yourself. If you want it professionally done, ask your web development professional to do it for you, or get it done by a professional logo maker/graphics artist.
This is another important consideration that you must have thought of, before engaging with the professional.
6 – Who Will Take Care of My Domain Name and Hosting?
You will need to decide who will take care of getting you a domain and hosting. Would you get these, or would you want your website professional to take care of them? This is an important choice that you need to make before the website development work starts
What is a Domain Name?
Domain Name is the name for your website. Your Domain Name is your Brand Name in most cases. You will need to decide on this brand name. Your brand name should not be already taken. In such a case, you will either need to modify it to one that is not taken, or choose an entirely different one that is not taken. Note that your business name (on which your company is registered), and your brand name can be different.
What is a Domain Extension?
The Domain Extension is what you see after the ‘dot’ (.) in the domain name
If your business is local, then better to go with a local extension. For example: If you are catering to clients in Belgium, use the “.be” extension. If, on the other hand, you are going to cater to clients all over the world (or only the USA), go for a “.com” extension.
What is Hosting?
Your website is nothing but a bunch of web pages. These pages have to be stored on some server in the world. Then, they need to be shown to whoever accesses your domain name from their browser.
The companies that take responsibility for these are called hosting service providers. Usually, the same Service Provider Company also takes care of holding your domain name. These companies charge recurring or this. These charges can be monthly, yearly, or multi-yearly, based upon their offering. The larger the duration, the cheaper they are.
If you manage the hosting and domain name provider all on your own, then you take the responsibility of paying the recurring rentals and maintenance on time. Also, in this case, you will need to do the initial research to see which one is the biggest bang for your buck.
Alternatively, you could let your web developer take this responsibility for these decisions, in which case they will charge their little something on top of these rates.
7. What Would be the Memory Requirements for My Website?
Make sure your website has adequate memory so your site will not go slow. Involve your website development professional in this decision, as this is a technical decision based upon several factors.
8. How Close is the Server Location to My Target Customers
Know that you can choose the server location of the hosting company. Choose the server location that is closest to the location of your prospective customers. This will give you better speed. This is another point of consultation.
9. Which CMS Should I go With?
Broadly speaking, there are 2 options: One option is using a standard well-known Content Management System, which enables even a layman to make basic changes to their website. The other option is to have your website developer design it in their custom way. The latter will cost way more than the former because the latter involves coding.
If you are a new and small business, I recommend that you ask your website developer to go with WordPress CMS. WordPress is open source and thus free. Also, it supports all the functionality you could ever think of, so go for it.
Going with WordPress enables you can have control over your website. Meaning you can add/modify small stuff as your business evolves. For example, if you get a good testimonial in one of your ongoing works, you should be able to login into the administrator console and quickly add this testimonial by yourself.
Also, make sure you keep the ownership of the website stays with you. This means making sure your website development professional gives you your access credentials. This way you can access your site and control it.
10 – When Should I Plan for Search Engine Optimization
Would you like your website to rank for organic search traffic right away, or would you first put your focus on getting your website up and running first?
This is an important decision because you need to craft content on the website based on a clear SEO content management strategy. And after this is done, it takes months if not years, for your site to start ranking.
11. How is my Site Going to be Mobile Friendly?
Set your expectations very clearly that you want a proper mobile-optimized website. In simple terms, it means that your website should render fine and load fine when viewed on mobile. Do not compromise on this because mobile users have outnumbered desktop users and also google favors sites that are mobile-friendly.
Mobile-friendliness also means that your website should load without any delays on your mobile devices. Set this expectation also clearly with your website development professional.
12. How Will SSL Be Incorporated on My Website?
SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer. This feature offers secure communication to your website visitor when they visit you. You can easily identify whether a site is secure or not by looking at the ‘s’ in the HTTPS. If your site is https//…., then it is SSL-featured.
Having SSL is uncompromisable as your web visitors want to be secure when they visit you.
13. How Will My Branded Email ID be?
If your website is “somename.com”, then make sure you can access a dedicated email ID such as info@somename.com. When you specify and give out such an ID, your business looks trustworthy and professional. Set this expectation also with your website development professional and ask them what a good branded email ID looks like.
Conclusion
Do your homework on the above 13 points before approaching your website development professional. Doing this homework will save a lot of effort and you will not have any unpleasant surprises. Your website is a crucial piece in your overall branding strategy, and thus will have a huge impact on your business.
Good Luck with building your website!