It seems difficult today for companies not to create a website. The latter ensures the visibility of a company. Whether you are offering a service, selling a product or want to share your ideas on a blog, the website is essential! It not only makes your company known in France and the rest of the world, it also has an influence on your activity. It allows you to create a contact with your customers and possible partners. A website is essential to build a relationship of trust and thus facilitate sales.
First, you need to define the purpose of your website. What does he answer? This depends, of course, on the nature of your business. WordPress is suitable, for example, for a blog. On the other hand, if you want to make an eshop, it would be better to move towards a platform like PrestaShop without forgetting to set up an online payment system. The objectives of your website also concern the content. The website must improve the company’s visibility but this cannot be done without good positioning in search engines. The quality of your content, i.e. natural referencing and the use of keywords, is therefore very important.
Imagine your website
In a second step, you must prepare the layouts of your website. First of all, you have to write down on paper the way you imagine it. If you want a simple site with a presentation and a contact form, it will be relatively quick, but in the case of a tree structure, it is essential to think about every aspect. Before actually creating the website, you have to imagine how the different pages will be linked to each other. Above all, your website must be easy to use.
The domain name is, of course, important. Whether you are an individual or an organization, take the time to choose the domain name carefully before registering or buying it because it will now represent you. Some online publishers such as WordPress offer a customization of your domain name for a fee. In your reflection, do not fail to take into account the perception of your correspondents and the meaning of the chosen word.
Don’t underestimate webdesign
After defining the structure of the future website, it is necessary to focus on the visual aspects. A website must be dynamic and pleasant to read! Contrary to the adage “it is better too much than not enough”, in web design, it is quite the opposite. A clean page will work better than a searched site, with flashy colors and a large volume of content.
Your webdesign must also meet the requirements of the UX, i.e. the experience user. It may therefore be useful to create a showcase site and workshops to meet users’ expectations. Here are the types of questions that can be asked:
- – Do you find the information easily accessible?
- – Have you had all the answers to your questions?
- – Do you find the site pleasant?
- – Would you have bought or contacted him after consulting him?
After analysing user behaviour, Google Analytics can help to detect certain problems. It is also a great help to see, afterwards, the evolution of the visits to your website.
Design your website
Not everyone knows how to code in HTML or CSS but, in recent years, website creation tools have been available to help you easily create your own. These are CMS, content management system orcontent management system. This system includes a set of software to design, manage and update a website online.
Once again, the choice of your CMS will depend on the purpose of your site. If you simply want a site presenting your activities, i.e. a showcase site, a CMS such as Strikingly or Wix will suffice. However, for a site with content, such as a media or a blog, WordPress is probably the most suitable. To create an online store (eCommerce site), it will be wise to use an e-shop such as Woo Commerce or Shopify.
Each CMS generally has a free version, but the prices offered remain, nevertheless, reasonable. The handling is facilitated by a “drag and drop” system. However, for more complex projects, you can use specialized agencies. Nevertheless, having some technical knowledge can be very useful to react to the slightest problem and be able to manage your website independently.
Think about the display of the website
It is strongly recommended not to forget the mobile responsive of your site. Responsive design consists in automatically arranging the content, page templates, according to the size of the medium. Today, a large number of users are watching a site for the first time on their smartphone, which has led Google to no longer present non-responsive design sites when making mobile requests.
Another element to consider when creating an effective and attractive online site is the time it takes to load web pages. This is certainly the least taken into account technical element and yet it is of great importance. Indeed, Google highlights websites that load in two seconds maximum. How can you make the loading of your pages faster? They must, quite simply, be coded in HTML 5, also called W3C.
Finally, it is important not to be satisfied with the first version of a website. It is necessary to constantly improve and test it! Regular updating is therefore essential. Creating a website means actively participating in the smooth running of a company. Social networks are also important because they are, in a sense, an extension of your site.
