15 guidelines for a new website owner

There are hundreds of advertisements appealing for website development for businesses. Your neighboring businesses might already have their own websites. In this atmosphere, you must have felt the need to have your own website. 

If you are thinking of having a quality website ” or planning to go for a website that has quality, this article ’15 guidelines for a new website owner’ is for you. 

Having a website and having a quality website are two different things. Just having a website does not guarantee your website is doing a good job. You must have a quality website that promotes your business 24/7.

The common mistake that many new website owners make is they simply rely on others for the website building and its management and, as a result, they get the website that performs poorly. But that is not going to happen to you. You are getting an outstanding website from your developers because this article will help you to get a quality website.

Here are the 15 important guidelines that ensure the quality of your website.

1. Purpose of your website 

The reason that a website flops is that people just want to copy others. Most people demand a web design that is just like others. This comes when you have no specific reason to build a website. Your business has its own purpose. Its management is different than that of others. You think differently than others. Why not make a website with has its own purpose and is different than others.

Having a purpose gives a distinct picture to your website. The question of why you are making this website brings a fundamental change in the website building process. Think whether it is to inform the customers or sell the products. Is it for the management of logistics or is it a multivendor platform? What will be the age group, gender, and business of your website visitors? The content and design of a website are obviously going to be defined by these factors. 

You need to choose a short but effective domain name that truly represents your business. Make sure it also fits your budget. You can try it on GODADDY, NAMECHEAP, and other domain sellers too. There are domain extensions other than .com and .net. Sometimes you may like it more and also might fit your business. Some of the examples are .health, .trade, .info, .in .  If you are in trading why not go for .trade.

To learn in detail about domain registration, click here.

You can also try https://register.com.np/ register.com.np for local domains. You can get it free if your business has taken the trademark registration in any of the government agencies in Nepal.

3. Web design 

Web design is the most important part of your website building process. Leave the HTML and CSS on the other side. They are the coding part done by the designers and developers. 

Where you should focus on is the ‘look and feel’ part of the website. The design is what your visitors see. It plays a key role in holding the visitors to your website. Try to pick the suitable color theme and right fonts and font size for your website. The color, logo, and fonts should be able to represent your business. 

2. Domain name of the website 

Customize your web design. Giving more value to the design process helps to make your website a unique website. Tell your designer to work on the homepage. It is like the front room of the house. Keep it simple, informative, and attractive.

Web design is the most creative part of web building. You are not doing it but you can assess the quality of the photos, icons, symbols that are used in the design process. Most people make the gross mistake of buying templates. You do not do it. Buying a template makes it just another website in the crowd of millions of websites. Make your website special as the organization is special to you.

Your website is like your home. The uniqueness and sophistication of the website hold more people to your website. Spend some time and effort on web design. Building a below-average website will simply send your visitors immediately out of your website. It means the bounce rate is high which is obviously no website owner’s preference. 

4. Content 

Content is the king of the website. There are two basics that you should know about content; first, what you want to say, and second, how do you say it. What do you want to say fundamentally depends on the research and knowledge. It’s you who should know what to say but how to say it is the other part of the content.  

How to say is purely the language skill. You need to have marketing intension in the back of the mind with flawless grammar and a suitable tone of the language. Having a sound command over the language is never enough in web content writing.

Even if you have sound linguistic knowledge, the SEO part of the content writing is there. How do you write the content that ranks in Google? How do you play with keywords? You can spend a few days on SEO research. If you do not get satisfied with yourself, there are some content writers like us.

To share my personal experience, I have been writing web content for the past three years, and I do use content writing tools like Semrush, keyword planner, etc.

5. SEO 

SEO and content writing go hand in hand. You need to use certain keywords to make your online presence strong. Your website is worth only as much as people find it (and convert into a customer through it). It is now possible to sell through a website if your website is not found when people look for similar kinds of services or products.

Selling products or services without search engine optimization is beyond imagination. You cannot always let your money flow on advertising. Why do that if your website can do it without third-party payment? Let’s work on the optimization of the website.

Blog writing is also helpful in the optimization of the website. We will talk about it in guideline no. 14.

6. Google Analytics 

During the development process of the website, the developers are responsible to connect Google Analytics with your website. If they don’t, tell them to connect it so that you can see, later on, the clicks, impressions, the session duration, pages per session, bounce rate, and information on the source of the traffic. This will help you to get your website’s insights. 

Make habit of analyzing your website through Google Analytics. The insights help you to take further action.

7. Social Media 

The importance of social media in marketing is increasing all the time. It is easier to find prospective clients on social media than anywhere else. Facebook has 297.9M daily visitors, YouTube has 1.6B daily visitors, and Twitter has 52.3M visitors. It is always a nice idea to integrate these platforms with your website.

Integrating social media with your website will make it easier to share the website’s content. This is a cool technique to send your social media visitors to the website by sharing the web content on them. 

8. Messenger chat integration

What do you prefer: chatting through an email or messenger? If you prefer talking casually and your business nature allows you, adding on this feature will make it easy to convert your customers. Feel less formal and sell products through messenger chatting. 

Any web developer adds this feature to the website.

9. Landing page 

A landing page is again related to the purpose of website building. If it is not a news portal or other general informational site, businesses want visitors to convert. But how is it done without an appeal, communication, and encouragement? Having an effective landing page gives all these to you.

Communication starts with the website’s looks, offer, and service. Make the landing page that looks gorgeous and classy since visitors see it before other pages. Tell them why they should buy from you. Additionally, make an offer so that they take immediate action.

Use beautifully designed CTA buttons at the end or middle. There is also a practice that CTA buttons are placed in multi places.

10. Responsive and Compatibility 

Your website may look great on one platform but does it look the same on the other platform too? Check how does it look on the desktop or on the mobile phone? Having a mobile-friendly website is compulsory these days. Always keep in mind that your customers are both mobile and desktop users.

You can also ask other questions like ‘Is your website fully functional on different web browsers? Does it support all search engines like Microsoft Bing, Google?’ 

11. SSL certificate 

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate is the digital certificate that authenticates the website’s identity and enables an encrypted connection. In simple terms, it helps to keep the internet connection more secure. It safeguards sensitive data by preventing criminals from reading and modifying any information transferred between two systems, including potential personal details. 

The padlock sign in the corner of the web browser with https:// means the website is secure. Ask your developer to certify your website. 

12. Web hosting  

Gain some knowledge of web hosting before you ask a server engineer to host your website. How much storage do you get? Where will your domain be hosted? If your needs and budget are limited, then, you can go for shared hosting.

If you want to focus on substantial functionality, dedicated hosting can be a better option for you, though taking this package increases the need for regular management and the cost. 

13. Maintenance of the website

Maintenance of the website is the act of checking website issues on regular basis and solving problems and updating the newest versions. It helps to keep your website healthy, fulfills the immediate needs, and strengthens the SEO and Google rankings. It is as simple as it is. Maintenance of the website improves the quality of the website.

Your website’s functionality only depends on its regular maintenance. Signing on the AMC will give you technical support throughout the year. The AMC helps to keep your website and business updated. So, ask your web design and developing company to provide an Annual Maintenance Service for the better quality of the website. 

14. Blogs and News 

Blog writing conveys a positive message to your audience. First, it guides your audience/ readers about your services. Second, it increases the website’s credibility. Third, blog or news writing increases the keywords of your website and increases the chance that people will find you on the internet. 

Websites often publish blogs related to their service area. The blogs are written to guide, aware, and inform the audience about the product and services. 

The latest blogs are proof that you are actively using your website. People do not want to use a website that is not used by the admins themselves. The empty blog post is proof you do not concern about your audience. 

Blogs are written not only to inform the audience but also to be found on the internet. The more post you publish, the higher your chance is to be found on the internet. You can create more backlinks and internal links which will improve your Google ranking. You bring more traffic to your website. Keep writing, keep informing your audience. 

15. Admin Dashboard 

If you are new to website management, you need to learn about using the website dashboard. The web design and development company provides you basic training on dashboard management. Do not shy away, you do not need to have any prior knowledge to use a dashboard. The developers make it as simple as it can be. Spending more time on the dashboard will gradually increase the quality of your website. It is like doing gardening; the more work you do, the better fruit you will get. And, finally, enjoy your company’s online presence. 

Also, read

Web Design Features for a Website