Having a website created for your business is so much more than just having the website designed and developed. There are many related things you need to think about to make sure your website is a success and works as a tool to improve the business.

There are certain questions that you have to ask yourself when having a website created.

What is the purpose of the website?

Why do you want a website? It could be primarily for existing customers – to be used as a portal to provide information to them on what you are doing and the latest news. Or it could be a marketing tool used to bring in new business. Establishing why you are going to have a website and the role it will play within your business is an important step, as it helps you to decide what needs to be included within the sites design.

What type of hosting should I use?

There are so many options when it comes to web hosting. There is even free hosting, although for businesses this is usually not recommended as in the majority of cases it is fairly basic hosting. Within paid hosting there are two main options: shared hosting or dedicated hosting. With shared hosting the server where you website is hosted is shared with the hosting companies other customers. This can have some limitations but is cheaper than dedicated hosting. Depending on each individual business’s requirements and the exact hosting package, this is perfectly adequate for some whereas others really have the need for dedicated hosting.

With dedicated hosting your website will have its own dedicated server, where only your website is hosted. This means more bandwidth and disk space as well as other benefits. This can be crucial for large websites but an unnecessary expense for others. Even deciding that you need dedicated hosting isn’t the end of it though, as there are many types of dedicated hosting, such as managed hosting and colocation.

Do I need support for my website?

Support for a website can be very important. It may be that you can handle it in-house or you may outsource you Business IT Support and they are able to handle the website support as well as other aspects of your IT support. Alternatively, you might require support specifically for the website. Some web hosting agencies offer this service, so the agency who are designing and developing the website could be worth approaching. Many either do not think about website support or decide to go without it to save on costs but this can be a mistake. Remember, things go wrong with websites, and this can be particularly problematic.

Do I need online marketing?

The marketing of a website is another aspect you need to think about. The websites of well known brands will be found as people will either type their website address into the URL box or type the brand name into a search engine. This will not be the case with lesser known brands though. For these, it may be worth investing in SEO (search engine optimisation). SEO services will help to optimise you website so it is visible in the search engines, which can lead to a major increase in visitors and therefore potential new business. After all, generating business is the main purpose of the majority of business websites. There is little point in going through the trouble of having a website designed and developed if no-one will ever find it. Improving its position in the search engines for relevant terms means that people who are searching for a particular product or service that you offer will be able to find your website, which in turn can lead to them doing business with you.

Andrew Marshall (c)