You can not make a new website every day and because of that, you need to know what you want to present on your website and pay atenttion to website development. Here are a few tips on how to prepare when someone makes a website for you or when you create a new website by yourself.

Plan your budget at the beginning

Reasonable price for complete website development usually counts web-hosting for the website, domain (website address), professional design and working hours and all that comes out about 500-800 euros. Here is little calculation on how we create our price for website development: Our best hosting package is 139 euro/year, add one year of domain registration which is about 10-20 euros/year, there is also and PRO WordPress theme (50-100 euros), and on top of it is about 3-5 days for development, you can look here for professional website from our offer. If you make your website by yourself, you don’t need a programmer but you need to count on other costs mentioned above.

Choose a web hosting for your site

This is crucial because your new website needs to be stable and online as much as possible. If you going to choose web hosting by yourself alone, you also need to know what you need. For example, for a blog, small presentation websites or for a small webshop, you can start with shared hosting – look here for shared hosting packages. For more serious projects, you need more serious hosting. If you plan to start big webshop with several thousands of products or a custom web project with special needs, you need a VPS or Dedicated server – take a look here to find a dedicated hosting. If someone else chooses hosting for your site, you can inform about where is your hosting and what they know about that hosting provider.

Where to register the domain for a site?

We recommend buying hosting and domain for your new site at the same provider. Usually, many providers have both services in one place, and that will be ok for you in order to better control renewals (next year). If you have one service at one provider, and other services at another provider may be hard to maintain both services. If someone else creates a web site for you, you can emphasize that you want to both services, hosting and domain, be at one provider. If you are looking right place for your domain, check here to find your domain.

It’s important that you be the owner of the services you buy

This is important if someone else makes a website for you, orders and registers services for your site. Keep in mind that the domain (and, therefore, the site) goes to the person whose data is on the domain (WhoIs). In the event that after a couple of years your collaboration with your developer breaks down, you will be pleased to know that the hosting and domain is your property. So, you just need to check and agree to register all services on your behalf or your company name if you are a legal entity. If you make a website by yourself, you do not have to worry.

Select the CMS that suits you for maintenance

WordPress, Joomla, Drupal or some other, each CMS has its own mode of operation and needs to be maintained on a regular basis. Carefully select the CMS (Content Management System) because the future of your site may depend on it. We always recommend WordPress because it is highly supported and has a large community working on its improvement, it is easy to maintain and is flexible if you know what you are doing. Additionally, for WordPress, you do not need to be a programmer to maintain it, so once a site is created for you, you can also upload new content alone, do the update and administration.

Prepare the material in time, texts and images, video clips

Whether you are creating your site by yourself or someone working for you, you need to have texts and images, content that will be placed on your new site. It’s good to have videos if that makes sense to what you want to show on the Internet. Depending on the agreement with your developer or the agency that makes the site, breaking the deadlines due to your delay in delivery of materials can also increase the cost of making the site, so pay attention to the agreement and prepare the material on time. If you do not present certain products on your site, you can also use free material from the Internet, see here Royalty free pictures, videos and music.

The site needs to be verified and optimized for Google

When creating a site, you need to sign in to the Google Search Console so that Google can index your site. However, this is not enough. Content that is placed on your site should be seen correctly and in a way that suits the search engine most. It is necessary that there is no disruption that will interfere with Google to come and index everything you have on the site. If you’re making a website by yourself, check out the Simple SEO Guide for Beginners. If someone else does a site for you, make sure that this service comes at the price and if it does not, what it takes to get your site from the beginning better positioned on Google.

The site should be beautifully displayed on phones and tablets as well

More than 60% of searches and online shopping go on mobile phones and tablets. You need to take your time and set the site to be beautifully displayed on phones and tablets. It is necessary that the site is adapted to different screen sizes and that it works automatically depending on which device is open. If you use WordPress to create a new site, you can easily find a theme that has already been customized. If someone works for you, this is one of your main requirements. In case you make a website yourself, take a look at Ways To Optimize WordPress Website For Displaying On Mobile And Tablet Devices.

SSL certificate is required

This is important for two reasons. The first is that SSL helps the information on your site to be encrypted to protect your clients. The second is that Google gives a better chance for positioning at sites that have an SSL certificate. See the article Why Google has decided that HTTPS becomes a ranking factor. There are several solutions for the SSL certificate, and with us, you get the basic SSL solution for free included with hosting. See here for a free SSL certificate. There are other SSL solutions, so look for paid SSL certificates here.

UX – user experience is important

UX is not a complex science. Do not make complicated sites. A fraction of a second divides the visitor from whether it will become your client or goes to search for further. It is necessary that everyone can get on your site. Keep in mind your potential client already types in something in Google search so don’t take him to type it again on your site to find something good. If you have a huge offer that is not easy to display, think about how to present it nicely, or that the contact form and phone number (make click-to-call buttons) are always easily accessible. If someone makes a site for you, emphasize it to your developer.

You need a good solution to track visits

If you have a site for a company, you have invested money first in the site itself, then in the maintenance, and there is advertising, it’s perfectly well that you want to see and measure the results. Google Analytics is a free and good solution with which you can track what’s happening on your site when it comes to visits, where people come from and what’s most important is where they leave your site. If you create a site by yourself, keep in mind that you need to open a Google Analytics account and link it to the site. If someone else is making a website for you, emphasize that you want to use Google Analytics.

Once the site is created, you need to maintain it and upload new content

Once you’ve completed the site, regular technical maintenance is required to make the site follow the web standards and updates that come from the regular update channel. If you do not do this, the site becomes vulnerable in case of hacking attacks. Agencies that make sites usually offer their own maintenance as an additional service. The price for such services usually depends on what will be covered by maintenance and how much work hours will be spent on it. In addition, you will also need to upload new content to keep your story up to date. Nobody likes the abandoned sites, and all the new stuff you add helps your customers and Google search to better understand what’s happening on your site.

Finally, made a commercial and attracted new customers

When the site starts to work, you need to invest in advertising to start the story. People still do not know anything about you and do not know what you are offering because they just have not heard about you. You have several solutions, but people for advertising most often are using Facebook ads and Google Ads. Facebook is good if you want to present something so that it sees more people. Google Ads is good because you can easily display your site in the first place on Google Search when someone searches for exactly what you offer on the site. More serious agencies that deal with the website development often offer these services too, so if they make you a site and do advertising for you, you can manage all that together with a discount.