If you are planning to get a website for yourself or your small business in the near future, there are a few things that you need to know before engaging in this important extension of your business.

• Be prepared to be actively involved,
• Brand yourself: your domain name, logo, and slogan,
• Find what you like,
• Static or dynamic website,
• Have your content ready,
• Get a good Web Hosting provider,
• Consider social networks,
• Maintenance,
• Ask questions.

Be prepared to be actively involved

You must consider the pre-production process as well as the eventual post-production life of your site. Having a successful website demands a consistency and a certain dedication from everyone involved, but especially from the owner of the website. This is particularly the case for any personal or small business website. You will be required to make decisions, sometimes quickly, be receptive to learn a few things along the way and communicate your desires efficiently.

Brand yourself

Branding is essential. Naming yourself or your small business is intertwined with a potential domain name. Do a brainstorming session of what your business represents and find keywords that you like. When you have a couple of potential names, go to www.godaddy.com to make sure that the domain name you like is not already taken. Once you bought your new domain name, invest in a good graphic designer that will create a logo that represents you or your services. Your graphical identity will potentially be a crucial part of your website. In addition, you should think of a slogan or motto for your website. This will be useful for search engine optimization (SEO), more information for Google, Bing and others to better reference your site on  searches people do online.

Find what you like

If you don’t have a crystal clear idea of what you want your website to look like, take the time to look at other websites that offer similar services as you. Think about the colours. If your logo has colours, look at web pages that have similar colours. Note what you like, what you don’t like. There are many design styles so take your time. For quick inspiration, take a look at sites that have an endless selection of web templates like iWeb Templates or Dream Template. A good web designer will be able to conjure something up that respects your budget.

Static or dynamic website

If your budget is tight, you might want to go with a static site. This means that the content of your site will rarely change. A dynamic site refers to a site that has interactive content like a blog with regular articles, a forum, or even a picture gallery. You have to know how much time you want to dedicate to your website. The more interactive your site, the more your potential client will get out of it and the more they’ll be inclined to contact you. Regardless of the frequency of the changes you plan to make, you should opt for a content management system (CMS) that allows you to change any content on your site, anytime, anywhere through the Internet. Initially it might cost a bit more, but in the end you won’t ever have to depend on another person to edit a line, paragraph or misplaced period.

Have your content ready

If you want the production process to take as little time as possible, have your content ready in both languages. Have some idea of what pages you want to include: About me, Contact me, etc.

Get a good Web hosting provider

There’s an abundance of Web hosting providers out there, some better than others. Ask around! Before purchasing your hosting plan consult with your web developer to make sure that the hosting provider has all features needed to run your website.

Consider social networks

Social networks like Facebook, Twitter and the like increase your web presence since more people have a chance to find you. They can be very time consuming because you have to keep adding content. Since there are so many social networking tools, you will probably find one that suits you best.

Maintenance

If you opt for a CMS, you must expect some kind of maintenance at least once a year.  Maintenance will ensure that the CMS of your choice stays secure from hackers and malware.

Ask questions

Please ask questions. No question is stupid. Really!