With so many different approaches to building a website, it’s easy to get lost among the directions, advice, and suggestions. Consider this simple checklist your go-to source for assistance when building your website.
1. Plan Your Website
The saying “measure twice, cut once” applies to those starting a website just as it does a carpenter, because it’s easier to build a website correctly from the beginning than to go back and try to fix it later. Though problematic issues are bound to arise with every new website, some major problems might need more attention than a mere revision … in some cases, the website needs a complete overhaul. I’ve been in that situation … it’s not fun.
Although building a website can seem easy, there’s still a great deal of planning involved — just consider the following:
- Plan the domain name: There was a time when creating the domain came down to selecting the best keywords possible, but now it is more relevant to get one that you can brand. A few examples include Zappos, Google, and Joomla.
- Plan the design of your website: Your website should be laid out in simple, straightforward way. It should load quickly and be easy to navigate.
- Plan your content: Spend time with your content development, bu thinking up articles to write, page ideas, where you might interlink between your pages, and what type of keyword density you want to achieve.
- Plan your search engine optimization: Implement vanity URLs, edit your image alt tags, use original image names, and make it all completely unique … everything involved with Link Development.
2. Build Your Website
After you are done with all the preliminary planning, build your website and publish it to the web. Never hurts to double check everything at this point.
3. Create Your Content … Keep It All Unique!
Keep in mind your interlinking plans and process creating your content, including articles, pages, and other resources you plan on providing visitors. Keep your content 100% unique! No copy and pasting here … not only is it rude to the original creator, it can also get you penalized by the search engines.
4. Optimize Your Website
This is an ongoing process involving trial and error, so you’ll likely spend some time on this step. Consider your keyword research and optimize the on page factors of your website, including the meta information (yes, it still matters), your heading tags, images, videos, URLs, and the links you’ve created throughout your content.
5. Create Your Blog
If you’re not already running a blog or running your website as a blog, start your a blog and make sure it’s linked prominently. Be sure to create fresh content often, as search engine bots (programs that actually search “crawl” the web for new content and updates pay closer attention to websites more frequently updated than others.
6. Create Your Social Accounts
Create proper social accounts for your business, including Twitter and Facebook at the very least. Explore other options as well, including Flickr, YouTube, FourSquare, and more … the goal is to be everywhere your community of potential customers hang, so keep your options open.
If you’re interested in branding your company name, which you should be, consider using NameChk.com to discover where you can register your brand name, as it may already be registered depending on your name and the social networks and services.
7. Install Google Analytics
Create Google analytics account if you do not have one and put their code into your sites structure
If you haven’t already, register for a gmail account and register for the Google Analytics service. All you have to do to get started is follow the directions on screen, upload a snippet of code to the footer of your website, and click verify.
8. Create A Sitemap for Your Website
Create proper sitemap for your site and submit it to Google analytics.
9. Track the Progress of Your Website
Google analytics will not kick in right away but it will kick in and your hosting analytics if you have one can kick in a bit faster. So track your progress as soon as you can see it and analyze what can be improved
10. Maintain Your Website
Again, some of the steps mentioned above take place on an ongoing basis, so be sure to keep a close watch on your analytics and make changes as necessary.
This was a guest post submitted by SEOBlonde – a place for tips and tools on search engine optimization and the social web.
Image credit: Veribatim
Great info. I have a question for you though. What if I am not so good at things like writing content. I mean I have always been the type that my verbal skills outshine my written skills. Do you recommend hiring someone if so who? Thanks for the info
Hey Stewie — Have you thought about producing audio or video content? It’s important to play to your strengths, so if you’re more talented with words verbally, you may want to invest in a microphone.
If you’re interested in copy or optimized content for your website, we may be able to connect you some discounted rates … swing by our contact page for more information.