7 tips before you create your website

Determine the aim of your website

Selling (e-commerence) products through your website and or just giving information about your company requires different kind of content and will determine the kind of website you will be designing. With that in mind, your message will be clear and will not contridicts with the aim of the website.

Who are your target audience?

Have a specific target audience, this will helps you to determine what kind of theme and content you want to put in your site. If you are selling baby products targeting at young parents, you do not want to have a website that uses black and grey at the background.

What are the costs?

Knowing what kind of financial committment is important. Here are some of the cost involves: a) Design cost - Cost of paying a design company to design your website
b) Domain name - Price of domain varies from S$ 15 to S$ 70 per year depending which one you pick
c) Hosting plan - Your website need to be store somewhere so that your customer can access it 24/7. This can be quartely/ half-yearly/ yearly renewal, depending on the hosting company you choose.

Determine your theme

Determine what kind of layout, specific theme will give your site a "character" that will appeal to your target audience. It is good to identify this early so that you can incoporate your coporate colour into the design.

Pick your domain name

Picking a domain name is important as it will be the online identity of your company. Choosing a ".com" domain maybe good if you are targetting internationally, however picking up a ".com.sg" will allow your customer to know immediately that you are operating in Singapore and they can reach you if they need to meet you face to face.

Simple and easy

Have a simple, clean and easy to use website, giving the customer a good experience while navigating your website will help to have a good impression of your company, since that is the only "contact" they have unless they meet you personally. Have a site map, think through how are the pages to be linked and the customer do not have to hit the "back" button to get out of a page.

Test, test and test

Before launching your website, test it in different browsers (IE, Safari, Firefox and Google Chrome), some of the features that turn out well in this browser may not apply to another. Ask your friends or staffs to test it and give feedback so that necessary changes can be make before it go live.