I need a new website. Where do I start?
Find Someone You Trust
A new website project is a big undertaking that can require a large amount of time and effort, as well as a financial investment. Talk to people you know and others from your industry for suggestions on reputable companies that can help you.
Think About Your End Goal
Take some time to think about what the purpose of your new website is. Is it to increase leads, or are you mostly trying to get more brand exposure? Who is going to be the main users of the website, and what kind of information are they looking for? By taking sometime to think about this early, you will be in a much better position to make decisions on what you need.
Research Other Websites
You don’t need to start from scratch. Take some time to browse other websites, especially websites from your industry. Learn from what they are doing and take note of the features you like and don’t like. Obviously you are not going to copy somebody else’s website, but you will notice that many sites share common traits. Often these features have been tried and tested over the years.
Gather Your Resources
Gather your different resources, including existing marketing like brochures as well as text and images you want to include. Very often, this step becomes a bottleneck for the project. The more prepared you are at the beginning, the more likely your project will stay on time.
Get Started
Finally, its time to just start. Sometimes you can over analyze and stay stuck in one spot. In today’s competitive world, you need to always be moving forward. Start somewhere and then work to improve, based on what you have learned.