Now more than ever, websites are necessary to make your business legitimate. Having a website builds trust and credibility in your customers. If you don’t have a website yet, this could mean loss in trust and sales from potential clients.

Before investing on creating your custom website with a web designer or DIY-ing with a website templates, make sure to have these things in order to make your website work for you:

1) Set Your Goals & Ideal Client Avatar

Building a website knowing who you are serving and what their needs are is very critical, if not – the most important, in building your website.

Here are a few questions to ask:

• Who is my main audience?
• What problem am I solving for them?
• How can I create solutions for them on my website?
• What’s the purpose of my website?
• What’s the main goal I want them to do or get out of my website?

2) Build Your Community

Your website won’t have traffic unless you direct people to it. Before investing on a web designer or a website template, I would highly recommend building a community for at least a few months from another social media platform – may it be Instagram, Facebook, or Youtube, start where your ideal clients are. When you are ready to launch, you will most likely have traffic going to your website.

3) Build Your Visual Brand

Just because you have a logo doesn’t mean your visual brand is complete. People recognize consistency when it comes to your personal brand. 

• Make sure to have a primary logo
• Submarks (smaller logos for other purposes)
• Color Palette
• Brand Guideline (Includes direction and mood board for your web designer)
  

Not having these things ready could delay your project when working with a web designer or leave you stuck when it comes to DIY-ing your own website.

4) Have Brand Photos

More people can relate with a photo of your face, than with your brand logo. Wouldn’t you agree? The more photos and varieties that your web designer can work with, the easier it will be to create strategic designs that will attract your dream clients. I know it can be an investment, but thing of the return on investment that it would do for your business. Also, you can use these photos for your blog posts or even social media content.

If you think about it, it’s not just photos for your brand, but photos for your business as a whole. I would suggest creating a Pinterest board of poses with your web designer/photographer before your scheduled photoshoot day.

5) Have A Website Copy

Your website copy is another important thing in order to convert your clients from consumers to customers. You can have the prettiest website, but not the best copy and this could lead to no sales at all. On the other hand, you could have the best copy and the not the prettiest website, but still have sales. 

6) Choose Your Website Platform

Depending on the goals of your website and the needs of your ideal client, choosing where to host your website platform matters. Different platforms offer different solutions. There are a ton of website hosting options out there, but I can and will only recommend what I’ve used to build websites.

For product based businesses, I would recommend Squarespace. For service-based businesses, I would recommend ShowIt. I’ve had previous experiences with WordPress and Wix, but would rather use Squarespace and ShowIt because of the easier maintenance and user-friendly features to keep the website updated. 

7) Choose Your Domain

What exactly if a domain? A domain is the URL or web address of your website. For example, mine is halemadedesigns.com. Make sure to do your domain research as you are choosing the name of your business. You want a domain that represents your brand, not too long, but easy enough to remember. I have purchased domains from Domain.com, Google Domains, and Squarespace. 

Once you have compiled the things above, you are now ready to start building your website or working with a web designer. It’s definitely a lot of work, but it’s totally worth it for the future of your business. 

I know it can seem overwhelming given the list of things, but start small. Take deep breaths and start with one thing off your list then work your way in crossing things off as you go. One of the things I’ve been learning lately as a new entrepreneur is to be patient with myself. We need to stop comparing our Day 1 or Day 50 with someone who has been doing this for 5 years. If we are called to do this and believe that this is our purpose, we need to look at it as if we’re in it for the long-haul. You could see someone go viral overnight, but it took years for them to get there. You don’t know their journey. Everyone’s journey is different so again, be patient yourself. 

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