5 THINGS YOU MUST KNOW BEFORE BUILDING A WEBSITE

Don’t just dive in head-first!
Level up & get schooled on some of the core-basics of building a website!
We’ve taken our time and remained mindful to steer clear of any technical jargon in the hope of keeping it clear and easy to understand for a anybody wanting to build their first website.

Like anything in life, it’s important to do some research and learn about the ins & outs of what you’re about to get involved in before you commit. The other plus to schooling yourself on a topic, in this case, building a website, is that it will ensure there’s less chance of getting ripped off and paying for things that your new website simply doesn’t need.

There’s certainly a lot to learn, but to kick things off we have compiled a list of the key terminology used when discussing your web design project.
So without further adieu, here’s a list of web design linguistics that you should definitely know before getting started.

PART 1 – LEARN THE LINGO

1. CMS
CMS stands for Content Management System and it’s an extremely important one to understand. Here’s why…
There’s a variety of CMS’s for you to choose from. Some are great and some are absolutely useless. The most popular CMS and the one that we use is WordPress.
Your CMS is what you will use to manage all the content – pictures & text – on your website, so it’s important to choose one that is rock solid & reliable. It’s the structural framework that plays a major part in how good your website will look and function for your users.
Some of the main reasons that we choose to use WordPress are that it’s highly customisable, easily expandable, user friendly, and Google loves it.

2. E-COMMERCE
Short for Electronic Commerce, e-commerce is related to the functionality of how a website sells goods or services online.
E-Commerce is a bolt-on feature that is installed onto your website and operates seamlessly within your CMS.
There are a few to choose from, but the most popular, most flexible, and most reasonably secure & stable is one called WooCommerce. This E-Commerce software has been used by some major brands around the world and is also the platform that we use for our projects.

3. SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. It defines itself by questioning how optimised (good, user friendly etc) your website is for it to be shown in the Search Engine (Google, Yahoo, Bing etc).
Good SEO that has had some money spent on it will determine whether your website is shown on page 1 of Google or page 20 on Google.
Simply building a new website that looks awesome and has some backend trickery is rarely enough to get you onto page 1, it used to be but not anymore.
SEO is predominately a paid service by a marketing/ad words agency that will help you climb your website to the top of the Google search engine.
Note: How high in Google your website appears is not the related to the company building your new website.

4. HOSTING
The best example we can give you on hosting is this…
Just like a tenant pays rent to the landlord to live in a house, a website owner needs to pay rent to the hosting company to have their website live on the internet.
Think of those small portable Hard Drives that you can buy from Officeworks, then imagine them bigger and insanely faster, that’s basically what a server is.
A server is where your website lives and it is responsible for serving your website to a person viewing your site.
There is an absolute plethora of hosting providers out there, but it’s important to choose the right one. We recommend going with one that has their servers in the same country that you’ll be trading in, so if you’re in Australia choose a provider that has Australian servers.

5. DOMAIN NAME
A basic one but none the less – one to be on top of.
A domain name is the name of your address on the internet, its what people use to find you. You would normally purchase a domain name that is the exact match of your business name. So for example, if your trading name is Fernando’s Flower Shop, you would want to purchase the domain name: fernandosflowershop.com.au.
Domain names still have a www at the beginning but its not commonly included in the title description anymore.
Something else that should be mentioned in this section is SSL.
SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer.
It’s important and it’s a must have purchase in addition to your Domain Name.
SSL is a certification that shows people your website is safe and trusted, and it does so by displaying a small padlock icon in the top left corner of the address bar.

PART 2 – GATHER SOME IDEAS

The ultimate starting point for the project ahead.
Web designers are creative but they’re not mind readers. Before deciding on getting a website developed it’s a good idea to have a look around online and see what other business owners in your industry are doing. How many pages does their website have, what sort of layout does it have, how nicely has it been designed, and so on. This is a very productive starting point for your web designer. From a visual point of view the designer has a better idea of the end goal.
Knowing how you want your new website to look also helps with compiling a final version of a design brief, which in turn helps to quote the project accurately.

PART 3 – WRITTEN CONTENT

There are 2 people who can get this job across the line for you…
1 – You.
2 – A Copywriter.
If you’re half decent at writing then it’s a great idea to chuck on the kettle and sit down with a pen & some paper. Again, research your competitors website and see how much content they’ve written in various sections of their website. At the very least, jot down a bunch of dot points to help trigger some inspiration.
Alternatively, you can use a professional copywriter.
A copywriter will normally sit on the phone with you and interview you with some creative questions. They’ll be on the other end taking notes and jotting down dot points to start piecing it all together before handing you a correctly structured piece of copy thats ready to put straight onto your site.

PART 4 – COMMUNICATION

If it’s something brief that you need to discuss with your designer, like where you want the ‘Contact Us’ button on your website, then a phone call is good.
It’s quick and it’s clear.
However, if you have a list of changes and adjustments it’s best to put it in an email. There are a couple reasons for this. The first is because it becomes a reference point for your web designer to work from as taking down a bunch of notes over the phone can get sometimes jumbled. Open your email program and write an easy to understand set of instructions for your designer. You can accompany your instructions with some reference links and images in order to help your designer understand exactly what you want.
The second reason for using email is for accountability.
Did you ask for something extra that wasn’t part of the original design? Has your designer not done what you asked them to do?
By communicating via email both parties have a reference point to anchor back to.

PART 5 – BEFORE YOU PAY

Whatever the quote is for your project, be absolutely sure that your web designers are absolutely clear on the final deliverable of your website. Make sure that they know exactly what is required of the work ahead. Don’t hand over your hard earned money in the acceptance of replies like ‘It’s all good’ or ‘We’ll work it out’. All the requirements for a successful website that you will be happy with MUST be listed in a PDF Quote or in an email.
Know exactly what you’re paying for and what you’re getting before you transfer any money.