7 Things to Consider Before Getting a Website

If you have a business, non-profit organization, club, or anything else that you want people to know about, you have probably considered starting a website for it. But before you do, it might be wise to consider these 7 issues, which will help you decide what type of website you need, whether or not you need professional web development, and how you plan to manage the site.

1. What is the purpose of your site?

This may seem like an obvious question, but it is one you should consider carefully. Are you trying to advertise a business? Do you want to sell products or services online? Do you just want to share your thoughts with the world? The best way to determine what type of website you need is to clarify what you want to do with your new online presence.

2. How much are you willing to pay?

Even if your answer is "nothing", you still have options, but it is important to know this upfront before you start making big decisions about your site. Too often people have big aspirations for making money online without any funding for setup, design, or marketing.

3. Who is going to create your website?

There are plenty of tools out there that can help you create a website on your own, but they may not give you the exact custom look you want. If you want something very specific, you may need to hire someone to design your site. If you need custom web applications, you will need a web developer, which is different from a graphic designer. In most cases, you will get what you pay for, so you should not expect fantastic results from your teenage nephew, who only knows how to customize his MySpace page.

If you plan to do it yourself, it is not an insurmountable goal. According to the UK server hosting company 34SP.com, HTML is not difficult to master, once you grasp the fundamentals. Furthermore, there are many free content management systems out there that make it easy to create dynamic websites and add third-party extensions.

4. Who is going to manage your website?

No, I am not asking the same question twice. The person who creates your website is very often not the same person who will manage it. This is something you need to be clear on from the beginning, because someone who charges you to create your site will also charge you to manage it, and that could be very expensive.

If you run an organization, you may assign this task to an employee, but that person will need to be trained on whatever content management system you use. You also have to keep in mind that managing the website will take time away from other tasks, meaning you may need to shift personnel or even hire a new person entirely.

5. Content is King.

The phrase "Under Construction" is not a valid use of the web under any circumstances. A website should have content, and that content should be relevant to number 1: your purpose. Even a business site will need to keep visitors engaged so that they want to come back to the site more than once. That means you will need someone to write quality content for the site. If the person who manages the site is not that person, you will need to consider other options.

6. Free is sometimes better.

Going back to your purpose, you should decide if paying for a website is necessary at all. In some instances, a free blog or even a Facebook page is all you really need. In most business situations, you will want your own domain name and paid hosting, but a personal site may not warrant spending money.

7. Market your site.

There is this unfortunate misconception floating around that making a website automatically means fame and success. People who hold that misconception are often disappointed to find out that no one visits their websites. No one will know about your website unless you tell them.

How you choose to market depends again on the purpose of the site. If your website is like a business card for your organization, you may not need online marketing. Simply telling customers that the site exists may be enough. If, however, you have an online store, advertising online may be your only method of reaching customers. Expect to pay money and put in a lot of hard work to make your site climb the ranks of search engine results. Keep the content flowing, use social media, and even use word of mouth to let people know your site exists.

This guest post is written by Tavis J. Hampton, a librarian and writer with a decade of experience in information technology, web hosting, and Linux system administration. He currently works for LanternTorch.Net, which offers writing, editing, tech training, and information architecture services.

• 7 Simple CMS Solutions for Quick Website Creation
• Launch Your Site Without Losing Your Sanity: Seven Tips for Success
• 5 Reasons You Should Be Creating a “Coming Soon” Page
• Buying a Website Doesn't Have to Be Difficult
• When Is a Good Time to Build an Authority Website?
• 5 Awesome Websites and What We Can Learn From Them
• Making the Most out of the Coming Soon Pages for Optimum Results