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What do I need before I start a website?

Want a kickass new website for your business or want to upgrade an existing one? STOP right now!
There are a ton of things you should be thinking about before we get started on any of the design and build phase of a website. Below is a quick list to help you get your ducks in a row.


What do you need to start a website?

  1. Get proper photos of you, your product & your service.
    A website is only as good as its photos! They play a large part in how aesthetic and professional your site looks. Ideally, capture around 10-20 high quality photos for use in your website. Include yourself, your office, your products, some of the work you’ve done etc etc. If you’re a service based business, having a photo of yourself (people like to work with people) and shots of you with clients are great. If you sell products, don’t just have images of your products, get some snaps of them being used as well
  2. What makes you special? Why should someone use you?
    When preparing what you would like to put on your website, alongside your products and services, think about why people come to you. Ask your existing customers or prospect customers why they have or would choose you. Use this information to formulate content based around your unique selling points.
  3. Service and Product Offering
    For services – What services will you be providing? Will you have a short service and follow up with a longer one, or set packages or reoccurring?
    For products – What ranges, brands, categories and items will you sell. What would your target market want to see?
    For either offering, you will need to think about what will the cost be. If you are stuck on what to do, have a look at your competition and see what they do.
  4. Get some great reviews!
    There are not a lot of things in sales that are more powerful than raving testimonials from your existing customers. While it’s great to toot your own horn (and you should if you’re great at what you do) – people are far more likely to engage with your business if you have written and video (even better) reviews. These can be a few lines long but can be pretty powerful to help attract people to enquire on your new website.
  5. Points Of Contact
    Many website owners fail to realise how their customer likes to communicate. Ideally you’ll have multiple contact points on your website to provide them with an option. Not only does it help people get in touch easily, but it makes your business appear more legitimate and trustworthy.
  6. Domain and Social Media Handles
    Have your domain purchased before starting on the website. If your domain is mydomain.co.nz we recommend getting the .nz variant as well. eg: mydomain.nz as this will help safeguard your website from a competitor trying to steal your web traffic. On the same vein, if you are going to be using social media like Facebook, Instagram etc, make sure you create an account with your preferred business name first, so it’s there to use if and when you choose to.
  7. Get Some Design Inspiration
    We want to build a site that you love, so knowing what sites YOU love is important! What websites have you visited recently you love the look of. Research the best in your industry and see what they’re using on their website, take note of the design or functionality elements that you want on your own website. This could be a blog, booking feature, interactive form, design style etc. The more feedback we get from you, the closer we can be to designing the dream website!
It can be daunting getting this all together yourself, so if you need help, contact us and we can journey with you, or we can recommend copywriters (who write the content for your website) and photographers who can help you capture the essence of your business.

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