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Getting Your Commercial Website Live in Six Simple Steps

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Getting Your Commercial Website Live in Six Simple Steps No More Excuses: Getting your Commercial Website Live in Six Simple Steps www.discountdomains.co.nz An online presence is no longer an option in the digital age. Without a website, a business is like a car with no petrol - it simply won’t go anywhere. That’s why prioritising investment in a quality website with a unique domain name is so important. This is easier said than done, but businesses that fail could miss out on hundreds of customers and thousands of dollars in potential revenue. This oversight applied to nearly 300,000 Kiwi businesses only five years ago, according to InternetNZ, despite half of these organisations already using social media. There’s a clear widespread aversion to registering a unique domain name, choosing the right hosting service and building a high-quality website. No more excuses. We’ve compiled a guide to the six simple steps involved in getting a commercial website live, which will help your business’ journey online. www.discountdomains.co.nz 2 STEP ONE: Determine your audience, focus and themes Before diving into the process, you first need to focus on why you’re launching a website. Here are a couple of important points to consider: The kinds of people who use your website should inform Audience how you build and maintain it. Different features will appeal to different users. For example, if your business has older clientele, or services rural areas with unreliable broadband, is online shopping necessary? You also need to think about how your audience will access data. Do they use computers, or mobile devices such as phones and tablets? InternetNZ indicates that three-quarters of online users will become disengaged if your business website isn’t mobile optimised. Knowing these details will help get your vision right from the outset. If the aim of your website is to inform customers about what your business offers, you need to ensure that you have plenty Focus of blog and landing page content to read. If you’re trying to increase sales, an eCommerce platform will be essential. But regardless of your focus, you should make the effort to keep the website in working order. AusRegistry, a premier domain name service, indicates that the number of NZ domain names up for first-time renewal remains low thanks to disuse or poor maintenance. Ensuring that your website is regularly updated in line with your goals is vital to success. The look and feel of your website is vital to attracting the right customers. Make sure you pick themes or colours Themes associated with your brand, to maintain consistent advertising across digital and other channels. Additionally, make certain that you know what works and what doesn’t for other businesses - research at this stage of the process is vital to ensuring your website will hit the ground running once the hard work is complete. Once you’ve got a firm plan in place for what you want from your website and how it fits into your business goals, you can start to think about domain names. www.discountdomains.co.nz 3 STEP TWO: Deciding on and registering a Domain name Whether you’re setting up shop, or establishing an online presence, the same rules apply - your domain name should be succinct, catchy and reflect your values. Here are a few tips to get you thinking about the ideal name: Make it short and easy to type: This enables users to search for your site quicker and means they’re less likely to end up at another domain accidentally. The NZRS, a national operator of New Zealand Domain names, shows that only one in three people are aware that you can register a shorter domain name than an existing one. Less is more. Make it industry and brand specific: Think of keywords associated with your sector and unique business values. Once you’ve compiled this list, check for existing domains with similar names - a little research can go a long way. Make it memorable: If you want users to return to your site, the domain name should stick out in their minds. InternetNZ shows there are 54,000 words available for use as .nz domain names, so there is no excuse for something generic. After deciding on a unique domain name, you need to register it. While there are a large number of domain addresses available, .nz is one of the most common nationwide, alongside .com and .org. These names are also widely trusted and the preferred search choice for Kiwis online, according to Discount Domain research. An expert domain name registrar can guide you on what domain extension to choose and supply information on prices, ongoing support and registration timeframes that will best suit your business’ needs. www.discountdomains.co.nz 4 STEP THREE: Connecting your domain to a hosting platform Now that you’ve registered your domain name, you’ll need to find a platform to host this address. Many businesses don’t realise when setting up a website that you need to find an external provider to host it. But consider it like renting a commercial premises - web hosting services provides businesses with the space to store their files (such as text, images and HTML data), connecting online users to your commercial website. There are many hosting platforms available online, but generally it’s better to opt for a company that both provides a Domain name and website hosting. This consolidates all of your web data with one expert business, and often means you can save by selecting a better value domain name along with a hosting bundle over these services individually. Choosing a premium New Zealand domain name registry and web hosting service also means you get local and easy-to-access support. There are many hosting platforms available online, but generally it’s better to opt for a company that both provides a Domain name and website hosting. www.discountdomains.co.nz 5 STEP FOUR: Build your website You have your domain name and hosting services ready - now you need to build the framework to support your commercial website. There’s a lot of debate around whether you should use a basic website builder application or an expert website designer. Building your Using an expert own website website designer The positives include being able to customise Using an expert web designer boasts a number of site design to your own specifications at a more positives, including being able to custom design reasonable cost. You can choose from any one a commercial website to your precise goals and of hundreds of templates and layouts that afford requirements. business owners maximum flexibility in deciding on a look that best fits their business. Additionally, However, the negatives of such a service often website build platforms are optimised to make outweigh these positives. A private website the process as easy as possible for first-time designer can cost a significant amount of money, website users. and still come at a huge time and effort expense. Additionally, website designers won’t have as The negatives of building your own website acute an idea about what makes your business come in the actual time spent building it. While tick and how to capture your audience’s attention. time-strapped small business owners may not be able to spare the resources to do this themselves, Ultimately, a reasonably priced website builder expert website builder support services are savvy bundle will be far more effective in the long-run to the needs of first-time customers. than blowing the budget on a designer that just doesn’t quite get your business. www.discountdomains.co.nz 6 STEP FIVE: Populating your site with content Once your website is assembled, you need to consider how you’ll populate it with compelling and quality content. In an ideal world, you’ll be able to write all of your own copy. After all, you are the expert in your industry, right? However, New Zealand Digital states that maintaining website content and generating new information on a regular basis requires a significant amount of time and effort. Optimising your website for search engine readability can act as a leveller for smaller businesses when competing with larger enterprises for online presence. Additionally, the written quality of the information on your website can go a long way to attracting or repelling customers from returning to your online platform. As such, you need to consider what the best strategy is to get the most out of your content. Whether you choose an external provider or you do it yourself, ensure: Information is engaging, and answers common user questions and pain points. Content is displayed clearly and checked for spelling and grammatical accuracy. All work points users back to a product or service on your website. www.discountdomains.co.nz 7 STEP SIX: Managing your website into the future Your site is now live! But now that you have your foot in the door, you’ll need ongoing effort to maintain your site into the future. The NZRS shows that personal domain name management levels have dropped 10 per cent in the last four years. Considering this data alongside AusRegistry stats on low domain name renewals, we see that Kiwi businesses can struggle to continuously optimise their commercial website going forward. That’s where Discount Domains can help. Each part of the process to getting your commercial website live isn’t just best practice - they are part of the core services our web experts and IT team can offer. Registering domain names, web hosting, website building - we can work with your business step-by-step to take your site from pipe dream to reality.
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