All the most incredible projects once started with just an idea. At a certain moment of time, the greatest people we now admire, said to themselves “why not?”. What about you — why not fulfill some bold and awesome idea that a website will be a driving engine for? Even small businesses benefit from good websites that help them grow.
So it’s time to take your old dream from the shelf, or give wings to a new one! Let’s see which steps you will need to take to proceed from in idea of a site to the ready product.
What to do with your website idea
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Choose a CMS
Instead of using “pure” programming and markup languages, it is much more convenient and efficient nowadays to build websites on CMSs (content management systems). They provide plenty of ready features, flexible site-building tools, as well as handy administrative dashboards to manage everything — site’s structure, settings, content, and more.
In many cases, particular CMSs are better suited to particular types of websites or features. So you need to choose thoughtfully and, still better, consult a web development agency.
Tell them what you expect your website to do and what features to have — and they will advise you the optimal CMS. The advice might be more unbiased if you consult a multi-CMS agency — for example, WishDesk that works with Drupal and WordPress.
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Think of a domain name
Another step from an idea to an awesome site is choosing a domain name. A domain name is a string that your visitors type in the address bar to access your website.
So you should put your soul and imagination into it! While being creative, your domain name should be clear, informative, and concise.
If it is a business website, structures like brand.com are perfect. First, this looks professional, and second, many users type this in when they do not know the website address for sure.
Good domain names will do not come for free, but all these sums of money are small, and are certainly worth it.
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Find a good host
The hosting provider will make your website available on the Internet, so make sure you choose a reliable one and, preferably, with extensive services. WishDesk offers hosting with 24/7 uptime monitoring, regular data backups, your own email domain, free SSL certificates that make your website secure, and much more.
Today, providers offer various hosting types: dedicated, VPS/VDS, shared hosting etc. VPS (virtual private server), aka VDS (virtual dedicated server), looks the optimal solution.
It combines the affordable price compared to dedicated hosting, and, at the same time, better performance, security, and independence compared to shared hosting. WishDesk offers you fully virtualized VPS servers, which are the embodiment of all these benefits.
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Cooperate with a development team
Here comes the most exciting step from an idea to a website! You need to choose the performers of such responsible mission as creating the design and developing your product.
First of all, there are good reasons to choose a company over a freelancer. And, of course, choose carefully — consider the agency’s track record, reputation, and portfolio. Without false modesty, we can say WishDesks’s 10 years of experience make it a very attractive choice.
When you have chosen the team, provide everything you can regarding your future website’s look and features (wireframes for site design, technical specifications, verbal descriptions, sketches, and so on). Whatever is missing, can be created by the development agency experts upon your request, so they can help you shape all your idea.
And then the engines start for a great journey! Your project goes through the well-organized circles of development, testing, and deployment.
You will need to enjoy the process, grant your approvals and have Skype calls with the project manager when necessary, and, one day, get your shiny website in a ”gift parcel”!
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Take care of SEO and marketing
If you wish, a SEO expert may also work with your newly-made site — submit it to search engines, take care of the sitemap and robots.txt file creation, build a SEO strategy, help you with picking the relevant keywords and expressions, write meta descriptions, provide internal linking, and much more.
SEO goes hand in hand with marketing. Defining your target audience and filling your website will great content are an important part of the whole strategy. This will skyrocket your visiting rates, conversions, user satisfaction, and, of course, your SEO rankings.
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Think of website support
When your website is completely ready to impress the world, it still needs to be taken care of.
First of all, CMSs get updated versions that make them more protected and feature-rich, so regular updates are part of success strategy.
In addition, regular performance and SEO audit, code review and actions like this are very useful for making your site work like a clock. You may also need new features to be added. So website support is necessary.
It is an awesome idea to choose a support team, which is the same as your development team, because they already know your website well. You are lucky — WishDesk is exactly the type of agency that offers web development and Drupal support.
To recap
Just six steps divide you from something amazing. You can take the first one today! Contact web development agency and let’s begin with the choice of CMS, and then the other steps will follow. Share your idea, expect the best and fulfill your dreams!
