Three Crucial Factors to Consider Before Building a Business Website

Before you can truly get started with your new business, you are going to need a strong presence on the web – and a business website is the best place to start.

Today, it’s essential for businesses of all sizes and industries to have a professional website that can be visited by both potential and existing customers to find out more about the brand and access the services or products that you offer. Before you get started putting together your business website, here are a few key things to keep in mind.

Choosing a Business Name:

Your business name is not only how your brand is known to the outside world, but it also has a massive impact on the domain name of your website. You will need to keep your domain name in mind when naming your business, as one that seemingly has nothing to do with your brand could cause issues. The ideal domain name is the same as or at least as close to your business’s name as possible; this will make it easy for customers to remember along with looking professional. A .com suffix is ideal as this is the easiest to remember, but it may be worth considering a different one if .com is not available for your business name as a domain.
Look up business names in your state. For example, use a CA business search tool to see if any companies in California are using the same or similar name and avoid those – don’t inadvertently send your customers elsewhere.

The Website Design:

There are limitless options out there when it comes to web design, so it’s always worth having a plan in mind for how you want your site to look and feel. Whether you’re using a web platform to take the DIY route and put the site together yourself, or are investing in the services of a professional developer, the best way to do this is take a look at some websites that you like for inspiration. Bear in mind that today, less is certainly more when it comes to website design. Clean lines, white space and an easy-to-use navigation system on a fully responsive website is exactly what your clients will want.

Web Hosting:

Unless you are using an all-in-one platform that provides web hosting for your site as part of the package, this may be something that you will need to give some thought to when putting together your business website. Your choice of web host is incredibly important, as it will affect a number of key factors for your site such as bandwidth and load speed. Cloud hosting or dedicated server hosting tend to be the best options, as you will not be sharing the site with unlimited other websites on a server, therefore you’ll encounter less risk of downtime, slow load speed, and other problems that can pose a serious concern if they happen regularly when you’re trying to do business.
If you’re just getting started with a business website, keep these three factors in mind to get it off to the best start.