From Concept to Website

You’ve decided to create a website to market your products or services. More and more people start their information searches online, so having a website is the logical next step. But without web development skills or knowledge, how do you build and market a website?

To help you bring your business online, we’ve laid out these steps for you:

The website concept

• Choose and register a domain name
• Write a site outline
• Get a website template

The website

• Write your website content
• Make your website user friendly
• Put together an e-commerce system
  

The online presence

• Choose a web host
• Set up your website

Market your website

1. The website concept:

Choose and register a domain name

Your domain name should represent your business and be easy to spell and remember. Your company name is the obvious choice, but if the name is long, you may want to use a shortened version of it.

The domain name extension is the part that comes after the main part of the name and the dot. Dot com (.com) names are the most popular for businesses. If your business is specific to a country outside the US, a country-specific extension helps show this. Country-specific domain extensions have rules relevant to the country they represent, such as that you’re a resident of that country or have a registered business in that country.

To find out if a domain name is available, go to Whois Source or the domain name registrar of your choice. Whois Source has a name spinner tool, which suggests variations of a name if the one you want is taken.

Once you choose a domain name, register it as soon as possible with a low price domains provider. It might not be available the next day. Be sure to renew it before it
expires — your company identity will become linked with this name.