To create a website you need to follow these four steps:

1. Register your domain name

   Your domain name should reflect your businesses name which ideally incorporates the product or service that you sell. This is so customers can easily find your business through a search engine.

   Your domain name should also be used for your businesses email address. It’s advised you use a domain name email address rather a free email service such as Hotmail as this looks more professional to customers and stakeholders.

   To register your domain name you will need to find an accredited registrar and pay a fee.  Accredited registrars are organisations who are authorised by auDA, the Australian domain name administrator, to provide services to people who want to register a new domain name, renew their existing domain name, or make changes to their domain name record.

2. Find a web hosting company

   To get your domain name on the internet you need to find a web hosting company and these can also provide you with multiple email addresses.

   You are likely to receive a monthly/quarterly fee for web hosting depending on how large your website is and how many visits you get.

3. Prepare your content

   Think about what content you want on your website and what will be relevant and interesting to your customers.

   This will help you map out a plan for the sections and pages you can include in your website.

   A website that is well designed and easy to navigate will help your business stand out and help your website rank higher on search engines. Remember it’s crucial for your website to be mobile friendly and a web designer can help you with this.

4. Build your website

   This is where you now decide whether to build your website in house, or have a professional design it. Remember that websites need to be kept up-to-date with frequent new information, so much sure you plan for ongoing maintenance.

   Having an optimised website means users on both desktops, smart phones and tablets will all be able to access and use your website with ease.

   Google has a free tool available to check if your website is mobile friendly – CLICK HERE.

Web development platforms

If you do decide to build your website in house, there are resources available that can help you design and develop a website. Web development and hosting services like Wix.com, Squarespace and Weebly provide free online platforms that allow users to build and customise HTML5 and mobile websites through dragging and dropping elements to a pre-built template. These platforms also allow custom plug-ins such as e-commerce, online marketing, contact forms and community forums to be incorporated depending on your business needs.

These online platforms typically require no cost to use, however a premium version is generally available for a monthly fee that comes with such features as personalised domain name creation, Google analytics, shopping cart and increased storage and bandwidth