What You Want to Use the Website For
First, you must decide why you want a website. What do you intend to use the website for? For example, you want to use the website to sell your products and services, use it as an official online brochure where you show what you do and how people can contact you, and so on.
Second, does your website need essential features? Every website will have these pages: Home, About, Services/Shop, and Contact.
The About page contains information about your business, such as a description of your business, the business’s mission statement, and the founder.
The Services page gives a detailed description of each service you offer.
The Shop page is where all the products you are selling are listed.
The Contact page provides information about your physical location, phone number(s), email and other contact info. It can also have a form where your website visitors can fill out to send you a message.
The Home page is the landing page. It is what you see when your web address is entered. It gives a snapshot of your About, Services, or Shop pages.
In addition to these main pages, you may need special pages because of the nature of your business. For example, a construction company or an NGO’s website might need a Projects page where they display info and pictures of the projects they have done.
A fitness, dental, hair salon, and consulting website might need a booking page where prospective customers can book an appointment.
A church might need a donations page, prayer request pages, etc.
A school might need a gallery to display photos of the school, an online application page, etc.
Cost Considerations
The next thing to pay attention to is the cost of the website. Every website, irrespective of the web designer you use, has three cost components. The three things you pay for when designing a website for your business are the domain name (web address), hosting, and web design.
Domain Name: The domain name is what, in Ghana, we call the web address. For example, hostpeimu.com is my domain name/web address.
There is also a subdomain. A subdomain is one attached to a main domain. So, for example, business.hostpeimu.com is a subdomain because of business.
You can buy any of the following domain name TLDs:
Business: .com, .co,
NGO: .org,
eCommerce: .shop
Remember to choose a domain name(web address) that is short and easy to remember.
Hosting: Websites are files kept on computers called hosting servers. After buying your domain name, you have to buy a hosting package.
When it comes to hosting, I recommend Hostinger. When you buy a Hostinger package, they will give you your domain name (web address) for free for one year, 2 free email addresses, and so on.
Hosting is like renting an office for your business online. Buying a domain name is like registering a business with the Registrar General’s Department.
Just as you have to renew your rent and business registration annually, you must renew your hosting and domain name every year. That means every year, you will pay something for your website.
When it comes to the total cost of a website, I am not in favour of high web design fees. Anything above GHHC 3,000 is high. My reason 3is that a website is a support service, not the core business for most industries (e.g., construction companies, farms, and schools). So the price should not be high.
So you should keep costs reasonable unless you’re an online marketplace like Jiji or Jumia, where the website is the business itself.
Design Essentials
Mobile-First, Responsive Design: Today, many users browse on mobile devices, so your site must be optimised for them first. Many people use their phones to browse the internet, instead of their laptops or tablets. So with your web design, pay attention to how it looks on your phone.
E-Commerce Payment Integration:
If you are selling online, your website will need to have secure payment methods for seamless transactions.
When it comes to payment integration, I recommend Paystack. With their services, your customers can pay on your website with Mobile Money (all networks), VISA, MasterCard, Apple Pay, etc.
SEO and Security
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. It is about your website appearing in Google search results. Usually, after the final payment is made, is when I submit a website to Google to make it appear in their search results.
Security is protecting your website from hackers. Also, after final payment, I will install the security feature on the website so that a suspicious IP address can be blocked and will not be able to visit the website, that is if that IP address was seen as making attempts to hack the website