Website Foundation: 5 Things to Consider Before Starting Your Site

No matter how big or small a website or blog might be today, what they all have in common with each other is that at one time it was their very first day and they started with nothing. Starting a website of blog of your own can be an exciting and scary time. Exciting because there is a world of opportunity just waiting for you, and scary because many people simply don’t know how or where to get started. The good news is that there are many different online resources and guides to help you along the way. What most site owners don’t realize is that the pre-planning and actual launch of their site is the most important time and area that they should be spending their focus. Just like building a house, you want to make sure a solid foundation is in place, and that you don't start working on all the fancy areas of the house until the groundwork is secure. This is the same type of mentality you will need to have when starting a site of your own. There is nothing sexy about these simplistic and minimal initial steps, but they will make the biggest difference in the world when you are trying to grow out your content and establish a following in the coming weeks. To see a full visual breakdown of this process, I recommend you take a look at this 5 Steps to Starting a Successful Web Site infographic. In addition to the infographic source, I've also broken down the five simple steps below for every would-be site owner or blogger should look through and consider before actually launching their site. 1 - Plan for the Launch of Your Site The planning phase of your site is so important because it’s the foundation on which your site will lay. Just like a house needs to have a solid foundation and plans in place before getting built, a web site or blog needs to have the same. Your initial site planning should include the niche focus of your site, how you are going to create content and why people will find value in your site. 2 - Build Your Site with Purpose Once you have an idea for what type of site you want to create, it’s then time to start thinking about the content you would like to create for the site. It’s not just about creating more content to clutter up the internet, instead it’s about providing value and giving people reason to visit your site. In most cases, when people are online they are looking for information, to buy something or to be entertained. Which of these target audiences will your site cater to? 3 - Choose a Solid Hosting Platform Websites and blogs can be created in many different ways. WordPress is one of the most common methods for creating a site today. You can create a free site through services like WordPress.com or Blogger.com, or you can go the professional route and register your own domain name and premium hosting, then installing WordPress on your server to create and run your site. 4 - Pick a Domain Name that Represents Your Brand The domain name of your site should be easy to spell, memorable and also give your audience a good idea of what to expect from your site, without even being there. When coming up with a domain name for your site, you will likely need to get a big creative, as most of the original and exact match domain names are already taken. 5 - Publish and Go Live with Your Site The last step of pre-planning and launching your site, is to pull everything we mentioned together and actually going live with your site. With a domain name registered, web hosting setup and WordPress installed on your server, you are now ready to start posting content to your site. Moving forward you will need to keep creating content for your site, setup social network profiles, build backlinks to your site and eventually gain the trust of your audience and have a loyal following.