8 Questions to Ask Before Building Your Website

Whether you’re a new start-up or an experienced business owner, you can’t escape the fact that your digital presence is the key to your success. According to Bright Local, 93% of US consumers search online for local businesses, like nearby gyms and fitness studios.

Are you ready to build your website? While the process of building a website may seem simple, there are several questions to ask yourself before you launch your site. What questions should be top of mind?

1. Why build a custom website?

You have less than three seconds to make an impression if you want to stand out on the web. Since 94% of first impressions relate to your site’s design, a custom-designed website will build your credibility, keep visitors on your site, and keep them coming back. On the contrary, it may look like you’re running a scam if your site is poorly designed.

Rather than fitting your entire business vision into a template, your brand will be much stronger when your website is visually appealing and unique, including your style, logo, fonts, and colors.

2. What’s needed to build a website?

Building a website may sound like a big task, and it is, but with the right plan it can be easy.  Here’s a quick checklist to get you started:

• Define the purpose of your website. Is it to sell products online? Or do you want clients to book your services? Maybe you want an online platform that allows clients to livestream or watch videos online?
• Choose a CMS or a website builder. Decide whether you will purchase everything you need—like a domain name, hosting, and SSL certificate—separately or bundle it all together.
• Get a domain name. This is the address for your website. In this example, WellnessLiving is the domain name: https://www.wellnessliving.com
• Select a host or website builder subscription. Next, you need a host—a service allowing you to store your content online.
• Write your content. Start with writing the basics for your home page, pages about your services and staff, a schedule, class and pricing information, and an online store.

3. How do you build a responsive website?

A fully responsive website allows for optimization on all devices—whether it’s a laptop, desktop, smartphone, or tablet—ensuring your leads and clients have the best possible digital experience with your business. According to Unbounce, approximately 70% of consumers say that page speed impacts their decision to make an online purchase. With every additional second of loading time, your website conversion rates will drop by an average of 4.42%.

A responsive design is also crucial for SEO as Google penalizes websites not optimized for mobile devices. What should you consider with your responsive website?

• A fluid grid that responds to the size of the screen.
• Touchscreen compatibility.
• What elements to include or leave out on smaller screens.
• Rules to determine how your images are handled on different screens.

4. How will you attract an audience to your website?

It’s not enough to have a website with all the bells and whistles—you need your audience to find it. Generating traffic and leads is by far the biggest challenge business owners face year after year.

The solution is implementing a content marketing strategy to target your audience, promote awareness, and establish expertise. What types of content should you include?

• Blogging: A well-optimized blog has the potential to boost leads by an average of 67%. Publish regular blog posts between 1,000 and 2,000 words to attract new visitors to your website.
• Gated content: Conversion rates for gated content can be as high as 45%, leading to more visitors submitting their information. Add value to your audience with ebooks, nutrition guides, workout templates, infographics, or on-demand videos.
• SEO (Search Engine Optimization): Search engines love businesses that publish high-quality content, and SEO can help your website rank higher. Some key SEO elements include your page title, meta description, and URL. You will also need to research the right primary (common) and secondary (niche) keywords to bring the right audience to your website. Ubersuggest and SEMrush offer free keyword tools to help.
• Social media: With 4.5 billion people on social media, engaging on multiple social channels—from Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn—is a prime strategy for attracting high-quality traffic to your website.
• Video marketing: In 2021, people spent an average of 5 hours a day watching online videos. You can create short previews of your classes, introduce your team, or share video testimonials. For more, check out our handy guide to video marketing.

5. What is better: a website builder or WordPress?

WordPress is the most popular website creation platform on the market. There are two options—WordPress.org and WordPress.com. Often people confuse these platforms, leading them to choose the wrong one.

• WordPress.org is an example of a CMS (content management system)—a free platform where all your content and files are stored and everything from your domain name, hosting provider, and SSL certificate must be purchased separately.
• On the other hand, WordPress.com is a type of website builder, where everything is built right in with a monthly or yearly subscription.

CMS platforms and website builders both have pros and cons. Certain website builders work well for bloggers, but they are not optimized for performance and security and hosting issues may have a negative effect on your SEO. While a CMS gives you more flexibility to grow your website.

6. Who can build a website for my business?

From Wix to Squarespace to WordPress.com, there are so many website builders available that promise a fully functional site built in hours.

Alternatively, you could hire a website designer to build a WordPress.org site, where you’ll need to find a host and security tools, integrate for SEO, add all the right plug-ins, and more, just to get the website up and running.

WellnessLiving’s Presence™ custom website builder offers the best of both worlds. We fully integrate your website with WellnessLiving’s store, booking, scheduling, and review and lead capture widgets. You also get:

• Built-in blogging, enhanced SEO, and a Google integration with Google Analytics
• Custom domain and hosting
• A secure client portal, security threat detection, and SSL/TLS certificates
• Data encryption for your protection
• Cloud storage capabilities
• Optimization for every device

7. How much does it cost to have someone build you a website?

Depending on your business needs, most professional websites can cost as little as $500 or as much as $10,000. With WellnessLiving, we offer a free site audit and diagnostics, waived set up costs, and special monthly pricing. Plus, you get the first three months free.

8. What is the average time to build a website?

From start to finish, it can take three to four months to complete a website when working with a web designer. From initial development, content creation, and revisions, it can take time to achieve the final product. Other all-access website builders promise that you will go live in 24 to 48 hours, however most of these platforms aren’t optimized for success. What about WellnessLiving? Our quick and efficient turnaround will have you up and running in as little as five weeks.

Time to enhance your digital presence

You need a website that is fully optimized and integrated with your business management software. WellnessLiving’s Presence™ website builder can help you create a site with everything you need to drive traffic and high-quality leads to your business. Want to learn more about our website builder? Book a free, no-commitment demo today.