Corporate website creation

A website is the cornerstone of your online presence. If you want to be credible and visible, you cannot avoid having a company website. There are many types of websites, for example, there are sites presenting a company or a service, there are online stores, social media platforms, news sites and so on. In none of these cases should quality craftsmanship be compromised. In our blog post, we will show you why it is worth hiring a professional to do the job and the steps involved in the process of building a business website!

No matter what the industry is, a company website is now a basic prerequisite for competitiveness, a powerful marketing tool. If a company wants to reach more people, develop and grow, it cannot afford to stay offline. Customers are increasingly turning to the online space for information, and if they need any information, they turn to the internet.

If we have a good website, we can answer questions and serve needs. But if we don't have a company website or if it's of not good enough quality, potential customers will turn to competitors. This is so true that if the website does not load in 3 seconds, visitors will simply navigate away, and they will do the same if they cannot navigate the website or find the right information. The stakes are therefore high, so you need to strive to come up with the best website possible.
There are two ways to build a business website: either you can do it yourself or you can hire a professional to do it for you. In the following, we take a closer look at this issue!

Why hire a professional to build your business website?

Today, there are many solutions on the market that allow you to work with templates, so you don't need in-depth programming knowledge to build a basic business website. However, it is worth being careful with this. At first glance, it may seem that you can save a lot of money by taking control yourself, but if you look deeper into the issue, you will see that this is not always the case. 

Let's take a look at the dangers of developing a company website yourself!

Everything is great when there are no problems

You can learn the basics of website development in a relatively short time, but that doesn't mean you have years of experience and routine behind you. It's like learning how to cut your own hair from internet videos during the COVID lockdowns. Yes, there's a chance it will look like the work of a professional hairdresser, but it's much more likely that it won't look anything like it. 

So the point is that you can put together "something" without any developer knowledge if you don't encounter any difficulties or problems, but if you do run into obstacles, your internet diving skills may be in short supply.

Limited options

If you work from a template, you have to be prepared for the possibility that the end result will not be perfect, and compromises will have to be made. The advantage of custom software development is that you get exactly the result you need. Templates, on the other hand, limit you.

Difficult repair, expansion

Without in-depth web development knowledge and experience, finding and fixing bugs can be a challenge, and so can upgrading. This can be particularly important later on, when you may need to make changes or improvements to your site.

It takes a lot of effort

When you start a business and want to save money, you tend to think that what you make yourself is the cheapest. In reality, however, it can be much more expensive. If you're not an experienced web developer, it will take much more time to build the site and that time will be taken away from business development. So instead of working to get the business moving so that you can get off to a smooth start, you're concentrating on getting a website done that a professional could put together much faster and more professionally.

The above shows that, despite appearances, in most cases it doesn't pay to go into website building yourself. Suppose you have decided to hire a website development company. Here are the steps you go through to get your company website ready.

What are the steps in creating a business website?

Building a business website is a process that can take a few weeks or months, depending on how complex you want your business website to be, how much time the website company can devote to the project and, last but not least, how smooth the communication is between the developers and the client.

Let's look at the process of building a company website!

Defining the objectives

A website can have basically four main goals: 

• Branding: to raise awareness of a new or existing brand.
• Contact: an introduction page that describes the company's services and products.
• Sales: selling a specific product and/or service online.
• Portfolio presentation: this type is most common in the arts. A platform where the artist presents his/her previous works.

The definition of the objectives will determine the type of website needed. Once this has been established, all elements should be placed on the site with this in mind. For example, in the case of a webshop, you will need to integrate payment options, but you may also need to track stock. It is essential to have a static website or a dynamic website, and to make sure that the end result is a responsive website.

Domain name and hosting

For a new business website, you will need both a domain name and a hosting space. The domain name will form the URL that will appear on all promotional material, email correspondence, business cards. It is advisable to choose a domain name that is short, easy to remember and relevant. It is good if the web address already shows what the company does, as this helps people searching the Internet to find their way around. A good solution is to include the brand name in the domain! You should also specify the suffix of the domain, this could be .com, .hu and many other options.

The domain you choose will need to be registered and you will also need a hosting space to store public data. These are essential administrative tasks, the good news is that if you work with a professional company, they will take care of everything for you.

Structure of the website

In most cases, websites do not consist of a single page. Each important area should have a sub-page, which can be accessed by navigating from the main page. The sub-pages should include services, products, the about us section can introduce the organisation, the team, it is good to include previous clients, references, case studies, a contact form and it is also good to have a blog where useful content and news can be shared with the audience.

Design

With the site map in hand, we can start putting together the design and creating the elements. Once the UX and UI are designed, we have a pretty clear idea of what the site will look like.

Content and SEO

Once the structure and design are in place, the copywriting can begin. SEO, or search engine optimisation, should be taken into account when creating the text content to help more people find the site. Quality content should not be compromised, the most important thing is to provide visitors with useful content.

Text is an important part of the content, but visuals, images, videos and graphics should not be overlooked. They structure the page and help understanding and improve the user experience.

Testing

Once all the content has been uploaded, you can start testing. You need to check that all pages work properly in different browsers. You need to click on every link, every button to make sure that the page works without errors.

Maintenance

Although web development ends with the testing and delivery of a website, in reality a site is never finished. It needs to be constantly updated, both in terms of content and technology.

At Meraki, we believe in strategy-driven website development, i.e. that a site should serve the interests of the customer and support sales. Click to see what websites we have created!