Getting started with your online presence

1) Define the type of site

The main types of websites we can have are:

• Showcase of a product or a company.
• Site based on a theme (a technology, an activity sector…)
• Educational site, containing tutorials.
• Software.
• E-commerce.
• Forum.
• Blog.
• Service.

The type of site will determine which tools to use, especially if you plan to use a content manager to facilitate the creation. Note that a forum, a blog or a directory can accompany a portal site, and this increases the number of visitors.

2) Choose the theme of the site and its audience

For optimal indexing by search engines and better positioning in the results, a site should be dedicated to a single, well-defined theme. The first step is to define exactly what the site will be dedicated to.
The audience for the site must also be well defined from the start.
In the same site, multiple themes is not desirable at least at the beginning. Conversely, it is not advisable to create several sites on the same theme, a single more complete site is preferable.

3) Choose a domain name

The name of the site can be assigned to a sub-domain, which is a directory at a hosting company, or a domain name. Take www.lightsoftit.com as an example. Choose a name that defines your business.

A name that is too long, with more than three significant words. A maximum of 9 to 13 characters is recommended.
Words without accents are not a problem, but if in the future accents become common, there will be a risk of competition, so it is important to think about this.

4) Choosing an accommodation

After doing all the previous steps, this one is very very important. The choice of a hosting is consequent on your business, it is your virtual location for your business. A good and secure hosting is the most recommended choice to make your best choices stand out. You should avoid hosting where you will have a repeated break in service of several hours. So ask for advice on where to stay to avoid a mishap.

5) Create content

Ask yourself a series of questions to avoid the site being judged as poor quality by the search engines as well as by the readers.

• Is the content original? (A search of the title and subtitles may be helpful).
  Your site must be different, add something more to what is already on the Web.
• Will people trust you when they read your pages?
  It depends on your references, but also on the details you can provide.
• Do you give visitors what they ask for?
  It might be useful to submit the site to third parties for their opinion.
• Will visitors want to read several pages, bookmark them, click on the Like or +1 button.
  This depends as much on the interest of the content as on the presentation, which is justified in the next section.

In summary, these steps are not exhaustive, there are still many things to observe to have a good product that is your website. It is advisable to be assisted in all your work and it is our role, accompany you to be autonomous in the management of your website.