With the recent boom in e-commerce around the world, businesses are becoming more tech-savvy and leveraging online mediums to increase sales and better connect with their customers. Out of all the online platforms available, websites are the cornerstone. With a website you can consolidate key information about your brand, mission and service into an easy to understand digital format. Developing an effective website requires a certain skillset; ease of navigation, creative formatting, and advertising must be considered when creating a website. We’ve put together some tips to help with professional website development for your company.

1. Buy A Domain Name

Acquiring a domain name is the first step to starting your website. This might sound technical, but the process is rather simple. Look for a domain registrar online that can set up your website title and help you with customisations. The price point for a domain name will vary depending on which domain extension you choose. For example, a .org extension may cost more than a .com extension. Your registrar should explain the difference between each extension and help you choose which is better for your business. Domain names are valid for 12 months and must be renewed annually. When choosing a domain name, try to find a title that is marketable but not too generic. This will become one of the central components of your brand and will affect how positively your brand name interacts with search engines. You can learn more about how search engines and customer interaction work through a digital marketing course in Singapore. This allows you to integrate industry knowledge with your business goals to create an excellent website.

2. Select A Reliable Web Hosting Provider

Once you’ve acquired a domain name, the next step for the website development for your company is to decide on a web host. This is the company that provides the servers that store and power a website. There are a few key factors that will determine which host you select. Primarily, you’ll need to understand what your website is trying to do. If you don’t plan on selling products through your website, then going through a web host that specialises in this would not be necessary. It’s worth noting that many web hosts offer bundling or packages for businesses which would be a more cost-effective option for your enterprise. Regardless, the web host you choose should allow you to effectively and easily convey information to your customers online.

3. Maintain Your Webpages

Now that you’ve established the framework of your website, it’s time to think about the content. No matter what you’re writing, whether it’s a blog article, product description or ethos statement, it should use language your customers can understand. Additionally, all information should be regularly updated to avoid confusion and remain relevant. Blog articles that respond to current concerns in your industry are an effective way to generate content and remain relevant for your audience. But relevance is just the beginning of effective content-writing; you should constantly revise your content to see what works and what doesn’t. Over time, this will create a streamlined set of characteristics that you know work for your audience. Analysing what works for your customers can be complicated and although there are many free resources that walk you through tools like Google Analytics, a digital marketing analytics (GA4) course in Singapore will provide a helpful framework for businesses looking to optimise their online content.

4. Create The Main Pages

The main page is the digital equivalent of a storefront in Singapore; it’s the first impression many customers get about your attention to detail, branding, and organisation. It is essential, then, that the website design of your main pages reflect your brand and values and are engaging. Integrate images into your main pages to add visual dynamic, and choose key words and phrases to strategically highlight. This means the customer instantly sees key information and can direct their search from there.

The main pages of a website will generally include:

  • Home page
  • About page
  • Blog page
  • Contact us page

Each of these will use different strategies for optimisation according to the page function. Knowing how to effectively use these strategies will ensure your website becomes a platform for sales and customer interactions.

5. Upload Your Site

Now you’re ready to upload your professional website, but first you must choose the upload method. There are a few different options you can choose from here:

  • A File manager is a browser-based tool for website uploads. Perfect for less complicated sites, it has an upload limit of 256mb.
  • An FTP (File Transfer Protocol) which requires the user to download an FTP client. It has no size limit, but requires some technical knowledge which is covered in courses on website design in Singapore.
  • Automatic Website Importers have an upload limit of 256mb. These are sometimes integrated into your web host’s system so check when selecting your hosting provider.
  • WordPress migration plugins are an effective way to upload wordpress-based websites. Once the plugin is installed and activated, the upload process is rather intuitive. The upload limit will, in this case, depend on the hosting provider.

If these upload options sound complicated or too-technical, you’re not alone. There are many tutorials available online to help you through this process, choosing an e-commerce course in Singapore can help simplify this process by offering access to specialists who can guide you through the design and upload service.

Develop Effective Websites With @ASK Training

As we’ve stated, the information on starting up a website is already out there, but a digital marketing or e-commerce short course consolidates this vast information for you whilst providing access to professionals and specialists to answer your questions. @ASK Training Singapore is a leading professional development provider with courses on digital marketing, video production, Infocomm Technology (ICT) and more. We offer a range of flexible study options designed to fit around career and life commitments. If you’re interested in learning about website design with us, then sign up for a course today!

If you already have a website but would like to gain the skills needed to maintain and improve it, we have other courses that are suitable for you:

For more details, send an enquiry to our team where we can answer all of your questions.