More and more businesses have been moving online for quite some time now, and businesses buying a website has only accelerated thanks to COVID-19.
If you are thinking about buying a website from an agency, you may be feeling a little bit overwhelmed by the options out there and the process entailed, or maybe you’re just doing due diligence. Don’t worry, there is no need to panic, as we’re going to take you through everything you should expect when purchasing a website.
More than what you see on the screen
When you purchase a website, you’re not only getting the design you see in front of you. After all, a website consists of many intricacies that come together, ranging from setting up business emails to hosting your website effectively. This is why it makes sense to work with an agency that can handle everything for you.
Bespoke websites built by Creative Asset have all kinds of integrations to help businesses get the most out of their website, other than designing from scratch for the most optimised quality, we can employ our designers to create and update logos, illustrations, and source imagery that would best compliment your business website.
More often than not, a website is entwined with business emails through the domain of the website, so some tweaking to email settings might need to be made to ensure a smooth transition to a new website. It’s also worth noting the marketing opportunities you open your business up to by buying a website too. Websites by Creative Asset will always take into account SEO and other marketing optimisations as standard with a team of designers, marketers, and developers communicating on website design projects from start to finish.
Researching your business and your competition
When you buy a website, the agency you hire is always going to begin (or should always begin) by conducting thorough research. They need to understand your brand, your target demographic, and the sort of companies you are going to be coming up against. This is the only way they will be able to develop a site that enables you to stand out from the crowd and stand any chance of success online.
The researching process is the most crucial step in the web design process, without effective research the end result won’t perform optimally, so research at this early stage can go a long way in deciding the success of a web design project and should not be missed.
The limits in research lie with the quality of tools used to audit the industry and website, and expose opportunities. It pays to have great informative tools that offer amples of data and insight into websites, and I’m pleased to say Creative Asset has access to a huge suite of advanced tools for research.
A website host is needed
You can’t have a website without a host. A web host provides the technologies that are required to make your website live and viewable.
Sites are stored on servers, which are special types of computers. When someone wants to view your website, their computer will connect to the server and deliver the webpages to them. So, without a site host, no one can view your website, as it won’t be online.
Domain name registration
You will also need to register a domain name too, which is the URL that people type into the search bar to view your website. You can often get both as a package – along with emails too. When you buy a domain it gives you an address on the internet where you can put a website.
Setting up corporate email addresses
Your web design agency will also make sure that your business is easy to contact and that your corporate emails are in line with your URL and company name so that everything is consistent.
This is imperative in terms of professionalism and performing well on the Google search result pages. It also adds legitimacy when a web user wants to contact the business via email, giving users confidence that would otherwise not contact.
Ensuring your site is secure
Sadly, there are a lot of scams and unscrupulous suppliers going around at the moment. Consumers are warier than they ever have been, and rightly so.
You need to put their mind at ease by having a secure website that protects their personal data.
This includes using HTTPS and secure payment gateways, as well as having a clear yet comprehensive privacy and security policy.
If using user generated content for comments or third-party reviews, you may want to add moderation features to your site to ensure content is approved for publishing.
On some eCommerce sites and sites that require a login for member areas, it’s important to encourage users to generate strong passwords and usernames to protect their data. It can be useful to add restrictions on the lower character limit for passwords, as well as, requiring numbers and symbols.
Branding and professionalism
Your website should be the perfect representation of your brand; it needs to be professional while conveying your personality at the same time.
Consistency is key in establishing a brand, ensuring that you have a consistent message across all platforms.
When designing a website we can use existing branding, revamp your branding whilst having the same feel, or design a completely bespoke branding scheme for your website. Hidden science behind our branding is research once again; Finding the right feel for your business personality coupled with the right design choices for your industry.
Your branding will also play a key role in marketing your website effectively online no matter the marketing tactics you choose to use.
What kind of website is needed?
Depending on the kind of business you run, your website might need different features. An eCommerce website is a site built for the purpose of buying and selling online. This can be built exclusively to sell products or you may want to add a shop page to what will be a largely brochure website.
Now, a brochure website is what’s considered a standard business website. It’s purpose is to showcase the range of services you offer and encourage enquiries through the website, without any eCommerce features.
There are no limits to any website we build no matter if it’s brochure or eCommerce. We can add advanced booking features, layered with other integrations a business might need there website to host – so speak to us if you need a bespoke website or integrations you need done professionally.
Owning a website
As a website owner or webmaster, you’ll be in charge of updating the content on your website using a CMS or content management system. A CMS like WordPress, or Shopify, makes it easier for users to add images, content, pages, and posts to their website.
It is a good idea to get familiarised with the back end (the CMS) of your website if you’re wanting to make regular updates yourself. If you’re looking for a “already taken care of” website maintenance then we also offer this as an extra.
Creative Asset websites have Google Analytics installed to help you track your users to make business decisions, as well as, monitoring servers to ensure websites are always live for your online business.
Website Redesign
For already established websites, a website redesign can bring outdated, under-performing sites up to scratch and having your online presence performing well again. Changing a website is a different process than starting from nothing. A businesses online presence that is already established needs to be protected and improved upon, not damaged. That’s why careful mapping for URLs and content will need to appear on the new website for the benefit of search engines.
Contact us for more information on buying a website
If you have any questions about buying a website or are interested in buying a site, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us for more information. Building a website is a lot of time and effort, with processes in place to consider everything important when bringing a website together.
