Your Checklist Before Starting A Website Project

Developing a website (especially business website) is like building a store outlet, is more than just putting in photos and text into webpages. It's required strategy, research, data gathering, and a whole lot of fun stuff to do.  A good website must be well planned from the beginning. So, before you jump into all the excitements in starting your new website, here are the checklist you should look into.

1. Domain Name
   Choose a name that easy for people to remember and decide wisely whether you will use .com, .net, or something else. Once you got it, check the availability of the domain name you wanted.
2. Hosting Server
   When it comes to choosing a hosting provider, go with reliable partner. Look into how much capacity they offered and compare it to your need.
3. Technology
   Technology to use in your website, HTML5, CSS3, PHP, JQuery, Javascript, etc. You might be a tech-savvy and wanted to go with the newest technology, but put in mind that some people out there might not have what it takes to display your high-tech website.
4. Purpose
   Defined what is the purpose of your website, is it for your business information, company profile, e-commerce, etc.
5. Layout & Color
   Color effects the feel of your website. Neat layout is always preferred. But most important, choose design that mostly represent your business brand.
6. Sitemap
   Arrange your website navigation structure. You can always use flow chart for structuring your navigation sitemap.
7. Content
   Your website has to provide a good and informative content to the users. Target certain keywords to rank-up in search engine. Remember that content like pictures, videos, etc have influence on how fast the website can be loaded.
8. Audience
   You have to know who your audience are, then you can build contents that attract them.
9. Advertisement Banners
   Don't put too much advertisement in your website. If it is not necessary, don't put it there.
10. Pop Up Message
    Prevent pop up messages. It is the most annoying type of advertising, slow to load, and sometimes can be so hard to close it.
11. Attractive Design
    Good website should be simple, yet professional. Create a website that not only provide information. Use all design aspect to create amazing experience for your website visitors.
12. Buttons
    Make an eye catching buttons and 'Call for action' button like buy now or download now. Try using bright colors to highlight your buttons from the rest of website contents.
13. Background
    You can choose from a clean look, colorful look, or you can consider patterned background too. The new trend indicates more and more use of full screen photos for background, but keep in mind for how it will influence the loading time of your site.
14. Image
    Choose image carefully as it will create a lasting impression for everyone, so you want it to be good and memorable.
15. Easy Navigation
    Carefully arrange and structurize your navigation. Make sure that users can easily find what they are looking for. Remember, no one like to be lost in a website :)
16. Unique
    There a tons of good websites out there, do whatever it takes to make yours stand out from the other.
17. Fresh
    Keep your website up-to-date to keep visitors coming back.
18. Optimized
    A good website has to be search engine friendly. It means it is easy to find your website in the search engine. The first place to start your entire Search Engine Optimization (SEO) action will be right there in your website. Make use of title page, meta tagging, and keywords in content to boost your search engine indexing and ranking.
19. Cross Browser
    There are many web browser tools in the market nowadays, and each has it own technical aspects. A good website has to be able to be viewed properly across all types of modern browser. These are some of the major browser: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, Opera, etc.
20. Screen Resolution
    Formerly, web design made 980px in width. But as responsive web design is getting more and more popular, a site can be designed up to 1230px in width, or fit into the 360px in width for smartphone screen.
21. Social Media
    Integrate social media into your website to facilitate easy content sharing. This is what we cal the 'mouth-to-mouth marketing'
22. Typography
    Choose your typography. Legible font is definitely important. You don't want people to squint their eyes when reading your text.
23. Registration
    Some website required for registration. If your visitors are also need to register to interact with your website, give them the advantages when they do. Respect their privacy and information they submit to you.
24. Tracking & Analytic
    Launching a new website is like growing a plant. You need to keep an eye on it. Set your goal, adjust during the process, and watch it grow big. Tracking and analytic tools will help you to monitor and optimize your website during the process.
25. Provide Security
    Visitors have to feel safe when they leave their information in your website. Especially when they have to register their contacts details or credit card number.
26. Footer
    Footer may not be the main thing in a website, but with a well-designed footer, you can impress your visitors.