You have now registered a domain name(s) and decided on your hosting company and hosting package.
Your next step is to plan out your website. You must ask yourself the following questions:
- What is the main purpose of my website?
It seems a simple question, do you want to:- To sell something, or
- To generate sales leads, or
- To make friends (then join Facebook!)
- What Type of website do I need ?
- Brochure type website (5-10 pages with text, images & contact form)
- Gallery type website (5-10 pages with text, images, product/portfolio listing & contact form)
- eCommerce type website (Full ecommerce website with facilities for categories, products & credit card payment facilities)
- Community website (you manage community business listings, forums, advertising)
- Bespoke website (Doesn’t fit neatly into any of the other categories listed previously – Requires custom design, layout & functionality – needs to be built to be flexible for future growth, if any!)
- What Web software should I use ?
- Open Source (no license fee) / PHP.
- Project with strong and active community support & development.
- One that’s easy to install, customise & understand!
- Friendly SEO urls – always a help!
- Flexible, templates ready.
- automatic paths to upgrade code, security patches etc.
- One with lots of “free” plugins, modules.