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Home Technology Launching your first site in 2024? Here’s how to get it right first time.

Launching your first site in 2024? Here’s how to get it right first time.

by Jessica Weisman-Pitts
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iStock 1621547304

Launching your first site in 2024? Here’s how to get it right first time.

By Scott Jones, Founder and CEO of Illustrate Digital.

If you’re launching a new business in 2024, one of the first challenges any startup will face is how to design and build a website that truly says and does everything you need it to.

It goes without saying that the internet is an incredibly competitive place, more so than ever before, and having a site that not only stands out and grabs attention, but that adds value to your business and helps it to grow is no easy feat. Authored by Scott Jones, Founder and CEO of Illustrate Digital.

There’s no ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to websites, the focus for each business is entirely different and as such needs a carefully considered approach. With that in mind, here are the first things any startup owner should take into account before building a new website:

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1. What’s Your Website’s Purpose?

Before you even set fingers to keys, the first thing we need to take into consideration with a new site is what its purpose is going to be. Think both strategically and commercially – is the website there for credibility? To sell you, or to sell a product? Or is the website itself the product?

For example, if you’re opening a local coffee shop, your website is there to let people know how to find you, what you stand for, what times you open, maybe even to sell a few freshly ground bags of coffee. But the product is your physical location, the in-store experience.

On the flip side, if your website is the product, you might be launching a news site that focuses on the latest innovations in sustainability. You’re looking to make money from a mixture of donations and advertising revenue. You don’t do or sell anything else – your website is the experience you’re offering to your audience.

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Why is this important? Because it will determine how much time, effort and money you put into the website when getting started, what kind of platform you might need, and how much emphasis you need to put into creating a seamless user experience.

2. Build Mode vs Test Mode

Are you ready to really build your business, or are you testing the waters in a new market? The answer to this will help determine whether you start with something quick and easy to gauge interest, or go all-out on something that’s built to scale.

For example, if your brand is in test mode it could be a new protein supplement on the market and you want to find out how much interest there is in the product, and who your customers tend to be, before you double down. At this stage, a simple, non-fussy e-commerce site will do the trick.

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If you’re in build mode, you might be a boutique law firm – you know there’s a strong market demand in your particular region and area of expertise, and you now need to establish credibility and market yourself. In that case, you’ll need something more refined and considered to establish credibility and set you up for long-term success.

3. Choosing a Content Management System

Once you’ve established the above, you can make a wise, considered choice about your content management system (CMS).

For e-commerce brands, Shopify or WooCommerce are two of the easiest platforms to get started with, as well as allowing you to scale and grow. Both have a fairly low barrier to entry in terms of technical knowledge, both are popular and well-supported, and both have inexpensive models to help you get started. Select from a range of themes, and use drag-and-drop tools to build out your site.

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For everything else, for us, WordPress is often the most obvious choice. It’s used by over 40% of all website owners and for good reason. There’s a basic all-in-one option available which is an easy way to get started – you can pick from a range of themes and plugins, and build out your own site quite easily.

Or there’s the self-hosted option like WordPress.org, which is a little more complicated to get set up, but once you’re rolling, the flexibility and customisation gives you a great deal of freedom. For DIY websites, there are also options like Wix and Squarespace worth considering, too – more on this below.

4. DIY vs Agency

Another thing to think about when you’re choosing a CMS is whether you’re looking for a completely do-it-yourself approach, or whether you’ll need some help from a web agency. Again, this depends on the purpose of your site and whether you’re in a test mode or a build mode.

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If you think you’ll need something quite straightforward and you are confident with DIY, then there are a couple of options available. Platforms like Wix and Squarespace offer all the necessities you need for a simple, fuss-free site, or if you’d like something a bit more unique and tailored to your brand then using WordPress with an added drag-and-drop system like Elementor will help do the trick. You can pick from themes, install plugins to add extra features, and also design and build your own pages whenever you need them.

If you’re looking for help with a fully-fledged, optimised site, then you may want to consider having a custom theme developed by an agency. This will help create room for growth and help to prioritise performance and security.

The key thing either way is to decide whether this is right for you when getting started, and avoid overspending unnecessarily if you’re still exploring your potential market. There’s nothing wrong with going for the affordable, quick and easy option if you’re not sure your business model will work just yet – it’s all about knowing what the trajectory of the next year will look like.

5. To SEO or Not to SEO

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It might sound like an unnecessary question, but it’s actually an important one. Some brands will need to pay a lot of attention to SEO practices and dedicate their time to optimisation, whereas others require a much lighter approach. Determining where you sit ahead of time will save countless headaches down the line.

Many startups need to be very easy to find for specific keywords such as ‘gyms near me’ or ‘local chocolate makers’, and for this type of business, optimising as much as possible for Google (or your preferred search engine) will be paramount. Everything from the words you use to the speed that your pages load will have an impact on your SEO, and it’s worth paying due attention to these things if you have a brand that relies on search engines for visibility.

One thing is for certain, no matter what, you’ll at least want to show up for your own brand name when people Google it! With that in mind, my bonus tip is always to pick a name that doesn’t compete too hard for space at the top of the search engine.

In conclusion, preparation is key if you want to build and launch a site that stands out from the crowd and holds people’s interest.

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Our own study found that in 2023, consumers spend as little as 52 seconds on average browsing a website before they abandon it, so it’s important to get things right first time and make a good impression.

From content management systems to keyword optimisation, there are a myriad of things to consider before you launch a site that really ticks all the boxes. But if you think first about what you want your website to achieve, who’s going to be spending time on it and how changeable you need it to be, you’ll set yourself up for success.

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