Setting up your website

When you set up a website there are a number of things you need to consider to ensure that it is easy to find, that it is relevant for your target audience and that it delivers the outcomes you expect.

Firstly, there are marketing and strategic considerations such as:

• What is the purpose of your website?
• What messages do you want to communicate?
• What actions do you hope to elicit from visitors?

It is important that the reputation that you have developed in the physical world is reflected and enhanced by your presence in the virtual world. Similarly, it is important to remember that going online does not necessarily change your offering to your customers or members, donors and supporters.

Your organisation may wish to develop a digital strategy so that your website aligns with your organisation’s capabilities and objectives.

Secondly, there are some basic steps such as:

• choosing and registering your domain name
• finding a web hosting service.

Choosing and registering a domain name is a necessary step towards establishing a web presence. And just as you have an internet service provider (ISP) that provides you with access to the internet from your computer, you will need a service provider to host your website. ISPs often provide hosting services, but specialist hosting services can offer packages of additional resources such as domain name management and email integration.

Thirdly, there are design and development considerations including:

• how visitors will interact with—use and navigate—your site
• how you envision future development of the site, as well as ongoing content management and maintenance to ensure visitors have reasons to keep coming back.

Once you have registered your domain name and selected your hosting service, the next task is to design and build the website and prepare your content.