A website is your digital footprint online. When built correctly, it can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. That is why Pronto emphasizes the importance of creating a well structured site both visually and technically.
Before diving in and building your website, we’ve got a few things you need to know and think about.
Know What You Need
Ask yourself this:
What is the primary purpose of your website?
Is it to:
- Generate leads?
- Get direct sales?
- Make people aware of your products?
- Provide further information for interested buyers?
The answer will depend on whether you’re a new startup in the MSP industry or a well-established presence. It’ll also depend on what your company goals are and your level of digital marketing know-how.
For example – A local startup probably wants a combination of results. They’ll want to build local awareness of products, create interest, generate leads and make sales.
An established national MSP business may simply want to expand their number of leads and increase sales.
Knowing what you want relative to where your MSP business is right now will help you develop a sound overall strategy for your website.
Set Your Website Budget
Building a website can be expensive if you’re not careful, but remember, your site is an extension of your business.
That is why knowing your budget before getting started is extremely important.
“But how do I know what’s good or not?” Finding a trusted company that is completely transparent about their fees is crucial to ensuring you don’t get burnt in the process.
Create A Wireframe
Creating a wireframe is just a fancy way of saying “plan the layout” of your website.
It’s a visual schematic of what will appear on each page of your site. It’s more than just a handy outline. A wireframe is a useful tool that helps you decide how to lay out various elements of the website to best achieve their purpose.
This will often be a collaborative decision between you and your web development team: developers, designers, and content writers.
Get Your Domain Name and Hosting Sorted
There is nothing worse than getting your MSP website designed and developed, only to remember that you’ve yet to register a domain name.
You want a domain name that fits your brand and includes your main keywords (if possible) without being too long.
It’s also important to find the right domain extension (eg., .com, .net, .org, etc.). The best option is a .com extension. They’re still the most widely used and easily remembered.
When it comes to hosting, choose a company that is easy to contact in case you have any troubles.
Plan Your SEO Ahead of Time
The best time to think about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is before your website is even built.
If you don’t, your website will go live missing crucial elements required to generate good rankings within the search engines.
Before you start thinking about SEO for your website, watch our SEO Fundamentals webinar to give yourself a head start.
Use the Google AdWords keyword tool to plan ahead which keywords you will target. Use the keywords you find to create your titles, maketags, and come up with content ideas.
For example, a local Ohio MSP business will want to rank for keywords relating to Managed Service Providers Ohio rather than just Managed Service Providers.
Making sure you have all your ‘ducks in a row’ before getting started is vital to building the ‘right’ MSP website.
If you’re going to build your MSP website by yourself, follow each of the steps we’ve outlined above for the best results.
If you use a freelancer to build your website, make sure you know exactly what you want and they understand the desired outcome.
To make this process MUCH easier, contact one of our Pronto Marketing Experts. We will guide you through the website building process. Our highly trained team have helped 1000’s of MSPs just like you. Become our next success story and schedule your free consultation here.
