You’re starting a business. Paperwork, finances, accountant, office, laptop. Amid the flood of tasks, at some point the idea of creating a company website will also come up.
How to approach it to avoid unnecessary mistakes? What should you remember to make the site fast, secure, and effective? And does having one even make sense?
All about that today!
Before you commission a company website
First, ask yourself if you really need a website. For most businesses, the answer is „yes,” but simply having one shouldn’t be the goal.
Consider what role your website should play. It’s best to define this in one short sentence. No black magic involved.
The goal might be acquiring new clients, enabling contact with the company, showcasing services, or providing a product catalog. Choose the most important one and keep it in mind throughout the design process.
Why have such a goal? Primarily, it helps make decisions easier and maintain consistency. Instead of adding features just because „it would be cool to have them,” you’ll focus on solutions that truly help the site fulfill its purpose.
This way, you won’t wake up after a few months realizing the site looks impressive but lacks essential functions.
Creating a website – what do you need to prepare yourself?
Building websites for companies isn’t just about paying the invoice. Some work will be required from you as well.
You can entrust design, coding, and configuration to specialists. However, there are a few areas where your involvement will be necessary.
First and foremost, the content. No one knows your company better than you. You know how it started, what it does, and what sets it apart from competitors. So you need to provide the contractor with information about your offer, services, team, and contact details.
This doesn’t mean you have to write all the texts yourself. You can hire a copywriter to prepare them, but someone still needs to provide the right information and verify the final materials.
Also think about photos, because a website isn’t just about text. Some images can be sourced from stock photo libraries, keeping proper licenses in mind. However, if you want to showcase your own team, office, or products, it’s worth organizing a professional photo shoot.
Materials given to the designer should be as high quality as possible, organized, and free of obvious errors. The better you prepare them upfront, the fewer corrections and misunderstandings will arise later.
The contractor may also ask you to specify preferences regarding the site’s appearance and functionality. That’s why it’s worth collecting links and screenshots of websites you like during the initial brainstorming stage.
They don’t have to be entire websites. Sometimes a unique way of presenting an offer, an interesting animation, or a well-designed contact form is enough.
As you can see, even for the client, creating a website means several, sometimes dozens of hours of work. It’s important to be aware that the quality of the materials provided will also affect the final result.
Target Audience
The next step is to define the target audience. Why? To know exactly who you are addressing your offer to.
We write differently for teenagers than for CEOs of large companies. Different information will interest young parents than those looking for accounting services.
The target audience influences not only the communication style but also the website’s appearance, choice of images, and content presentation.
For example, if we target people less familiar with technology, simple navigation and clear instructions will be especially important. However, this doesn’t mean younger users need a more complex site. Intuitive usability benefits everyone, regardless of age.
It’s also worth considering what your audience is searching for online. Someone typing „websites Gdynia” into Google is likely looking for a local provider. Meanwhile, someone searching „how to create a company website” primarily wants information. This is a good example of how different needs can hide behind seemingly similar queries.
Let’s also choose appropriate photos. Are we targeting young parents? Show situations they can relate to instead of a random man in a suit. Are we in the culinary field? Make sure visitors can enjoy our dishes visually.
Website Design Step by Step
Proper preparation and a solid foundation are half the success. Now that we know why we’re creating the site, who it’s for, and what materials are needed, it’s time to focus on technical aspects.
Whether you’re ordering a simple website for a small business or a complex site with many features, some principles remain unchanged.
You don’t need to know programming or server administration. However, it’s good to know what to look out for and what to expect from the developer.
Domain and Hosting for a Business Website
A website consists of files, data, and code that together create a functioning site. To be accessible online, we primarily need two things: hosting and a domain.
Hosting is a service that provides space and server resources where the website runs. A domain is its address, e.g., twojafirma.pl, which allows users to easily find it.
Simply put, hosting can be compared to the building where our company is located, and the domain to the address leading to its door.
What should a domain be like? Above all, easy to type, read, and remember. It’s good if it includes the company name and doesn’t require spelling explanations every time you give someone the address.
It's worth considering this choice carefully, as changing your domain after several years of operation can be troublesome.
First, the domain often also serves for company email. Changing it means updating email addresses, informing clients, and ensuring messages sent to old addresses still reach you.
Second, the website address appears on business cards, flyers, packaging, advertising materials, and social media profiles. Updating these involves extra costs and unnecessary hassle.
There's also the SEO aspect, meaning the site's visibility in search engines. Over time, the domain builds history, backlinks, and recognition among users. The name alone won't guarantee high Google rankings, but changing it later requires proper migration and redirects, sometimes causing temporary visibility fluctuations.
That's why it's best to choose your domain once, and choose it well.
Also remember that domains are usually registered for a set period and need regular renewal. Make sure it's registered to you or your company, not to the private account of your website developer.
Fast website – why does it matter?
Emphasize to your designer that the site simply needs to be fast. A striking design is important, but it won't help if users leave before the site loads.
How to ensure proper performance?
- Choose the right hosting. Don't base your choice solely on the lowest price. A simple website for a small business will have different requirements than a complex online store or a portal with thousands of users.
- Optimize images. Provide the contractor with high-quality materials, but ensure that the images on the site have the correct dimensions, compression, and format. In many cases, modern formats like WebP or AVIF work great.
- Don’t overdo the functionality. Every additional plugin, animation, or complex widget should be evaluated for actual usefulness and impact on performance.
- Apply the „less is more” approach. The goal isn’t to make the site boring, but to avoid harming it with excessive effects and unnecessary frills.
It’s also worth asking the contractor to check the site’s performance on computers and smartphones, for example using Google PageSpeed Insights.
Remember, however, that the test result isn’t everything. The most important thing is that the site runs smoothly during real use.
SSL Certificate
About the SSL certificate, or more precisely the HTTPS secure connection, you need to know one thing above all: it’s an essential element of a modern website.
HTTPS encrypts data transmitted between the user’s browser and the server. This makes it harder to intercept or modify the data during transmission.
How to check if a site uses such a connection? Its address should start with https://, and the browser should not display security warnings about the connection.
In the past, a padlock icon next to the address bar was a typical indicator. Today, not all browsers use this symbol, so it shouldn’t be treated as the sole indicator.
Importantly, the certificate itself does not guarantee that the site is fully secure. It does not replace updates, proper configuration, or protection against attacks.
Mobile Version
Many people will visit your site from a smartphone, not a computer. That’s why the mobile version is no longer an add-on but a fundamental part of a well-designed website.
Make sure its development is included in the scope of work and contract with the contractor.
Today, the standard is the RWD (Responsive Web Design) approach, which means designing responsively. It involves adapting the layout and appearance of the site to the device’s screen size.
This way, the same website can work comfortably on a computer monitor, tablet, and smartphone without maintaining multiple independent versions.
However, it’s not enough that all elements fit on a small screen. Buttons must be easy to tap, text readable, and navigation intuitive.
It’s also worth ensuring proper contrast, text size, and accessibility for users with different needs.
Moreover, Google primarily uses the mobile version of the site’s content for indexing. Therefore, a well-prepared mobile version matters both for users and the site’s visibility in search results.
Privacy Policy
If your site processes personal data, you must properly inform users about the rules of its processing.
In practice, this applies to a large portion of company websites, as data can be collected through contact forms, booking systems, newsletters, or analytics tools.
The information obligation is most often fulfilled through a privacy policy. The document should reflect the actual operation of the site and indicate, among other things, who processes the data, for what purpose, on what basis, and what rights users have.
Cookies and similar technologies are a separate issue. Not every cookie requires consent, but using those that are not essential for the site’s operation, such as for advertising or many analytical purposes, generally requires prior consent.
Simply displaying the message „This site uses cookies” is therefore not sufficient.
It’s worth consulting the documentation with a lawyer or using an appropriate tool, keeping in mind that an automatic generator does not know all the details of how your site operates.
Security and Backups
Your site must be properly secured. This is not only about protection against hackers but also against common errors, failures, or accidental data deletion.
Start with passwords. Access to hosting, company email, admin panel, and other services should be protected by long, unique passwords.
Do not use the same password for multiple accounts. The easiest way is to store them in a password manager, such as Bitwarden. Where possible, enable two-factor authentication (2FA).
Security also means regular backups.
Make sure your site is automatically backed up, including both files and the database. The frequency should depend on how often the site’s content changes.
Importantly, at least one backup should be stored off the server where the site runs. Otherwise, a serious hosting failure could leave you without the site and the ability to restore it.
A good solution is to keep backups in two independent locations. It’s also worth occasionally checking if you can actually restore a working site from them.
Because a backup that cannot be restored is of little value.
Final Touches
Before your site goes live, test it thoroughly.
Check that all buttons and links lead to the correct places. Send a test message through the contact form and make sure it reaches the recipient.
Review the site on a computer and smartphone, preferably in several browsers. Pay attention to text readability, image quality, element display accuracy, and loading speed.
Also check if search engines can index the site, if no test content remains, and if all basic settings are correctly configured.
It’s also a good idea to share the site with a few friends. People who weren’t involved in the design often spot issues invisible to the developer and owner.
Website maintenance and updates
Launching the site doesn’t mean you can forget about it completely.
The site requires regular technical care. If it uses a content management system like WordPress, its software, theme, and plugins need to be updated.
It’s also worth monitoring site availability, managing backups, and occasionally checking that all features still work correctly.
Not every update should be done without preparation. For major changes, it’s best to create a backup first, and for complex sites, test the update in a staging environment.
You can handle this yourself or delegate ongoing technical maintenance to the person who built the site.
Remember that your website should grow alongside your business. Update your offerings, contact details, and any information relevant to your clients.
In summary
A well-designed company website should be fast, secure, visually appealing, and above all, user-friendly. It doesn’t need dozens of animations or the most elaborate features to effectively serve its purpose.
The key is to prepare properly, clearly define your expectations, and ensure a solid technical foundation.
I hope these tips make the entire process more organized and much more enjoyable than working blindly.
Good luck creating your own corner of the Internet!
