Building your website or online store Te waihanga i tō pae tukutuku, i tō toa ipurangi rānei

There are many platforms that make it easy to create your own website. However, you may need to get extra help from an agency or a freelancer. 

Do your research and consider a platform that offers:

• the ability to create, edit and publish your own content
• good support
• strong security features
• good point-of-sale solution
• the ability to collect and analyse your customers’ data easily
• support for growth.

Make sure your platform suits your ideal customers and the device they use.

A domain name is a unique and simple name that identifies an internet site. It should be easy to remember and reflect you well. It could be your business name or a keyword related to your business.

1. Understand domain names.
2. Check your business name with ONECheck.
3. Register the name with an authorised registrar.
4. Get a matching email address.

Make sure your site is secure by enabling HTTPS on every page. This means your web traffic is encrypted, preventing anyone from accessing or changing any information that should be private.

Create categories on your website to help your customers find what they need. Keep categories simple and name them in obvious ways. 

You’ll need at least these pages:

• homepage 
• about page 
• product pages 
• contact page 
• returns and exchanges page 
• deliveries page.

Follow these tips for creating good content:

• Use good-quality images and avoid generic stock photos.
• Escribe your products fully but keep it short. Avoid jargon.
• Focus on the benefits your customer will get from your business.
• Only include a news page or a blog if you can update it regularly.
• Add videos to showcase how products work.
• Think about common questions people ask and answer them. Make the answers easy to find.

Link your website with social media to:

• keep your customers engaged
• build an audience for your social media
• improve your search rankings
• let your customers recommend your products or services to their friends and followers.

Use web analytics to understand how customers are using your website. You can use this information to measure your performance and improve your site. Your website provider may have in built analytics you can use or you may choose to access another provider, like Google Analytics.

To make sure your customers find you easily online, adapt your web content so you show up higher in search results. This is called search engine optimisation.

You might need professional help to understand and use this properly, but you can start using these techniques:

• Include words and phrases customers are likely to search for.
• Regularly add fresh content, like customer reviews or blog posts.
• Add videos.
• Encourage customers to share your content on social media.
• Get other businesses to link to your site, and link back to them.
• Make sure pages load quickly.