How to set up a website

1. 1 Set your objectives, for example, marketing to existing or potential customers, providing product and sales support, making direct sales or recruiting employees.
2. 2 Your objectives should be SMART - specific, measurable, agreed, realistic and time-limited.
3. 3 Look at competitors' and other websites to generate ideas; draw-up an outline of what you want your site to include.
4. 4 Assess your technical requirements: for example, how large the site will be, potential number of visitors and whether it will use any special technologies, including product ordering and secure payment.
5. 5 If setting up a trading site, obtain merchant status allowing you to accept credit and debit card transactions; assess legal and liability issues.
6. 6 Check all in-house and outsourced back-up resources: dispatch and delivery, customer support, stock control and replenishment.
7. 7 Confirm your Internet service provider (ISP) will be suitable for hosting your site; check costs, and the process for publishing and maintaining web pages.
8. 8 Source any technical or web design consultancy you need; ask for references and evidence of successfully completing similar projects. Make sure that design or copyright is assigned to you.
9. 9 Establish design guidelines in keeping with company style; aim for visual clarity and easy navigation; avoid complex graphics which are slow to download; consider developing a site which allows users to access a text-only version.
10. 10 Consider accessibility issues for disabled users and ensure compliance with the Equality Acts 2006 and 2010.
11. 11 Register your desired domain name, for example your company name or your product. Keep it short.
12. 12 Build the site ensuring that ths site is search engine optimised, for example that pages include appropriate keywords, meta tags and page descriptions to help search engines list them.
13. 13 Test the site, using different versions of various browsers, to ensure that the design looks right, pages download quickly and page links work.
14. 14 Assess the site's appeal and ease of navigation; ask employees and key customers for feedback and suggestions.
15. 15 Launch the site; register it with numerous search engines to make it easy to find, and identify other sites you can link to and from.
16. 16 Promote the site: by emailing target customers, for example; include its address in your letterhead, brochures and traditional advertising.
17. 17 Monitor usage and how effective the site is at achieving its aims.
18. 18 Keep the site up to date; add new, time-critical material, particularly on the home page, to keep visitors coming back.

Cardinal rules