Am I finished? Should I hit publish? These questions plague our customers and website owners everywhere before turning on their website for the first time. While making changes on your site is quick and easy, having a checklist of essential components is a great idea to make sure you’ve covered your bases. I encourage you to watch my recent webinar about the 10 Things Every Great Website Needs. Below are some highlights.

1. Contact Information and Contact Page: Don’t make your customers hunt for contact information on your website. Make it the first thing they see! Add your phone number and contact info to your footer for easy access. Plus, make sure your Contact Page has all your pertinent info!

2. Logo: Make you branding apparent with a logo! This will provide your customer with your name and branding immediately! This visual representation of your brand is essential.

3. Easy Navigation: Make sure your menu/navigation items are in a font and color that is easy to read and access. One great tip for this is to keep your top level navigation items to seven or less.

4. Branding Color: Does your logo have an obvious look or color scheme? Incorporate that throughout your website! The colors of your logo and website are just as much a part of your brand as the name itself.

5. Streamlined Portfolio: Display your BEST work! No Filler. No Fuss. We recommend 8-12 images on the home page and 10-15 images per gallery.

6. Comprehensive Bio Page: Take the opportunity to talk yourself up! You are your brand! Talk about your education, inspiration, and philosophy, and what makes you unique or sets you apart from your competition. Also be sure to keep it short and sweet, you can lose your customers by making them scroll!

7. Social Media and Blog Links: Facebook, Twitter, and your Blog can be fantastic tools to help boost your web presence. Don’t forget to link these to make it easy for your customers to interact with you.

8. Basic SEO: Have you put in a website title, web description, and some basic keywords under the Search Engine icon? They can all help improve your search engine ranking!

9. HTML Mirror: Make your site accessible anytime, anywhere! If you have a Flash Portfolio Site, an HTML Mirror will help your site be seen on mobile devices everywhere.

10. Customizations: Your PhotoBiz site comes with great customizations like backgrounds, color shifting, and captions. Utilize these to make your site really stand out, and reflect your brand!

Follow these ten steps and be confident when you hit that Publish Button!