Answer

  Introduction

In the present age, online presence of businesses has become an unalienable requirement, as most consumers source for information online, at the comfort of their homes and workplaces. According to the eCommerce foundation (Cai, He, Dai, & Zhu, 2018), approximately 88% of consumers resort to online searches before deciding on what product or service to purchase. This emerging trend has trounced the age-old methods of marketing such as the use of billboards, TV, radio, and the like (McDowell, Wilson, & Kile Jr, 2016). As such, the need for any business to have an interactive, well designed website cannot be overemphasized. Even as a business designs a website to promote its online presence, it is imperative that proper research on the essentials of website marketing and design is conducted, and best practices applied to come up with a platform that will direct consumers back to the business’ products/services (Ivanova, & Vītols, 2017). This paper proceeds to discuss the domain name, design features and structure, content, as well as marketing options for mindgymathletics.com, which is the proposed domain name for my Performance and Sport Advantage business.

Choosing a Domain Name

From the ancient times, people have always believed that names have a power of prediction, that quite definitely, a name given to a person or a thing/business ultimately serves a great deal in telling about what the subject stands for (Elias & Gima, 2000). This ideology is what has today been modelled into normative determinism. The ideological argument fronted by this belief is that a subject naturally grow and gravitate themselves towards the character or meaning of the name assigned. Names are able to create a strong linguistic association and determine how people feel about a given thing, or person (Elias & Gima, 2000). With this in mind, it is important for business to harness the power of a great and befitting name.

A domain name is the internet identity of a business, which calls for choosing the perfect one. In most cases, the business name largely dictate the kind of domain name, but still, brainstorming is essential in coming up with the right one. A domain name that consists of more than one word requires even more attention, since search engines tend to favor short names (McDowell, Wilson, & Kile Jr, 2016). Having a poor domain name may cost a business its integrity and ultimately lead to a mockery and failure. The brainstorming sessions would go a long way in making a choice that would not only be a bullseye, but also ultimately get intertwined with the brand image and become firmly nested in the mind of all consumers, for all generations to come (Garett, Chiu, Zhang, & Young, 2016).

I chose the domain name mindgymathletics.com since it directly assumes the name of my business, Mind Gym Athletics, and would help make the business easy to remember. The name also pithily depicts what my business is all about, as well as gives a glimpse into the mission and vision of the same, as an entity that focusses on using athletics to improve the health status of the mind.

I shall use Bluehost.com as it offers the highest reliability as regards to uptime, load time, and customer support statistics (Hosting Facts, 2019). The company currently hosts more than two million websites from across the world, making one of the most popular bust least expensive of all hosting companies globally. They also have a long history of service, spanning over 20 years, and a portfolio of more than 750 dedicated staff. Based on its reviews, the hosting provider also takes its customers’ data very seriously, and offers a range of backup and data recovery options. Bluehost’s shared plan is very affordable, starting at only $2.75 per month, coupled with bonuses such as a free domain and site builder, 1-click WordPress install, 24/7 support, and a 30-day money-back guarantee (Hosting Facts, 2019). Moreover, their domain names are also exceedingly cheap, starting at $11.99 per year. With their free website builder, I can easily develop my website from scratch, and only seek for professional assistance on more complicated features.

Website Design & Structure

The design of a website can either make or break the integrity of a business, as it potentially influences the views of a target audience towards a business, and the possibility of converting them into buying customers (Miranda, & Budiwirman, 2019). As such, a website design must incorporate an interactive and impressive user interface that will lead to a high conversion rate, and ultimately a better revenue for the business. While there are free tools for beginners to use in web development, it is crucially important that I hire a professional designer so that the website will be able to work to my advantage. Some of the key features of a website’s design that require a professional’s touch include structure, navigation, content and visual elements, brand uniformity, engagement, organization and search engine optimization.

Just like most websites, my website mindgymathletics.com will consist of header and footer menus. My focus is on a structure that is easy to navigate, and is user-friendly. The following flowchart best illustrates the structure I will adopt while creating the website.

The above flowchart is a summarized version of the pages of my website. These, however, do not include the blog pages/posts that I shall develop as a marketing tool. The home page will consist of well-designed images presented in a slide form, mostly showing snapshots of men and women training, and showcasing some of the catchy amenities within and around the gym center. More importantly, the home age shall also include brief but conclusive information regarding the gym, and call-to-action buttons such as membership registration, call center, email, among others. Moreover, some of the pages listed above will also be briefly displayed on the homepage, with an option of “learn more”. I will employ an instinctive use of color schemes, featuring a white background with high definition pictures dotting its entire landscape amidst catchy captions. The theme chosen will largely determine the kind of arrangement of menus, widgets, and sidebars. An example of a theme under consideration is Kallyas (https://demo.kallyas.net/vertigo-fitness-gym/).

It is important to note that among the menus shown in the flowchart above, there will be parent menus, and below them, sub-menus. The flowchart shows exactly how the menus and the sub-menus will be stacked, to ensure smooth navigation and rich user experience (UX). Individual pages will also contain referral links to other pages within the website, also referred to as internal linking, which is not only great for search engine optimization (SEO), but also for great UX. Each page shall contain not less than 500 words, which is the current minimum threshold set by the leading search Engine, Google (Huang, & Benyoucef, 2015). The pages shall not be plain writing/texts, but shall be augmented with SEO-rich images, videos, and internal as well as external links. To screenshot below shows the homepage of theme I have chosen (Kallyas).

Figure 1: Theme Kallyas Homepage

Website Content

A good website uses both a proper design, and integrates great content too. Indeed, it is content that drives visitors to a webpage, and ultimately convert into buying customers (Luo, Han, & Yu, 2016). As the digital business platform continues to develop with more sophistication, the requirements outlines for a good content by search engines are increasingly becoming complex and demanding (Butkiewicz, Wang, Wu, Madhyastha, & Sekar, 2015). Some of the most unwanted features of content by search engines include thin content, duplicate, and poor posts/pages that do not offer the right information to searchers. Having these don’ts in mind, I have developed a criterion of evaluating the content I shall use in my website, to ensure that they serve the intended purpose.

First, in developing my content, I shall ensure that my content specifically provides the answer/information being sought at first glance. This involves adopting the notion of a wild hunter, where decisions are made in split second. I will have to put my information out in the open to ensure it is easily detectable. This may appear quite challenging bearing in mind that search engines also have a minimum word count threshold. However, it can be achieved by ensuring that the most important information is displayed first, while details are discussed much later. The key to this lies in “writing for scanners”, for instance, by ensuring that I occasionally include captions and snapshots of the most important phrases/elements of my content in a quote form (Zilincan, 2015). Additionally, I would ensure that my writing style and diction is as simple as possible, bearing in mind the diverse nature of target audience. Use of visual elements such as images and videos would also go a long way in enriching my posts and pages, since research shows that a website surfer is twice more likely to click on an image or video, than on a plain text (Gudivada, Rao, & Paris, 2015).

Having discussed the points to note while developing content for the website, I will ensure that my homepage is a testimony of all the guidelines. As earlier mentioned, the homepage will contain a snapshot of the key pages of the website, with links of “read more” embedded below them. However, there must be a static piece of information on the homepage that will not be available on any other page. It will be short and clear, but highly captivating to the reader. An example is as below:

Your good health and lifespan are directly connected to your proper workout, as guided by trained professionals. At Mind Gym Athletics, we make this connection come true for you, by offering training and workout sessions that motivate, exhilarate, and build your body into a perfectly toned piece. We boast of innovative training programs, state-of-the-art amenities, building, and gadgets. Our gym brings together people form a diverse background, colluding to form a multicultural community of peaceable and friendly training partners. This offers an exciting moment of training and free flowing camaraderie that enthralls the whole session. Please check our membership options to join us for an exciting experience of health and wellness.

The content above, albeit short, gives an inviting welcome information about the gym, and motivates the audience to read more. It also has an internally linked call-to-action button that allows the reader to take the next step into joining our customer list. Other pages would contain more detailed content about the topic being discussed, and will include all the elements discussed above. Actual web pages will be developed at a later stage of this project.

Conclusion

Online presence is paramount to every ambitious business in the present times. It is imperative that my proposed business, Mind Gym Athletics develops a very interactive, easy to use, informative, and richly designed website that. It is believed that through this website, the business shall get a substantial flow of visitors and clients. In this design, a number of factors are to be considered including cost, host, design features such as structure, navigation, and color scheme, and content. A great website that converts visitors to buying clients must not only have a good design, but also a perfect content that is rich in information, visual elements, links, and employs scanning techniques in its write-up. The mindgymathletics.com website will also employ the use of SEO and be configured for both mobile and computer use, to maximize user experience and ensure constant traffic.