Every small business needs a website. That’s what we recommend to our clients and to anyone in business. Whether you’re a one person team, or own a brick and mortar store, you still need a website. It makes you look more credible and it gives people another way to learn more about you before committing to a face-to-face with you. Most of all, a great website generates leads so that you can continue to grow and earn money. I know, I know you’re all probably thinking why is he telling us how to build our own small business website. Isn’t that bad for business. The reason is we really like helping small businesses so here are our top tips!
Number 1 – You Will Need a Domain
The first thing you will need when building a website for your small business is a domain. This will be your address on the web. Just like you have a business or home address, your website has a unique address that points people to your location on the web. Our best advice is to put your business name in your website address. But if there is a relevant keyword that makes more sense you may want to consider using that instead. The reason for this has to do with optimizing your website to get the maximum amount of online traffic possible. If you are hoping that people will find your site based on search engine activity, having a keyword in your domain name will make things a lot easier for you.
Test some ideas out with friends or trusted customers to see what sticks. Also, do some research to see if the domain name you are eyeing hasn’t already been taken. You can do this as well as purchase a domain on sites such as GoDaddy, BlueHost, or HostGator.
Number 2 – Sign up with a Website Hosting Provider
Before you can begin designing your website, you will need someone to host it. Your website, it’s pages, pictures, and files all need to be stored on a set of computers also known as servers. These servers will act as the cyber hub for your web page and will let people find and access your website from anywhere in the world. Easily enough, the domain providers we mentioned above also offer web hosting services, so you can get all these tasks done together. Additionally, some providers even offer the entire package, domain registration, hosting and web designing capabilities which brings us to point number 3.
Number 3 – Design your Website Pages
Now here is the fun part! The third thing you will need to do is design your web pages. This includes adding your logo, product or service offerings, location and contact information, videos, testimonials, etc. These days it doesn’t take extensive html coding knowledge to build your own website. If you know how to organize, then you will have no problem building a website yourself. There are many plug and play platforms such as Bookmark, Squarespace, Wix, WordPress, and Weebly that are available for building a small business website. Each of these have their own set of pricing options and features. We recommend doing your own research to determine which platform provides the feature and pricing combination that best suits your specific needs. These online website building platforms often have all inclusive functionality that lets you handle the purchase of your domain, order website hosting, and designing your webpage all in one place. In our opinion, if you are going to do it yourself, this is the best way to go. It simplifies the process and takes a lot of the guesswork out of such a complicated spectrum.
Number 4 – You May Need to Employ Some Widgets
A widget is an application that is part of a larger interface that is used to perform a function or access a third party service. For example, an online retail shop would more than likely use a shopping cart widget to help their online shoppers select and pay for the items they would like to purchase. There are widgets for almost anything you can think of such as contact forms, online chat functionality, social media buttons, SEO tasks, and more. Most online website design platforms already feature built in widgets to make designing your small business website a cinch.
Building a website doesn’t have to be stressful or time consuming. With these tips, you can get your website up and going in as quickly as a day or two. However, if you are not the creative type or simply don’t have time to do it yourself, we are here for you. Our expert design team can design a website that you can be proud of using your unique branding and create an online footprint to get you maximum exposure. Call today for a free consultation – (857) 496-5126.
