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What do you need to build a website from scratch? A superb website is crucial for the success of your small business, regardless of whether you own a hardware store, are a freelance photographer, or run another kind of small business. I know what it takes to make fantastic and engaging company websites since I've worked on establishing or marketing over 100 small business websites.
What do you need to build a website from scratch?
Here are 10 crucial stages to getting started and assisting your small company website to effectively compete in the internet marketplace if you're trying to develop a new startup website or make your present site more effective.
1. Find a catchy domain name
The main portal to your website is frequently your domain name, also known as your website address. It must leave a positive first impression in order to be effective for both search engine optimization and usability (SEO).
Here are some suggestions for selecting the best domain name:
- Make the spelling simple. Avoid using terms that are very obscure, made up, or slang.
- Make it as brief as you can. It is simpler to remember and type accurately the shorter it is.
- Please use the correct domain extension. Whenever possible, try to choose a .com domain name (rather than one ending in .net,.co, etc.), unless .gov, .edu, or.org would be a better choice.
- Avert using hyphens and numerals. They are less elegant, more difficult to recall, and more likely to be misconstrued when spoken aloud than word-only domain names.
- Make the address inclusive to allow for future expansion. For instance, Amazon.com has a considerably wider range of products than BooksOnline.com, which enables Amazon to offer more types of goods than only books, which was its initial intent.
- Make it memorable, please. Because there are so many websites on the internet, it's crucial that your website's name be memorable so that people will know how to find it in the future.
- Research the domain name. Search for it on Google to see whether a website with a similar URL already exists online, and look it up on USPTO.gov to make sure no trademarks have been filed there.
- Verify that the pricing is fair. Find out whether you can afford to buy the domain name you want for your website from the existing owner as the majority of good domain names are already taken.
- Avert names that make no sense. Pick a name that has significance so that users will understand what your business is right away. Yahoo and Google are memorable names, but branding them cost a lot of money, and your tiny firm might not have the same resources.
- Make a URL that is search engine optimized. When applicable, attempt to come up with a keyword- and location-rich website address, such as "www.BostonWorkshop.com," that is SEO-friendly.
2. Invest in scalable, secure website hosting that offers responsive tech assistance
A firm that provides the technology and services required for a website to be seen on the internet is known as a website host (or, occasionally, a website hosting provider). You link your domain name to your web host so that people who access your website address are directed to the website you have stored on your hosting account.
Depending on the sort of technology and support you want, hosting services might cost anywhere from $2 to $100+ each month. If you choose to purchase an annual plan as opposed to a monthly one, you will often receive a discount.
Here are some pointers for selecting a reliable website hosting package:
- Even though a "shared server" hosting package may be purchased for as little as $2 per month, I often advise against it. The speed of your website may decrease if you choose shared hosting since you are sharing a server and its resources with other users. Additionally, it's possible for your website to get infected if one of the other websites on your shared server is hacked.
- The most expensive choice is a "dedicated server" hosting package, which might cost between $100 and $2,000 per month but would provide your website the best performance. As long as the technology is up to par, a dedicated server hosting plan is more secure than a shared hosting plan since the physical server machine is totally dedicated to your website. However, the cost is far higher than what the majority of small firms are often prepared to spend. This may be necessary after you have a really effective website, but for the majority of startups and small enterprises, it is overkill.
- A "virtual private server" (VPS) hosting package, which provides the best of both worlds, is the compromise I usually suggest. For the hosting services you will receive, the price, which runs from about $20 to $50 each month, is reasonable. A VPS is a single computer that has been divided into numerous machines, giving it a cost similar to shared hosting and performance potential comparable to dedicated server hosting plans.
- In order to receive prompt assistance if you experience an issue, confirm that your hosting provider offers phone and/or chat support. When a problem has to be fixed right away, email assistance frequently takes too long and can become annoying. Though chat works just as well, phone help is preferable.
- To access your server, you must have a user-friendly server interface, such as cPanel. Unless you have the money to employ a pro server administrator to assist you, you should not have to use terminal commands to examine and modify the contents of your server.
- Check the server you are contemplating to discover what level of security is in place. Secure File Transfer Protocol access to your server is something you'll need to have (SFTP). Your server's contents should be backed up every day. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates should be simple to install with only one or two clicks. Make sure the hosting provider carries out routine security upkeep. Ideally, your hosting provider has a security procedure that has been made public that you can evaluate to see how they maintain their servers secure.
A list of popular website hosting companies is here.
3. Display a concise description of your company prominently.
To avoid confusion when customers visit your small company website, it's critical to immediately communicate who you are and what you do. Make sure your primary homepage banner (often known as a "hero picture"), any following banners, and the introductory text blurb at the top of the page all serve as visual representations of your services.
Additionally, make sure that the "About Us" page links on your main and footer navigation menus are prominently displayed so that visitors may click them and read additional in-depth information about your company.
4. Use the most effective content management system
A software program or application used to produce and manage digital material is known as a content management system (CMS). Your site can be maintained with the aid of a competent CMS, and using one doesn't need any technical know-how. You should pick a CMS that is tailored to your specific requirements because different platforms are employed for various factors, including user-friendliness, extensibility, and cost.
The common systems listed below have discussions of their advantages and disadvantages.
WordPress: WordPress is the most widely used CMS worldwide. There are several helpful plugins to increase the functionality of your site and a sizable, vibrant support community. (And if you are unable to locate a plugin that does your desired function, it is simple to get a WordPress developer who can create one for you!) Additionally cost-free and reasonably easy to install, WordPress. Finding a person or company that can work on your site is not difficult because the majority of website developers are familiar with it. Normally, because of its adaptability and extensibility, I suggest small businesses utilize WordPress to build their websites.
However, it should be emphasized that WordPress's major security flaw is that due to its popularity, hackers frequently attack it. To prevent hacking, your WordPress site has to be continuously updated and protected. Additionally, it is challenging to protect every single third-party plugin, thus maintaining the security of your WordPress website requires a continuous commitment to a number of best practices (checking to see if your plugins have been updated within the past few months, making sure it is a plugin provided in the official WordPress repository, deleting unused plugins immediately, etc.).
Drupal: Another well-known CMS is Drupal. It has many of the same advantages as WordPress, including adaptability, simplicity, and a sizable support community. Notably, it is a more secure CMS than WordPress (less vulnerable to criminal behavior), but it is also less flexible because there are fewer plugin and theme possibilities. The White House website (Whitehouse.gov) was operated with Drupal for a long time before switching to WordPress, which is still in use today.
Squarespace: Squarespace is a monthly or yearly subscription service that makes it simple to "drag and drop" websites and blogs together. It is an all-inclusive service that covers website design, development, software maintenance, metrics, a domain name with an annual purchase, SSL security, 24/7 support, and hosting with unlimited bandwidth and storage. It offers you top-notch design templates and is especially ideal for creatives. This is a fantastic solution if you have a limited budget, and want a straightforward and attractive website, but cannot pay a website designer.
Compared to WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla!, Squarespace has a significantly lower learning curve, but it has far fewer extensibility possibilities. However, Squarespace is a great choice for you if you have little to no technical experience and are seeking a quick and simple approach to creating a website.
Joomla!: Joomla! is a well-known CMS. Out of the box, WordPress is more SEO-friendly, secure, and multilingual than Joomla!, but with a few plugins, WordPress can outperform Joomla! in these areas.
Wix: Wix and Squarespace are quite similar, however, Wix is a little more user-friendly. It provides a monthly membership but not an annual one and has comparable features. Wix is a drag-and-drop builder as well, allowing you to freely place items wherever you choose on the website; in contrast, Squarespace has a more predetermined layout for where you may place pieces. If you need to launch a site quickly, Wix could be your best option because it has an even lower learning curve than Squarespace.
Wix has many more template options than Squarespace, but once you select one, you must stick with it or you will need to fully rebuild your website. With Squarespace, you can change your template whenever you want without having to start from scratch.
5. Pick a reliable e-commerce platform
You will need the proper technology if you intend to sell products and/or services on your website. (If you don't sell anything already, you might want to think about starting as e-commerce could perhaps boost your income.) You must select the appropriate platform for your company model if you plan to allow users to conduct financial transactions with you online.
Several well-liked small-business e-commerce platforms are listed below:
Shopify: Shopify is a cloud-based e-commerce platform that enables you to design and personalize an online store as well as control items, inventory, payments, and delivery. Because it is an independent platform housed on the Shopify server rather than a WordPress extension like WooCommerce, your e-commerce site would technically be distinct from your primary website if you have one. Unless your primary website includes a Shopify connection plugin, you can link to your Shopify account from any standard website created with WordPress, Drupal, Wix, or another platform.
Unlimited items, unrestricted bandwidth, fraud analysis, promotional coupons, reports, and many more features are among the features. One of Shopify's main advantages is that you don't require a developer to set up a store and that when you sign up, everything on the backend is automatically configured for you. The drawback is that WooCommerce gives you more freedom and control over your shop.
WooCommerce: One of the most well-liked e-commerce platforms in the world, WooCommerce, can convert your WordPress website into an online store. It connects to WordPress and offers a wide variety of plugins, making it just like WordPress in terms of flexibility. For WooCommerce, there are several pre-built free and paid themes available. (Typically, using a paid theme from a reputed developer is preferable since it will provide greater security and support.) You will probably need a WordPress developer to assist you in setting it up and using it if you are not tech-savvy. WooCommerce also provides your small business with a huge range of features and scalability that it could require.
GoDaddy Online Store: GoDaddy provides a separate subscription e-commerce platform that is relatively new and simple to set up and operate. To start your business with GoDaddy Online Store, very little technical experience is needed. The templates are neat and straightforward, and they may be modified to some extent. Tools for marketing and SEO, social network integration, scheduling appointments, SSL security, quick page loading, and other features are among the features.
Shopify Plus: Shopify Plus is the same as Shopify, but with additional staff accounts, a better level of customization, and international e-commerce choices. Additionally, the degree of assistance is higher. All of this clearly entails a greater membership fee, yet WooCommerce still offers more customization options and flexibility.
Business Squarespace: If you used Squarespace to design your website and only require a very basic e-commerce solution, you may go this path. Squarespace offers an e-commerce subscription option. A transaction fee is charged by Business Squarespace, however, this may be avoided by changing your membership to a simple online store. A free domain, SSL security, SEO, cart recovery from abandoned shopping carts, discounts, real-time carrier shipment, and more are all included. It has been remarked that Shopify is more user-friendly, nevertheless. It just isn't as versatile as WooCommerce, like Shopify.
Wix: Wix really provides a very user-friendly Shopify plugin. To utilize it, you must subscribe to Shopify and upgrade your Wix account.
6. Design an intriguing, enduring, and captivating website user interface.
Make sure the user experience on your small company website generates results. You may do this by putting the following advice into practice:
- Make use of eye-catching images and legible typefaces.
- Ensure that your visuals are optimized and compressed for quick download. Search engines like Google will lower your rating if your website is sluggish.
- Implement comparable elements that will work for your small company website after researching the competition to see how they have built and optimized their websites.
- Find out what your target audience wants from your website through research, and then make it simple for them to obtain it.
- Maintain brand identity across the whole design of your website.
- Create a user-friendly navigation system that enables people to easily access the pages they require.
- Publicize contact details that are simple to find.
- Include clear calls to action, particularly "purchase now" buttons.
Create pages that are typical for websites for small businesses, like:
- Home
- About us
- Products/Services (with descriptions and visually appealing images)
- Sitemap (for SEO purposes)
- Management team
- Contact us
- Terms of use (the online contract governing how users can use your site)
- Privacy policy
- Additional pages relevant to your specific small business
7. Regularly create and publish quality content
Create a plan to produce high-quality articles and/or blog entries on your site and on other websites that link to your site since search engines value both the amount and the freshness of your material. You must update your website with fresh, pertinent material as regularly as possible if you want to rank well in search engine results and draw visitors back again and time again.
Testimonials are an excellent type of material to put on your website in addition to static page content and articles. A wonderful method to post new, high-quality material on your website that increases the appeal of your small business is to solicit client testimonials, which you can then place on it.
Assure that the tone of your material is suitable and consistent with your brand.
8. Optimize your small business website for search engines
In order for search engines to properly index, rank, and display your website to search engine users, you must implement a set of techniques known as SEO on your website. Your website will be in competition with other websites that contain comparable material once search engines have "crawled" it. Your website will rank higher on search engine result pages the better it is designed and written.
The following techniques are primarily used in SEO:
- Keyword research and implementation
- Optimal website code
- Fast loading speed
- having an SSL certificate installed; SSL is the industry-standard security protocol that guarantees the privacy of data sent between web servers and browsers.
- having a site that is mobile-friendly
- existence of high-quality backlinks to your website (links on other websites with relevant content)
- obtaining a lot of favorable evaluations online (Google, Yelp, Facebook, etc.)
- Utilizing internal connections on your website will keep visitors clicking and reading.
- linking to your website using social media (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.)
SEO is a crucial continuing procedure that may make the difference between having your website appear on page one of search engine results (leading in a ton of free visitors) or page 300. (resulting in no traffic).
9. Install webmaster tools
Install Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, and other tools to utilize important data to help you monitor traffic and site performance. Preferably, you should do this using Google Tag Manager. The following kinds of data may be tracked using these tools:
- Daily, weekly, and monthly visitors to your site
- Views per page on your site, in numbers
- "Bounce rate" refers to the proportion of visitors to your website that leaves after just seeing one page (Google algorithms give higher rankings to websites that have a low bounce rate, on the theory that visitors are spending more time on the site and find it valuable.)
- Average time spent on site by visitors
- Crawl errors on your site (errors that the search engines found on your site in crawling its content)
- Broken links on the site
- Keywords that lead users to your site
- Backlinks to your site
- Web page download time
- Other information that can help you enhance your SEO
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10. Set up a website maintenance schedule
You shouldn't build a website and then let it become outdated. You must make sure your website is properly maintained if you want to have a successful one that performs well in search engine results and isn't hacked.
To build a small company website maintenance strategy, consider the following advice:
- At least once each month, check Webmaster Tools data, and have any critical mistakes immediately forwarded to you.
- Learn more about your audience using traffic statistics so you can better serve them.
- To improve and correct mistakes and warnings, use performance data.
- Ensure that all software is up to date at all times.
- Conduct security checks to ensure that your website is free of malware and has not been compromised.
- Use "split testing" to determine whether specific changes to your website's design can improve its functionality. For instance, if you're selling a product, you might have two variations of a specific landing page with different images and copy; split testing lets you determine which version has a higher conversion rate.
- Follow the SEO tips and keep producing high-quality content.
- Find trendy and successful internet marketing strategies for your company.
- Give website visitors the opportunity to comment on your site.
- Continue to periodically check out what your rivals are doing with their internet presence to determine if what they've done can also work for you.
- Make sure to do several backups of your website at least once every day going back at least 10 days.
Final thought
As you can tell from reading this post, it can be more difficult than you initially anticipated to build a fantastic small company website. However, your small business will have a great chance of prospering in the internet market if you stick to the instructions provided in this article.
Reference:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/allbusiness/2019/05/25/small-business-website-tips/
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