How To Create A Website For Your Small Business

If you want your small business to succeed, you must have a strong online presence. The first step is creating a good website.

Your website is a platform where you can virtually meet customers and showcase your products and services. You can use a website builder for it, or do it yourself. Keep in mind that new websites are created every day, which means you have tons of competition. You must be prepared to overcome your competition in the field.

Another challenge when it comes to creating a website for your small business is that online trends change constantly, so you need to learn how to identify and adapt to them. Additionally, knowing how to create a website and making it succeed in terms of traffic and sales conversion are two separate challenges. In fact, many businesses never make it past the initial stages because the owners do not know what to do or don’t keep up with online trends.

This guide for start-ups presents the most important factors to keep in mind when you create a website. If you follow these steps, then you’ll be off to a great start with your online presence.

Find the right domain name

Your domain name is your web address where visitors can find you online. If possible, it should be a version of your business name. If your preferred domain name is already taken, then choose something that still represents and reflects your business.

Choosing the right domain for your business is very important, as an overcomplicated domain can make it more difficult for customers to find you. Choosing a domain that is too long or that is not relevant to your business basically ensures that your customers won’t remember your website.

Find a simple domain that will stick in everyone’s minds; it will be a major boost for your business.

Look for secure, scalable website hosting

Choosing the domain is a great first step, but if you want your website to go live so that people can actually visit it, then you need a web host. There are many web hosting companies out there, some of them free.

The most important features to look for when choosing a web host are security, scalability, and customer support. You want to feel confident that if there is ever an issue with your website or server, your web hosting provider is easily accessible via phone or chat. Every moment your website is down is a moment you might be losing a customer.

Additionally, you want to make sure the web host performs regular security maintenance and backs up your website contents. Review the web host’s security protocol to ensure that your website will be safe on their server.

Build your website

The most important step when it comes to creating a website that your customers will enjoy is the actual building of your website. There are a number of free website builders that make this process easy and provide you with attractive and easy to use templates.

When you build your website, be sure to include pages that inform your visitors about your business and what products or services you provide. You want your website to be designed in a way that makes it easy for visitors to understand. It should be intuitive and mobile responsive so that customers can find the information they need.

Key pages to build on your website include a Home page, About Us, Products/Services, and Contact Us. These are the bare minimum you should include, as other pages will vary depending on your business type.

Optimize your website for search engines

At this point, you have a stellar website that’s just waiting to get noticed. The way to get visitors to your website is through Search Engine Optimization, or SEO.

SEO refers to the process of making your website more visible in search engines. Good SEO will help you rank higher on search engines, making it more likely that people will find you. When you are building your website and writing the copy for the abovementioned pages, think about your ideal customer and what they might be searching on Google to find a business like yours.

Keep in mind that when potential customers get to your site after clicking on a link, it is because they are looking for a solution to one or more problems. If they find out that there is no solution in your content, they will not come back. That means you need to make sure to give your visitors value in the content you put up on your site.

In optimizing the site, focus on your target audience—in other words, the people who will buy your products and services. It will be a waste of time and resources if you end up getting millions of new visitors to the site every day yet none of them are interested in what you have to offer.

Targeted traffic can be found through qualified backlinks as well as pre-qualified traffic. When writing content, use keywords that reflect your area of operation to get local traffic.

Post content and maintain your website

Congratulations, at this point you should have an awesome website that looks great, is easy to use, and can be found quickly through online searches! However, the truth is that a good website is never truly done—it’s something that must constantly be updated and maintained.

If you want to properly employ SEO techniques on your website, then you need to continuously post new content. Creating a blog for your site is a great way to do this. Create a content plan that includes posting a blog or article regularly—this could mean on every day or one a month depending on how much time you have. However, the more frequent, the better.

Another great source of content you can publish to your website is testimonial. Ask some of your satisfied customers for feedback and then post their testimonials. This will help with SEO and also help your business look more attractive to potential customers.

At the end of the day, anyone can create a website, but not everyone can create one that converts online traffic into customers. If the process sounds too difficult, or if you don’t have the time to devote to it, you can always hire an expert to design the site, host it, and optimize the content. You won’t regret it.