A very good website is very important for the success of your small business, regardless of whether you run a hardware store, are a freelance photographer, or run another kind of small business. If you’re looking to create a new startup website or improve your present site, here are 10 essential steps to getting started and helping your small business website to successfully compete in the online market.
-
Find a good domain name
Most of the time, your domain name, sometimes referred to as your website address, serves as the primary entrance to your website. To be successful for both search engine optimization and usability, it must provide a good first impression (SEO).
Choose the ideal domain name, consider the following:
Make the spelling simple. Avoid using words that are highly 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.
-
Get reliable tech support and scalable, secure website hosting.
A company that provides a service for the public, required for a website to be seen on the internet is known as a website host (or website hosting provider). You put a direct connect of your domain name to your website host so that users who access your website address are directed to the website.
Depending on the kind of technology and support you want, hosting services might cost anywhere from $2 to $100+ per month. If you choose to purchase a yearly plan as opposed to a monthly one, you will typically receive a discount.
Here are some recommendations for choosing a trustworthy website hosting plan:
Even though a “shared server” hosting package can be purchased for as little as $2 per month, I often advise against it. The performance of your website may decrease if you choose shared hosting because you are sharing a server and its resources with other users.
The most expensive choice is a “dedicated server” hosting package, which might cost between $100 and $2,000 per month but would give 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 because the physical server machine is totally dedicated to your website. However, the cost is significantly 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 startup and small enterprises, it is overkill.
-
Make sure your company’s information is prominently displayed.
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 that the introduction text blurb at the top of the page, the major homepage banner, any subsequent banners, and all other banners function as visual representations of your services.
Also, make sure that “About Us” page links on your main and footer navigation menus are prominently displayed correctly so that visitors may click them and read additional in-depth information about your company.
-
Use the top content management system.
A software program or application used to create and manage digital material is known as a content management system (CMS).
The popular systems listed below and down here, have their advantages and disadvantages.
WordPress: WordPress is one the most and widely used CMS worldwide. There are also a lot of plugins in order to help you increase the functionality of your site and a sizable, vibrant support community. (And if you are unable to locate a plugin that performs 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 an individual 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 of its popularity, hackers frequently attack it.
Drupal: Another well-known CMS is Drupal. It has many of the same advantages of WordPress, including as 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.
Joomla! : Joomla! is a well-known CMS. WordPress is more SEO-friendly and secure than Joomla, but with a few plugins, WordPress can outperform Joomla! in these areas.
Squarespace: Squarespace is a service that you may subscribe to on a monthly or annual basis, making it simple to “drag and drop” content onto your website or blog. This is a fantastic solution if you have a limited budget, require a straightforward and attractive website, but cannot pay a website designer.
-
Improve the search engine visibility of your small business website.
In order for search engines to correctly index your urls, rank, and display your website to search engine users, you must implement a lot of techniques known as SEO on your website. Once your website is “crawled” by search engines, it faces competition from websites with comparable material. If your website design and content is performing good then the higher your site will show up on pages of results from search engines.
SEO primarily entails the following activities:
- Having a mobile-friendly site;
- Researching and implementing keywords;
- Optimal website coding;
- Rapid page load times;
- Being secure with an SSL certificate installed; SSL is the industry-standard security technology that guarantees data passed between web servers and browsers remains private;
- The presence of high-quality backlinks (links on other websites with pertinent content that point to your website)
Conclusion
As you can tell after reading this article, creating a great small business website it might not be as easy as you previously believed. If you follow the advice in this article, your small business will have a high chance of succeeding in the online market.
