The advantages of building a website for a business you have probably ran for long, or just a startup is enormous. A business’s online presence, with little to no regard of the industry, can have a massive impact on its success. Apparently, some businesses still don’t realize that a majority of their customers will visit their website before making a purchase. Before go into building a website proper, let’s briefly consider some advantages of building a website for your business.
Credibility
A major reason you should have a website for your business is to increase credibility of a business. Chances are, there are several providers offering a similar service to yours. One way you can stand out among competitors, is by having a website that looks good and clearly communicates quality information to your consumers.
Brand
Showcasing your brand to your prospective customers is one of the most important things that you can do. By clearly establishing who you are, what you represent and what you stand for, you increase the chances of your customers buying from you.
This is also something that can set you apart from your competitors. Without a website, it can be incredibly challenging to do this because people can’t easily find quality and reliable information on your business.
Leads
Perhaps one of the most intriguing reasons to have a website for your business is because it can increase your chances of getting leads.
Building a website for a business
To build a business website, you first need to choose a domain name and secure web hosting. Then, optimize your website to improve your search engine rankings and drive traffic.
1. Identify the primary purpose of your website.
Begin by first determining the primary purpose of your website. Bear in mind that a business website generally serves as a space to provide general information about your company or a direct platform for e-commerce. For either of the above, the most important thing you must do is say what your company does – on the homepage in plain terms.
2. Decide your domain name.
Your domain name (eg. example.com) is one of the most important features of your website. It’s the URL you’ll share with your current and potential clients and promote on social media. For that matter it must be descriptive and easy for your customers to remember. It is neccessary that you keep your domain name short, and steer clear of abbreviations, acronyms, and numbers, if possible, to avoid customer confusion. Deciding on a good, precise and easy to remember domain name set the foundation for building a website for a business and making it successful.
In deciding on your domain name, you will also need to decide your top-level domain, or TLD. This is the suffix at the end of your domain name, such as .com, .net or .biz. However, nontraditional TLD names have grown in recent years. While these can be descriptive, .com is still the main go-to.
After you’ve decided on your domain name, you’ll need to confirm its availability and purchase it through a domain registrar. Below are domain registrars we can recommend:
- GoDaddy
- Domain.com
- Squarespace
- Wix
3. Find a web host.
In building a website for a business, you will need to choose a we host. This more of a server where all its data is stored for the public to access at all times. Hosting your own website is probably too large an expense for your small business, so you’ll need to select an external host. You can consider a shared web host, which is a less-expensive option, means you’ll share a server with other sites. Dedicated hosting costs significantly more, but it means that you get your own private server and won’t have to compete with other sites that could drag down your speed.
We recommend Bluehost for your web hosting service;
In purchasing a hosting service you can start with a less costly plan. However, as your business grows, you might consider upgrading to a different plan, or switch web host, or even work with multiple providers to handle your website traffic and operations.
4. Build your pages
Now it is time to create multiple pages dedicated to different aspects of your business, such as a detailed catalog of your products or services, or a blog section for company updates. As for your overall website, make sure each page supports the site’s primary goal, has a clear purpose and includes a call to action. This may include pages such as “learn more,” “sign up,” “contact us” or “buy this”. Depending on the purpose of your website.
Meanwhile, you should also not forget building your contact page. A contact page is one of the most important sections of a website, so include as much information as you can (your business’s phone number, email address and physical location, if you have one).
NB: If your business doesn’t already have a logo, hire a graphic designer or create a logo yourself to use on your website, business cards, and social media profiles. This will help your clients identify your company quickly and easily on the web. Make sure your pages are optimized for search engines.
5. Set up your payment system (if applicable)
Business that want to offer the option for customers to pay online will need to integrate electronic payment systems with their websites. Do some research to make sure you get a solution that’s easy to work with and flexible enough to meet your needs.
6. Publish your website.
Now it is time to launch or publish the new website for your business. A very important thing to consider at this juncta is to make sure that your website displays properly on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. This step should not be overlooked, as is goes a long way to affect performance of your website and may impact on you leads.
7. Promote website on social media.
For better results and in order to generate more leads and expand the customer base of your business it is neccessary that you market your website on social media. Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Pinterest is the best way to increase your audience.
Also include links to your social media on your website. The most common places to do this are the footer or the ancillary bar (the extra menu in the top right that often holds login or contact links). This can be done when building the pages of your website.
8. Maintainance and SEO
Staying relevant is important, so update your website frequently with blog posts on current industry events, new products and offers, and company news to keep visitors coming back to the site.
This also includes checking at least monthly to ensure your software and all add-ons are up to date.
Considering optimizing your site for search engines is the surest way to secure the survival of business website. SEO is a set of practices you apply to your website to ensure search engines index and rank your website appropriately and then show it to search engine users. Once your website is “crawled” by search engines, it competes with websites that have similar content. The better your website design and content is, the higher your site will show up on search engine result pages.
SEO mainly includes the following practices:
- Keyword research and implementation
- Optimal website code
- Fast loading speed
- Being secure and having an SSL certificate installed; SSL is the standard security technology that ensures data passed between web servers and browsers remains private
- Having a mobile-friendly site
- Existence of high-quality backlinks (links on external websites with related content) that lead to your site
- Having lots of positive reviews online (Google, Yelp, Facebook, etc.)
- Using internal links throughout your site to keep people clicking and reading
Building a website for a business is a low-cost investment that can help you establish credibility and reach a wider customer base than you ever could through traditional marketing techniques.