If you’re going to survive in business these days, then you need a business website. In recent years more and more people are searching for and discovering companies who they want to give their hard earned cash to, online. So if you don’t have an online presence, chances are you are missing out on a significant amount of revenue.
Thankfully, setting up a website is pretty straightforward. You don’t need to be a technological whiz kid to take your business onto the internet, allowing you to communicate with customers and sell products or services.
Here are four simple steps to set up your business website.
Register a domain name
The domain name is the address that people will use to find your business, and as such, it should be specific to what you do. Include your business’ name and if you are a company that focusses on a local area, your town or city too.
Search engines place a lot of stock on domain names, so consider including what your business does. “FiveStar” is so generic as a domain name that it will struggle to be found by the search engines whereas “FiveStarCleanersMiami” is much more specific and therefore better for being discovered.
If the .com version of your business is available, then you should secure that. People tend to trust .com domains more over .net or .org. Take a look at this blog for more on domain names and further information on fully qualified domain names.
Choose your Hosting company
Once you’ve chosen your domain, you need to find a company to host the website for you. A host is a service that stores your site and transmits it to online visitors. There are many different hosts out there, so you’ll want to find one that best suits your needs.
This will be based on budget, traffic and the technical assistance you think you may need to receive. Remember to shop around – like all elements of business; you’ll find a good deal out there that suits you by looking.
Decide how you want to build your website
Gone are the days when the only way to build a website was from scratch and using HTML code. Content management systems now do all the hard work for you. Simply pick a design and layout you like, customize it, and you are away.
It’s no different to making a document through Word or Powerpoint. It’s easy to add social media buttons, embed videos and polls and make yourself accessible to contact. Find a CMS that you get on with and start building.
Create your content
To keep people on your website, you need to ensure that it offers them the information they require. There are certain elements that every small business website needs, including a clear description of what your company does, an overview of the business’ history and a contact page.
If you want to keep people coming back for more, then consider including a blog. A blog is where you can write articles about the work you’ve done and the industry you are in. By frequently writing new content, you are giving customers a reason to keep visiting your site – great content makes for a great website.
