Nowadays, it seems that for a business to gain traction from many customers, a website is needed. A website can take a small business to greater heights and horizons. The advantages of small businesses having websites are plenty. When a small business has a website, it can earn high profits, reach a wider audience due to 24/7 website accessibility, and provide the company with brand visibility and recognition. Websites also help with online promotions and give the business customer insights through tracking user behavior on the website.
So, are you ready to build a website for your small business? This article is the perfect piece to read, especially for small business owners. To be able to create and develop your very own website, you can seek help from a website maker. Several website makers will give you the tools you need to build the perfect website for your small business. This time, let us learn the ten key steps to building a great small business website.
Steps On How You Can Build A Great Small Business Website
Step 1: Include Powerful Images
Believe it or not, the success of a website for a small business largely depends on the immediate visual impact. Using unfitting images can turn off visitors. Images support your business’ communication efforts, help expound your products to your customers, and further reflect your brand.
Among the apprehensions of small business owners about incorporating images is the notion that they need a license to use them legally. If you want photos that adhere to copyright, you might need to invest money in them. But today, there are several platforms where you can get royalty-free images. It does not mean they are for free, but once you have bought them, you will not have to pay royalties to the people who own the images.
Step 2: Acquire A Good Domain Name
Besides selecting the right images, picking the right domain name is also vital. To decide upon a good domain, consider using key search terms in your domain name so search engines can find your website more easily. Often, if your industry is popular, the domain name you think about may already be taken. When this happens, you should ensure that the domain name you choose makes sense, is simple to spell, and is easily understandable.
Step 3: Choose A Quality Web Hosting Provider
There are many choices for web-hosting providers, so you can really be spoiled for your choice. You should consider what your small business needs to find the right provider. For example, ask yourself whether you need a few different domain names to maximize the chances of customers finding your business. If so, your hosting provider must be able to provide for this particular need. If your small business is about an eCommerce site, you must ensure your website is connected to a Secure Sockets Layer or an SSL because this guarantees your site is encrypted. This brings us to the next step.
Step 4: Is Your Website For eCommerce?
Is your website built to sell products and services? Or, if you would like to get involved in eCommerce somewhere in the future, you need the right platform to ensure your financial transactions are as smooth. Some of the most popular eCommerce platforms today are Shopify, BigCommerce, and the like. Many offer features that include business management tools, reliability, and better search engine optimization or SEO, so it is important to do your own research and read reviews.
Step 5: Apply The Best Content Management System
There are inarguably a lot of content management systems or the CMS you can find out there, with some more popular than others. You should also do your own research regarding this to ensure you are getting the right fit. WordPress is an incredibly popular CMS known to power almost a third of the websites around the world. However, there are plenty of other options as well, like Wix or Joomla.
Step 6: Use Web Analytics
Website analytics are essential tools that help small business website owners find out what is working and not working on their websites. A popular tool is Google Analytics, providing what visitors are engaging with and what not, and how they are engaging. These tools can also provide details on your pages’ most popular and how much time visitors spend in specific website areas. Different tools include usability, those that analyze content, and SEO.
Step 7: Ensure Your Content And Copy Are Engaging
So you have learned you need the right images and the other technical aspects when building a website for your small business. Another necessary element is your copy. Your copy or content is essential to make a good impression amongst your online visitors.
Poor sentence structure, spelling mistakes, and failing grammar can give the idea that the business is not as professional as it could be. Your content must be error-free, practical, and engaging to your target market. Focus on relaying the benefits you provide for your customers and not just everything about your business or your products.
Step 8: It Is Likewise Important To Get This Content Checked By Outside Sources
This step is related to the previous step. It is crucial that you ensure all the words on your website are proofread and checked. This can mean asking for feedback from outside sources to look over your copy, checking functionality and navigation. Ask these people to go through the processes offered on your website, such as purchasing products or searching for something. These are great ways to unearth unseen errors.
Step 9: Time To Successfully Launch Your Website
There are ten steps to this list, but the second to the last one is actually launching your website already. Seems fast? Here is why. After setting up everything you need for your website, you should have the perfect launch strategy.
Once you have promoted your website launch, visitors will be anticipating high-quality content, so make sure you deliver in this regard. To build and create hype around your launch, you may also implement a countdown on your landing page or announce your launch on social media where there are a lot of people.
Step 10: Maintain Your Content
Once you have implemented the previous steps, the next and final step is ensuring your content is maintained. This tells your visitors and customers that you are responsive to their needs. It also tells them you are updated on what is happening in your niche or industry. This also ensures your search engine rankings are improved and consistent.
Build A Website For Your Small Business Today
Creating a website for your small business can downright be exhausting and complicated. But remember, having a website is crucial nowadays for any business in the world.
As you have learned at the beginning of this post, websites attract more customers and enhance your brand recognition. With a strong Internet presence, you can reach a wider audience.
Outsourcing a website building professional might be expensive for you, but there are friendly platforms like Namecheap that is a great website-making platform, saving you time and money. Its customization options are limitless, and it is very dependable. Get started building a website for your small business today.
