Small businesses would also require websites so that the people in the locality would check out the products or services the business provides. It could help the company if they plan to expand its reach to more areas.
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• Determine the primary purpose of your website
A business website would serve as a base to provide general information regarding the company and could serve as a direct platform for E-Commerce purposes. If you create a simple website that tells little about the company or a more complex e-commerce site, the most important thing you should do is say what the company does on the homepage of your website. You should not meet your customers to discover if the company can do what they need.
• Decide on the domain name
Your domain name could be one of the essential features of your website. It is the URL you share with current and potential clients and promotes on social media. Hence, you want it to be easy to remember, type in, and be descriptive. Keep it short and away from acronyms, abbreviations, and numbers. This would help in avoiding confusion among customers. Once you select the domain name, you should confirm the availability and purchase with the help of a domain registrar. Some popular domain registrars are GoDaddy, Domain.com, Squarespace, and Wix. Once you select the new domain name, you should check for copyrights to ensure you are not infringing on anyone else’s protected name. If your preferred URL is taken already, you could call the company and ask to buy from them or use a domain-buying service and reach out to the owners of your desired domain name. However, this might involve some expenses.
• Select a web host
Every website requires a host. It means a server where all the data is stored for the public to access whenever needed. Hosting your website is an expensive affair for small businesses, and you would need to select an external host. Based on the budget, you could choose from two different routes. A shared web hoar could be a less expensive option. It would mean that the server would be shared with other sites. Dedicated hosting would cost significantly. It means you get your private server and won’t have to compete with other websites that could drag down the speed.
• Build your pages
A good website could be more than a static homepage. You would want to create multiple pages dedicated to different aspects of your business, like a detailed catalog of the services or products or a blog section for company updates. For the overall website, make sure that each page supports the site’s primary goal, has a clear purpose, and includes a call to action. If the business doesn’t have a logo, hire a graphic designer or create a logo on business cards, websites, and social media profiles. It would help the clients identify the company quickly and easily on the web.
• Set up the payment system (if applicable)
While this step would not apply to all business websites, companies that want to offer the option for customers to pay online will have to set up electronic payment systems with their websites. The easy method to do so is with the help of e-commerce software solutions.
• Publish and test the website
Before announcing the website is live, it works on all major browsers, such as Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome. Click through each page and feature on every browser to ensure images appear, the format looks smooth, and the links are correct. This would take some time, but the effort you put in would save you from future complaints from visitors if they cannot access some features. Ensure that the website displays correctly on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. The step should be overlooked as various search engines have migrated to mobile indexing that prioritizes the performance of the mobile version of your website when it comes to search engine rankings.
Social media could be the best way to increase your audience reach and alert the customers to what is going on with your company. Post about it on social media outlets but balance it with non-promotional and genuine engagement whenever you update the website. You could include links to your social media on your website. The most commonplace to do this could be the website’s footer. It is the extra menu in the top right that holds contact links.
• Invest in search engine optimization (SEO)
Submitting the website to major search engines would help you direct potential leads to your page as you would be deploying a solid SEO strategy across your website. Defining title tags, meta descriptions, and uniform resource identifiers (URIs) relevant to your company and aspects of your industry could help in boosting your rankings in search engines for the products or services you are trying to market. Building relevant keywords into the content from the very first phases of the website and having a strong focus on SEO from the website launch would help you generate traffic at the earliest.
• Maintain your website
Staying relevant is very important. Hence, you should update your website frequently with blog posts on current industry events, company news, and new products and offers to keep the visitors coming back. You should check monthly to ensure the software and all add-ons are current. If the software is not present, it’s in danger of being hacked, even if the website hosting security is vital. If you do not have time, delegate the task to a trusted employee or a freelance website manager.
