10 Steps to Build a Small Business Website
10 Steps to Build a Small Business Website
Building a website involves several steps, from planning and design to development and deployment. Starting from getting a domain name, choosing the right platform to design your website, getting the right hosting and maintaining your website so it can perform well online. If you are looking to build a new small business website, here are 10 key steps to getting started and helping your small business website compete effectively in the online marketplace.
1. Obtain a good domain name
Your domain name, also known as your website address, is often the entry point to your site. It is important that it makes a good impression for usability purposes, as well as for search engine optimization (SEO). Here are some tips for coming up with an optimal domain name:u003cbru003eu003cbru003eu003cstrongu003e- Make it easy: u003c/strongu003eTry not to use slang, made up, or extremely esoteric words.u003cbru003eu003cstrongu003e- Keep it short: u003c/strongu003eThe shorter it is, the easier it is to remember and type correctly.u003cbru003eu003cstrongu003e- Use proper domain extension: u003c/strongu003eTry to always make it a .com domain name (as opposed to .net, .co, etc.) unless it is more appropriate to use another extension, such as .gov, .edu, or .org.u003cbru003eu003cstrongu003e- Avoid numbers and hyphens: u003c/strongu003eThey are hard to remember and less elegant and memorable than word-only domain names, and may be misunderstood when vocalizing the domain name.u003cbru003eu003cstrongu003e- Make the address broad to facilitate future growth: u003c/strongu003eFor example, Amazon.com is a much broader website address than BooksOnline.com and allows Amazon to sell pretty much every type of consumer good instead of books only, as was its original purpose.u003cbru003eu003cstrongu003e- Ensure it is memorable: u003c/strongu003eWith so many websites on the internet, it is important that your website name is catchy so people will remember how to access it in the future.u003cbru003eu003cstrongu003e- Research the domain name: u003c/strongu003eGoogle it to see if a similar website address already exists online, and search on u003ca href=u0022https://www.uspto.gov/u0022 target=u0022_blanku0022 rel=u0022noreferrer noopeneru0022u003eUSPTO.govu003c/au003e to make sure it does not contain any registered trademarks.u003cbru003eu003cstrongu003e- Check if the price: u003c/strongu003eDetermine if you can purchase your desired website address at a reasonable price since most good domain names are taken and will need to be bought from the current owner.u003cbru003eu003cstrongu003e- Avoid nonsensical names: u003c/strongu003eChoose a name that conveys a meaning so that users will know immediately what your business is. Yahoo and Google are catchy names, but they were very expensive to brand, and your small business website may not have the same budget.u003cbru003eu003cstrongu003e- Create an SEO-friendly URL: u003c/strongu003eWhen appropriate, try to come up with an SEO-friendly website address that includes keywords and geo-location; for example: www.LasVegasElectrician.com
2. Purchase secure u0026amp; scalable website hosting
A website host (or sometimes referred to as a website hosting provider) is a company that offers the technology and services necessary for a website to be viewed on the internet. You connect your domain name to your hosting provider so that when users visit your small business website address, they are shown your website that you store on your hosting account.u003cbru003eu003cbru003eHosting services can cost anywhere between $5 to $100+ per month, depending on the kind of technology and support you choose. You can usually get a discount if you purchase a yearly plan as opposed to a monthly plan. Here are some guidelines for choosing a good website hosting plan:u003cbru003eu003cbru003eu003cstrongu003e- Shared Hosting:u003c/strongu003e Although you can get a u003cstrongu003e“shared server” u003c/strongu003ehosting plan for as little as $5 per month, I would typically advise against this. Shared hosting means you are sharing a server and its resources with other customers, which can make the performance of your site suffer. Also, if one of the other websites on your shared server is hacked, it is possible for your website to also be infected.u003cbru003eu003cbru003eu003cstrongu003e- Dedicated server: u003c/strongu003ethis is the most expensive option, cost can range from around $100 to $2,000 per month but it would make your website perform the most optimally. Having a dedicated server plan means that the physical server machine is entirely dedicated to your site; therefore, all the resources are yours and it is more secure than a shared hosting plan, as long as the technology is optimal. However, it is much more expensive than what most small businesses usually are willing to pay. Once you have a very high-performing site, this may be what you need, but it is overkill for most early stage and small businesses.u003cbru003eu003cbru003eu003cstrongu003e- Virtual Private Server (VPS):u003c/strongu003e I typically recommend a u003cstrongu003eVPSu003c/strongu003e hosting plan which offers the best of both worlds. The cost ranges from around $20 to $50 per month, which is affordable for the hosting services you will receive. A VPS is one machine that is partitioned to act as multiple machines, which gives it a similar affordability to shared hosting, with similar security and performance potential as a dedicated server hosting plan.
3. Implement the best content management system
A Content Management System u003cstrongu003e(CMS)u003c/strongu003e is a software program or application that is used to create and manage digital content. A good CMS will help you maintain your site, and you don’t need much technical knowledge to use it. You should choose a CMS that is designed for your unique needs; different systems are used for different reasons, such as user-friendliness, extensibility, and budget. The following are some popular systems with descriptions of their strengths and weaknesses.u003cbru003eu003cbru003eu003cstrongu003e- u003ca href=u0022https://wordpress.org/u0022 target=u0022_blanku0022 rel=u0022noreferrer noopeneru0022u003eWordPressu003c/au003e:u003c/strongu003e this is the world’s most popular CMS. It has a vast, active support community and many useful plugins to extend the functionality of your site. WordPress is also free and relatively simple to install. Most website developers are familiar with it so it is not hard to find an individual or agency that can work on your site. I normally recommend that small businesses use WordPress to create their websites, due to its flexibility and extensibility.u003cbru003eu003cbru003eu003cstrongu003e- u003ca href=u0022https://www.drupal.org/homeu0022 target=u0022_blanku0022 rel=u0022noreferrer noopeneru0022u003eDrupalu003c/au003e: u003c/strongu003ethis is another popular CMS. It offers many of the same benefits as WordPress, including flexibility, ease of use, and a large support community. Notably it is a more secure CMS than WordPress (safer from malicious activity); however, it doesn’t have as many plugin or theme options, which makes it less extensible. For many years, the White House website (Whitehouse.gov) was run with Drupal, but has since switched to WordPress, which it still uses today.u003cbru003eu003cbru003eu003cstrongu003e- u003ca href=u0022https://www.joomla.org/u0022 target=u0022_blanku0022 rel=u0022noreferrer noopeneru0022u003eJoomlau003c/au003e: u003c/strongu003eAnother popular CMS. Out of the box, it has better SEO, security, and multilingual capabilities than WordPress; however, with the help of a few plugins, WordPress surpasses Joomla’s capabilities.
4. Choose a good e-commerce platform
If you plan on selling goods and/or services through your website, you will need the right technology to do so. If you decide to allow users to financially transact with you online, you will need to choose the right platform for your business model. Here are some popular small business e-commerce platforms:u003cbru003eu003cbru003eu003cstrongu003e- u003ca href=u0022https://woocommerce.com/u0022 target=u0022_blanku0022 rel=u0022noreferrer noopeneru0022u003eWooCommerceu003c/au003e: u003c/strongu003ethis is one of the world’s most popular e-commerce platforms as it can turn your WordPress website into an online store. Like WordPress, there are many plugins available, and it attaches to WordPress, which makes it extremely flexible. There are many free and premium themes pre-built for WooCommerce. If you are not tech-savvy, you will most likely need a WordPress developer to help you set it up and use it. WooCommerce also offers a very high amount of capabilities and scalability that your small business might need.u003cbru003eu003cbru003eu003cstrongu003e- u003ca href=u0022https://www.shopify.com/u0022 target=u0022_blanku0022 rel=u0022noreferrer noopeneru0022u003eShopifyu003c/au003e: u003c/strongu003ethis is a cloud based e-commerce platform that allows you to create and customize an online store, and to manage products, inventory, payments, and shipping. It is not a WordPress extension like WooCommerce, it is a standalone platform that is hosted on the Shopify server, so if you have a main website, your e-commerce site would technically be separate from that. You can link to your Shopify account from your regular website built with WordPress, Drupal, etc., unless your main website has a Shopify integration plugin.u003cbru003eFeatures include unlimited products, unlimited bandwidth, fraud analysis, discount codes, reports, and much more. The key benefits of Shopify are that you do not need a developer to set up a store, and everything on the backend is already set up for you when you subscribe. The downside is you do not have as much control or flexibility over your store as you would with WooCommerce.u003cbru003eu003cbru003eu003cstrongu003e- u003ca href=u0022https://www.shopify.com/plusu0022 target=u0022_blanku0022 rel=u0022noreferrer noopeneru0022u003eShopify Plusu003c/au003e: u003c/strongu003ethis is Shopify but with a higher level of customization, more staff accounts, and international e-commerce options. It also has a higher level of support. However, all of this obviously comes with a higher subscription cost, and it still does not have all the flexibility and customization abilities as WooCommerce.
5. Create an interesting, memorable, and engaging website user interface
Make sure your small business website interface leaves a positive impression that drives results. You can do so by implementing the following suggestions:u003cbru003e- Use beautiful graphics and easy-to-read fonts.u003cbru003e- Make sure your graphics are compressed and optimized for fast loading. If your website is slow, search engines like Google will penalize your ranking.u003cbru003e- Research the competition to see how they have designed and optimized their websites; implement similar components that will work for your small business website.u003cbru003e- Research your target audience to see what they want from your site and make it easy for them to accomplish it.u003cbru003e- Stay consistently on brand throughout your website design.u003cbru003e- Design an intuitive navigation system which allows users to get to the pages they need quickly.u003cbru003e- Publish easily accessible contact information.u003cbru003e- Incorporate obvious call-to-actions (especially “buy now” buttons).u003cbru003e- Create pages that are standard for small business websites, such as: Home, About us, Products/Services (with descriptions and visually appealing images), Sitemap (for SEO purposes), Management team, Contact us, Terms of use (the online contract governing how users can use your site), Privacy policy, Additional pages relevant to your specific small business.
6. Display a clear description of your business
It is important to let people know who you are and what you do right away so they don’t feel confused when they visit your small business website. Make sure your main homepage banner (also known as a “hero image”) and subsequent banners are visual representations of your services, and also that you have an introductory text blurb near the top of the page that describes who you are and what you do.u003cbru003eAdditionally, make sure both your main and footer navigation menus have “About Us” page links easily accessible so people can click them and read more about your business in depth.
7. Optimize your small business website for search engines
Search Engine Optimization (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:u003cbru003e- Keyword research and implementationu003cbru003e- Optimal website codeu003cbru003e- Fast loading speedu003cbru003e- Being secure and having an SSL certificate installed. SSL is the standard security technology that ensures data passed between web servers and browsers remains privateu003cbru003e- Having a mobile-friendly siteu003cbru003e- Existence of high-quality backlinks (links on external websites with related content) that lead to your siteu003cbru003e- Having lots of positive reviews online (Google, Yelp, Facebook, etc.)u003cbru003e- Using internal links throughout your site to keep people clicking and readingu003cbru003e- Using social media to link to your site (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.)
8. Regularly create and publish quality content
Both content quantity and freshness are important to search engines, so it’s important that you create a plan to publish quality articles and/or blog posts on your site and on external sites that link to your site. If you want to rank highly in search engine results and encourage people to return to your site again and again, you will have to update your website with new and relevant content as frequently as possible. Make sure your content uses an appropriate, on-brand tone that people will enjoy reading.u003cbru003eu003cbru003eIn addition to static page content and articles, a great form of content to post on your small business website is testimonials. Asking for testimonials from your customers and then publishing them on your website is a great way to post fresh, high-quality content on your site that makes your small business more attractive.
9. Install webmaster tools
Make use of vital data to help you analyze traffic and site performance by installing u003ca href=u0022https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/u0022 target=u0022_blanku0022 rel=u0022noreferrer noopeneru0022u003eGoogle Analyticsu003c/au003e and u003ca href=u0022https://search.google.com/search-console/aboutu0022 target=u0022_blanku0022 rel=u0022noreferrer noopeneru0022u003eGoogle Search Consoleu003c/au003e and u003ca href=u0022https://www.bing.com/webmasters/aboutu0022 target=u0022_blanku0022 rel=u0022noreferrer noopeneru0022u003eBing Webmaster Toolsu003c/au003e. These tools can be used to track the following types of information:u003cbru003eu003cbru003e- Daily, weekly, and monthly visitors to your siteu003cbru003e- Number of views on each page of your siteu003cbru003e- Bounce rate, the percentage of users who come to your site and leave after having only viewed one page (Google algorithms give higher rankings to websites that have a low bounce rate, on the theory that visitors are spending more time on the site and find it valuable.)u003cbru003e- Average time spent on site by visitorsu003cbru003e- Crawl errors on your site (errors that the search engines found on your site in crawling its content)u003cbru003e- Broken links on the siteu003cbru003e- Keywords that lead users to your siteu003cbru003e- Backlinks to your siteu003cbru003e- Web page download timeu003cbru003e- Other information that can help you enhance your SEO
10. Implement a website maintenance plan
A website shouldn’t be created and then allowed to grow stale. In order to have a successful website that ranks well in search engines and doesn’t get hacked, you need to make sure it is properly maintained. Here are some tips to create a small business website maintenance plan:u003cbru003eu003cbru003e- Check Webmaster Tools data at least once a month and have any vital errors emailed to you in real time.u003cbru003e- Use traffic data to learn more about your audience so you can better cater to them.u003cbru003e- Use performance data to optimize and fix warnings and errors.u003cbru003e- Make sure all software is always up to date.u003cbru003e- Run security scans so you know your website is clean of malware and hasn’t been hacked.u003cbru003e- Use “split testing” to see if certain variations of your website help performance; for example, if you are selling a product, you might have two versions of a particular landing page with different images and wording—the split testing allows you to see which version has a higher conversion rate.u003cbru003e- Make sure your website is backed up in multiple ways at least once a day and at least 10 days back.
Conclusion
As you can tell after reading this article, creating a great small business website may not be as simple as you first thought. However, if you follow the steps set forth in this article, your small business website will have an excellent chance at succeeding in the online marketplace. If you have any questions or need help with creating your small business website please contact us and we will be glad to help you creating an amazing business website.