A strong website is vital for the success of any small business, not minding the type of business. But that’s one, the major thing is learning how to create and manage a website for your business. And in this article, we’ll take you through proven steps for creating a good website, as well as a list of free website builders that you can use for your business.
How To Create A Website For Your Business
#1. Choose a suitable domain name.
Your domain name, often known as your website address, is frequently the point of entry to your website. It is critical that it makes a strong first impression for both usability and search engine optimization (SEO).
#2. Invest in safe, scalable website hosting with excellent technical support.
A website host (also known as a website hosting provider) is a business that provides the technology and services required for a website to be seen on the internet. You connect your domain name to your hosting provider so that when users visit your website address, they are directed to the website that you host.
Depending on the technology and support you select, hosting services might range from $2 to $100+ each month. You can usually obtain a discount if you buy a yearly plan rather than a monthly plan.
#3. Display a clear description of your company prominently.
It is critical to let people know who you are and what you do right away so that they are not perplexed while visiting your small company website. Make sure your main homepage banner (also known as a “hero picture”) and subsequent banners are visual representations of your services, and that you include a text blurb towards the top of the page that conveys who you are and what you do.
Additionally, make sure that “About Us” page links are easily available in both your main and footer navigation menus so that people can click them and learn more about your company.
#4. Use the best content management system available.
A content management system (CMS) is a piece of software that allows you to produce and manage digital material. A solid CMS will help you maintain your site and requires little technical knowledge to utilize. You should select a CMS that is tailored to your specific requirements; different systems are utilized for various reasons, such as user-friendliness, extensibility, and cost.
#5. Select a reliable e-commerce platform
If you intend to sell items and/or services through your website, you will need the appropriate technologies. (If you do not currently sell anything, you should consider doing so because e-commerce has the potential to improve your income.) And, if you intend to allow people to do financial transactions with you online, you must select the appropriate platform for your company strategy.
#6. Design an engaging, memorable, and fascinating website user interface.
Make sure the interface of your small company website creates a pleasant impression that leads to results. You can accomplish this by executing the following recommendations:
- Use eye-catching images and easy-to-read fonts.
- Make certain that your visuals are compressed and optimized for quick download. Search engines, such as Google, will penalize your ranking if your website is slow.
- Investigate your competitors’ websites to see how they have built and optimized them; apply similar components that will work for your small company website.
- Investigate your target audience to determine what they want from your site and make it simple for them to achieve it.
- Maintain brand consistency across your website design.
- Create an easy-to-use navigation system that allows people to rapidly access the pages they require.
- Publish contact information that is easily accessible.
- Include obvious call-to-actions (particularly “purchase now” buttons).
- Create typical pages for small business websites
#7. Make your small business website search engine friendly.
SEO is a collection of techniques you use on your website to guarantee search engines properly index and rank your website and then display it to search engine visitors. When search engines “scan” your website, it competes with websites that contain comparable material. The better the design and substance of your website, the higher it will rank in search engine results pages.
SEO consists primarily of the following practices:
- Keyword investigation and application
- The best website code
- Quick loading time
- Being secure and installing an SSL certificate; SSL is the industry-standard security protocol that ensures data sent between web servers and browsers is kept private.
- Having a site that is mobile-friendly
- The presence of high-quality backlinks (links on external websites with related content) pointing to your site.
- Having a lot of favorable feedback online (Google, Yelp, Facebook, etc.)
- Using internal connections on your website to keep visitors clicking and reading
- Using social media to drive traffic to your website (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.)
SEO is an ongoing activity that can mean the difference between appearing on the first page of search engine results pages (leading in massive quantities of free traffic to your website) and appearing on page 300. (resulting in no traffic).
#8. Create and publish quality material on a regular basis
Both content quantity and freshness are crucial to search engines, so make a plan to publish quality articles and/or blog entries on your site and on other sites that connect to your site. If you want to rank high in search engine results and encourage people to return to your site, you must update it as regularly as possible with new and relevant material.
In addition to static page content and articles, testimonials are an excellent type of material to provide on your website. Requesting client testimonials and then publishing them on your website is a terrific method to create new, high-quality material that will help your small business stand out.
Make certain that your material is written in a suitable, on-brand tone that people will love reading.
#9. Set up webmaster tools
Install Google Analytics, Google Search Console (ideally via Google Tag Manager), and Bing Webmaster Tools to assist you to evaluate traffic and site performance. These tools can be used to keep track of the following categories of data:
- Visitors visiting your website on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis
- Views on each page of your website
- “Bounce rate”—the percentage of visitors who arrive at your site and leave after only seeing one page
- Visitors’ average time spent on the site
- Crawl problems on your site
- Broken links on the website
- Keywords that direct visitors to your website
- Links to your website
- Download time for a website
- Other data that can help you improve your SEO
#10. Create a website maintenance strategy.
A website should not be developed and then abandoned. To have a successful website that ranks high in search engines and is not hacked, you must ensure that it is well-maintained.
Here are some pointers for developing a small company website maintenance plan:
- Check Webmaster Tools data at least once a month, and any critical issues will be emailed to you in real-time.
- Use traffic statistics to understand more about your target audience and how to better serve them.
- Optimize and correct warnings and faults using performance data.
- Make certain that all software is always up to date.
- Run security scans to ensure your website is malware-free and hasn’t been compromised.
- Use “split testing” to determine whether certain variations of your website improve performance. For example, if you are selling a product, you may have two versions of a specific landing page with different images and wording—split testing allows you to determine which version has a higher conversion rate.
- Discover new and successful ways to sell your company online.
- Allow website visitors to submit comments on your site.
- Continue to monitor your competition’s web presence to see what they’re doing and whether what they’re doing can work for you as well.
- Make sure your website is backed up at least once a day and for at least 10 days.
Free Website Builders For A Small Business
A website is essential for a small business. Using social media alone does not provide you a lot of control over your consumer base or marketing. Furthermore, your buyers must visit your website in order to have faith in your brand.
Many small business owners used to believe that creating a robust website with an attractive design was out of their reach.
However, it is now possible to locate a web tool that makes things so simple that a single person may develop a site without the assistance of designers or programmers. This is one of the reasons why website builders are an excellent choice for small businesses on a low budget. In this article, we’ll see the best free website builders for a small business
Best Free Website Builders For A Small Business
#1. HubSpot
Creating a visually appealing brand website does not have to be difficult. If you want to construct your own website but don’t have any coding skills, use HubSpot’s drag-and-drop website builder.
It includes everything you need to create a website, including CMS tools, themes and templates, security measures, and a built-in content delivery network (CDN) to ensure pages load rapidly.
It also easily integrates with HubSpot CRM. This allows you to integrate contact forms, live chat requests, and other features, making it suitable for companies who currently use HubSpot’s CRM product.
#2. Wix
Wix is one of the most popular free website builders, with over 200 million users. The user-friendly, fully-hosted platform includes a simple drag-and-drop editor, a large library of apps, and professional-looking themes. Wix’s Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) program, Editor X, may even suggest a design for your site.
#3. WordPress
WordPress is the most popular free website builder in the world, accounting for 43% of the content management industry. When it comes to creating websites using WordPress, there are two options: WordPress.org and WordPress.com.
WordPress.org allows you to obtain WordPress’s open-source software in order to build and personalize a website to your specifications. There are, however, a few caveats. Not only will you need a domain name and hosting before you can get started, but you’ll also need to learn how to maintain and secure the website on your own.
WordPress.com, on the other hand, is significantly more user-friendly. It is a fully-hosted free website development service provided by Automattic that makes use of the WordPress foundation to create a pleasant website construction experience.
#4. Elementor
While WordPress makes site construction accessible to beginners, WordPress page builders make improving your website and reaching your desired design easier.
Elementor, a no-code drag-and-drop page builder trusted by over 5,000,000 users, is a terrific alternative for rapidly getting a customized WordPress site up and running. Without having to bother about the underlying code, you may choose from hundreds of mobile-optimized page templates.
#5. Webnode
Webnode is one of the most popular website builder programs for good reason, with over 40 million users. It is inexpensive, simple to use, and enables multilingual web pages in up to 20 languages.
Webnode, which enables e-commerce storefronts, is ideal for personal, professional, and small company websites.
#6. Jimdo
Founded in 2007, Jimdo is a German-based firm that offers AI-powered website creation solutions for small enterprises. Dolphin, the constructor, asks people questions and then offers designs based on their responses. If you’re interested in seeing what these AI-powered designs look like, Jimdo has a few samples on its page.
With 500 MB of space, you’ll certainly have more than enough capacity to develop your site, and it even includes HTTPS/SSL encryption, ensuring the security of your visitors’ information. Furthermore, you may simply combine your site with social media accounts.
Jimdo is also a good choice for foreign businesses because it allows you to develop mobile-optimized websites in over nine languages.
#7. Mozello
Mozello includes all of the essential elements for creating a website, including a drag-and-drop editor, template collection, and e-commerce capability. One of Mozello’s main selling features is that the builder allows you to create a multilingual site for free.
#8. Yola
Yola, founded in 2007, is a free website builder designed to take the stress out of creating a website.
It includes a drag-and-drop builder, hundreds of customizable and mobile-optimized themes, and pre-designed blocks for creating various types of websites, including online shops.
#9. Weebly
Weebly is an open-source software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that provides web hosting, domain registration, site design, and e-commerce capabilities, making it ideal for enterprises and startups. It is exceptionally adaptable for a free website builder, as it is compatible with any device and platform and simple to use.
Weebly, like Wix, offers drag-and-drop features, an integrated CMS, and hand-coded HTML files. The in-house editor includes SEO tools as well as Google Analytics.
#10. Webflow
While the majority of the other builders on this list are designed for consumers with little to no coding experience, Webflow is designed for advanced users, designers, and agencies who need a solution that allows them more design freedom than typical website builder tools.
Despite being a complicated platform, Webflow strives to make getting your business online as simple as possible. Webflow features a strong set of tools to assist you, including blog entries, forums, FAQ sections, and a library of Webflow-built websites for reference.
How Much Does It Cost To Start a Website For A Business?
A simple website for a small business can be built for between $100 and $500. However, depending on your objectives, this cost may rise. A custom-built website with several features might cost up to $30,000 or more.
Do You Get Paid For Owning A Website?
You may not be paid for owning a website, but you can actually make money from your website.
Is Starting A Website Worth It?
Starting a website is definitely worth it. 84% of today’s consumers believe that having a website makes your company more credible than having merely social media pages. Your website is also an excellent opportunity to display any professional certificates or accolades that your company has received.
How Long Does It Take To Build A Website?
A professional website can take anything from two to five months to complete. Knowing how long it takes to design a website with a designer/developer, agency, or team might help you determine if you should do it yourself or engage a professional.
In Conclusion,
Now, we have established that every business needs a website, no matter how small the business. Another thing to note is that creating a business website is not that simple, but by following the steps outlined here and using the right website builder, you’ll be well on your way to generating and converting more leads.
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