Creating A Business Web Site [BEST]

If you are looking to build a new startup website or make your current site more effective, here are 10 key steps to getting started and helping your small business website compete effectively in the online marketplace.

creating a business web site

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).

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 website address, they are shown your website that you store on your hosting account.

Wix has a lot more templates than Squarespace to choose from, but once you choose a template, you must stick with it or be forced to completely rebuild your site. With Squarespace, you can change your template anytime without having to rebuild the entire site.

If you plan on selling goods and/or services through your website, you will need the right technology to do so. (If you do not currently sell anything, you may want to consider doing so since e-commerce could potentially increase your profits.) If you decide to allow users to financially transact with you online, you will need to choose the right platform for your business model.

Business Squarespace: Squarespace has an e-commerce subscription option, so if you chose Squarespace to build your site and have very simple e-commerce needs, you can choose this route. Business Squarespace charges a transaction fee, but this can be bypassed by upgrading your subscription to a basic online store. It includes a free domain, SSL security, SEO, abandoned cart recovery, discounts, real-time carrier shipping, and more. However, it has been noted it is not as user-friendly as Shopify. And like Shopify, it is simply not as flexible as WooCommerce.

SEO is an extremely important ongoing process that can mean the difference between showing up on the first page of search engine results pages (resulting in large amounts of free traffic to your website) or page 300 (resulting in no traffic).

In addition to static page content and articles, a great form of content to post on your 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.

Make use of vital data to help you analyze traffic and site performance by installing Google Analytics and Google Search Console (both preferably via Google Tag Manager), and Bing Webmaster Tools. These tools can be used to track the following types of information:

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 will have an excellent chance at succeeding in the online marketplace.

I'm a Webmaster who specializes in WordPress, graphic design, mobile-friendly website development, search engine optimization (SEO), pay per click (PPC) advertising, user interface, e-commerce, and blogging/social media marketing. I am originally from Ohio and received my Bachelor of Science degree from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, focused on Web Design and Interactive Media. I have been involved in building or marketing over 100 business websites. To find out how to drive visitors to your website, check out my article, Small Business Internet Marketing Strategy: Pay Per Click Advertising and Search Engine Optimization. Visit my website www.allisonbowlus.com and connect with me on LinkedIn.

Running a small business means you may not have the budget to outsource certain tasks. For instance, if you want to establish an online presence, hiring a web designer could be pricey. However, it can be challenging to make a small business website on your own.

Luckily, this process is not as complicated as it may seem. Some beginner-friendly website builders perfect for a small business will enable you to create a beautiful site without any experience. Best of all, many of these tools are incredibly budget-friendly.

You should also think about the expected traffic to your website. If you want to sell products online, you may receive a lot more attention than a local business that relies on in-person sales. Your needs in this area will influence which platforms and hosting providers are suitable for your site.

Once you Install and Activate the theme of your choice, you can customize it. Alternatively, you may want to consider a premium WordPress business theme. These products often include features such as pre-built portfolios, e-commerce pages, and page builder integration.

Plugins (in WordPress) and extensions (in Squarespace and other page builders) can add new features to your website. Without these tools, you may struggle to get the most out of your small business site.

The web host you choose to power your WordPress site plays a key role in its speed and performance. However, with so many claiming to offer the fastest WordPress hosting out there, how do you decide which company to use? In this post, we'll look at ...

Examples of local businesses include restaurants, CPAs, plumbers, real estate agents, flower shops, tanning salons, you name it. Think of any corner store or market you might find when driving down your main street as a perfect example of a niche business with specific website needs.

Some local businesses need extremely basic websites, which feature just one page that displays their contact information and hours of operation. Others will need sites with greater functionality, such as ordering systems, chat responders, or even internet data exchange (IDX) integrations. Ultimately, your website needs will depend heavily on the type of business you run.

Remember, it's not enough to simply have a Facebook page, a Google Business Profile, or a Yelp profile for your business. While all of these will help promote your brand and increase its visibility, a website for which you have complete control represents the first real step to becoming a legitimate business.

Large companies or brands include the businesses most people already know by name. All the companies who put items on the shelves of your local grocery store, for example, also need a business website.

Surprisingly, they often create much simpler websites than you may expect. Many of their sites are just blogs on a much larger scale. While a large business website may include hundreds or thousands of pages, the technology required to create it is actually no more complicated than what you need to build a small, simple blog.

For large businesses and brands, we recommend WordPress. All WordPress sites need a reliable host, and beginners may prefer a host that includes a website builder. This is why we recommend Bluehost for both your hosting and building needs.

For online services businesses, we recommend WordPress. Using a subscription to a service like Envato Elements makes picking the right theme and adding unique functionality to your site easy.

The ecommerce sector has undergone a significant boom during the past few years. This includes those selling physical and digital products as well as those using a dropshipping model. Much of the fuel for this massive growth came from new software products that simplified the entire online selling process and lowered the cost for small businesses and entrepreneurs to enter the market.

For other types of content creators, from those who produce video essays to podcasters, having a website that can house your in-depth content, as well as link it to all the other platforms for users to engage with it, is vital. Not all website builders come equipped with this capability or make it easy to navigate. Making sure you find the right fit is essential.

If you want to create a portfolio website to showcase your artistic work, then design control may play a more important role when choosing software. Most web building software platforms make design simple by offering a wide variety of templates from which to choose.

For content-focused websites we recommend the Bluehost Website Builder. Bluehost allows you to host and build your WordPress website with an intuitive drag-and-drop builder, including access to WordPress Admin and advanced features.

WordPress uses themes to change the look and feel of your website. The best and most useful themes come from third-party companies. These themes control not only the design of your site, but also its back-end functionality in many cases. Check out our article on the Best WordPress Themes to learn more.

Your choice of theme or template will vary, depending on the type of business you operate and your style preferences. Use the following attributes to help guide your decision on which theme or template to choose.

Once you ensure your customers will find your chosen theme easy to use, you should look for an option that conforms to the visual elements of your business branding. Many new businesses actually derive their brand visuals from their websites instead of the reverse.

Whether or not you choose to add these pages to your site will depend on what type of business you operate. You also can get creative and combine or add any of these page types as you see fit. Just remember that internet users expect to see certain patterns so stepping too far outside the norm may do more harm than good.

The all-in-one structure of these tools enables their developers to work behind the scenes to update your site with almost no input from you. This is one of the major advantages of using a website builder.

Using our feature rich website builder, you can build an ecommerce store to sell your products. Whether you use product-sourcing apps or make your own products, you can build a website to sell your products online and in-store. Shopify offers various sales channels, apps, POS, and features that simplify the selling process. 041b061a72