In today's world, it is no longer feasible to operate a business without a website, even if it is a physical store. Almost everything consumers need to know about a company, including its name, location, and opening hours, can be found online. In a competitive field, even a simple, well-designed website can give you an edge. The site can also provide you with a means of opening up new markets for your products, allowing you to expand your business more easily and cheaply.
In recent years, website design software has evolved into an easy-to-use tool. To create a functional and attractive website, you do not need any prior knowledge of coding. Follow simple steps, and boom; you’ll have a professional website ready in no time at all. To get you started, here are 10 steps to follow for building a website for a company.
A Guide to Building a Business Website
The following steps will guide you through the process of developing a successful business website:
Step 1 Domain Registration
Your domain is your business online address so paying attention to it and on which type and name is critical for your success. The more memorable and informative it is, the easier it will be for visitors to find and land on your page. Hence, brainstorming for a domain name that is creative and searchable is important. Avoid short forms such as acronyms, abbreviations, numbers, as well as dashes/hyphens in your website name because it will test your visitors’ intelligence to read them. Here are some more ideas for you to explore when you are registering your domain name.
- Search engines will find your site more visible if you include relevant keywords in the domain.
- Make sure that it is easy to spell but not a generic keyword. Like Innove.ai is a unique name.
- Consider using a domain name generator as a starting point if you are having difficulty brainstorming.
- Keep your domain short to make it easier to remember and type out.
- Choose a top-level domain or TLD that best represents you or your business, such as .com or .net.
- Domains can be purchased from others, but this can be expensive.
Step 2 Choosing a Hosting Company
After step one, you now need to shop for a hosting service. You can’t do without this because a hosting server is needed for storing all the website information for you and your visitors to access online, anytime and anywhere.
However, choosing a hosting service may be confusing for first time website owners due to the technical jargons and details that are listed with an offer. And it can get expensive if you are trying to get all the service when you don’t really need it.
So, the best way to do this is to choose a website builder that already has hosting embedded in the package. Or, you can get a cheap hosting service for the time being until your business website is ready to scale up.
If you must know and are interested, choosing between two routes is possible based on your business's budget. A shared web host is a less expensive option, meaning your site will be shared with other sites on the same server. If you choose dedicated hosting, your website will have its own private server and won't compete with other websites that slow it down. Several web-building platforms, including Innove.ai, Squarespace and Wix, offer monthly packages that include web hosting.
Suppose you intend to use separate companies for your web hosting and design. In that case, you should choose a hosting company that offers features such as tech support, free domain names, and Secure Sockets Layer certificates (SSL). SSL certificates play a crucial role in the security of your website, as they enable a secure connection and ensure that your data and sensitive information are protected.
Numerous hosting companies are available, including Godaddy.com, Bluehost, and DreamHost.
Step 3 Choose a Website Builder
Choosing the right web builder for your needs is critically important; you need it to be simple to use, have the features you need, and have excellent support when you encounter problems. You can find options that are free or paid, so you don't have to go to a professional website designer or developer to find one that fits your budget.
All-in-one options like WordPress, Squarespace, Shopify and Wix may be the best choice for those without coding experience. However, the most effective website builder meets your needs and effectively represents your business on the web.
Step 4 Creating and Customizing Your Website
It is time to begin building your website now that you have selected a domain name and web host, as well as a website builder you will use.
Many website builders, such as Innove.ai, Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify, do not require a separate hosting provider to run your website. You will not have to worry about hosting with these platforms. Additionally, they offer the option to register a domain name, making them a one-stop shop for building websites.
Step 5 Start Building Important Pages User Engagement
An effective website consists of more than just a static homepage. Your website should include multiple pages devoted to numerous aspects of your company, such as a detailed product catalog or a blog. Your overall website needs to support your primary goal, be clear about its purpose, and include a call to action (CTA), such as "Click Here to Learn More," "Sign Up," "Get in Touch," or "Buy This."
Here are some important pages to build on your site and a few other things to add.
- An Attractive Homepage. You should include a central hub on your business website that captivates your visitors and clearly explains what you do and who you serve. Create compelling graphics, easy-to-read fonts, concise and clear descriptions, and compelling calls to action. For inspiration you can go to Behance, Awwwards, and Dribble.
- Remember, do not use stock photos. The fastest way to make a great site mediocre is to use tacky stock photos of your products and services. It's best to use photos of your actual office, team, and products you are selling on all your pages.
- An informative 'About Us' Page. Tell the story of how your business began. Describe your accomplishments, mission, and values. If you wish to foster a deeper relationship with your customers, you may also introduce any members of your team.
- Bookings or shop pages. Enhance revenue with an online booking platform or e-commerce platform such as HoneyBook or WooCommerce. Moreover, if you have decided to opt for Shopify then you’ll have to optimize shopping cart, product images and descriptions, and payment gateway.
- Accessible Contact Information. If you wish to make it easier for people to contact you, include your social media accounts, email address, phone number, and address. You may also include your operating hours if your business falls within this category.
- A Memorable Piece of Content. Engaging your audience with compelling content helps you establish yourself as an industry expert and build a loyal following. A blog, a video, a podcast episode, case study, or other material can be included in this type of content. Furthermore, this content may improve your search engine rankings and increase traffic to your website.
- FAQs With a lot of Information. Your customers will be more likely to trust your brand if you answer common questions, as well as minimize the number of calls and support requests you receive.
- Press coverage and Testimonials. Share your successes to boost your credibility. Your website should include positive reviews of your services as well as any media coverage that your business receives.
Step 6 Use Social Media to Promote Your Website
Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter), LinkedIn and Pinterest are the best social media platforms to engage your audience and keep them informed of your company's activities. Post your website's updates on social media, but ensure that those posts are balanced with genuine, non-promotional engagement.
Also, make sure your website includes links to your social media profiles. A footer or an accessory bar (the extra menu at the top right of the homepage that usually includes login or contact information) are the most common places to do this.
Step 7 Test for Usability and User Experience
Before announcing it is live online, be sure your site works on all major browsers, including Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome. Make sure all images display correctly, links are correct, and the format looks smooth on every browser. You will need to put in some effort to make this work, but you will save yourself future complaints from visitors who cannot access certain things.
Additionally, make sure your website is well-suited for device use on mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones. In light of Google's move to mobile-first indexing, ranking your mobile site should be prioritized in search engine optimization.
Step 8 Optimize Your Website for Search Engines (SEO)
Adding your website to major search engines and implementing a strong search engine optimization (SEO) strategy across your website will help direct users to your website. You can boost your search engine ranking for your products or services by creating title tags, meta descriptions, and uniform resource identifiers (URIs) tailored to the industry and company you are marketing.
By including relevant keywords in your content from the beginning and focusing on SEO, you help to generate traffic early on.
You can improve your ability to move up the search engine rankings by implementing these important on-site SEO tactics:
- Research and implement the right keywords. Make sure to select keywords that relate to your business and are relevant to what your potential clients are searching for online. You can identify, analyze, and track these keywords using online tools like Keyword.io, Ubersuggest, SEMRush, etc.
- Update your content regularly. Regular blog posts, new content added to your website, and content maintenance will indicate to search engines that your website is relevant for the chosen keywords. Select relevant topics to position yourself and your business as thought leaders in your industry. CMS like WordPress, Wix, HubSpot, and Medium, are industry standard.
- Include internal and external links. An internal link leads to another page on your website, while an external link links to another popular, high-authority website. Ensure these links are strategically placed throughout your website content, such as the blogs, homepage, and service pages. It is important that each link makes sense, fits the context, and provides value for the reader; otherwise, the linking may be penalized. Tools like Screaming Frog, WordPress, and Nofollow Chrome extensions will help you identify these.
- Image optimization. Compress your images to prevent your site from loading slowly. Use the same approach when adding video, ensuring clips load quickly and don't slow down the site's overall performance. Image metadata, such as tags and captions, also gives search engines an idea of what the images are about. You can also use tools Image SEO, SEO Geek, Small SEO tools, etc.
- Optimize your site's speed. In the ideal situation, pages should load within a few seconds. Google's PageSpeed Insights is a free tool to see if your site is performing at its best. Alternatives like GTMetrix, Pingdom, and Web Page Test are also available.
Additionally, you may want to consider off-site SEO tactics, such as obtaining backlinks from other web pages linking to your site. Search engines will see this as an indication that your website is valuable and deserves to be ranked highly.
Step 9 Make Your Online Business More Visible
Once you have built your business website, you will also have established a digital marketing hub. Here are a couple of low-cost marketing strategies you can use to promote your business on your site:
- Email marketing. Communication targeted at customers generates conversions and establishes relationships. Your brand will also benefit from more engagement, increased traffic, and business promotion. You can add a subscription or subscriber form that will help you collect visitor information which will enable you later on to sell your products to niche target audiences who are ready to purchase your service or product. Tools like MailChimp, HubSpot, iContact, or built in email tools within the CMS work too.
- Social media marketing. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest and X are just a few examples of social media platforms that businesses are leveraging to reach out to mass audiences across the world. Using social media marketing, you can create user-generated content to target specific social groups, or live stream your business' events, or through paid marketing.
Step 10 Post Regularly on Your Site, and Track Its Performance
Keeping your website up to date with current industry events, new products, and company news and informational blog posts.
It's also important to track your site's performance. The Google Analytics and Search Console tools come quite handy for this task. The tools let you see how people find and interact with your site. You can keep track of how many visitors are coming to each page and what type of content they are interested in. Other than these, external tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, Similarweb help you get a bird-eye view of your site and compare its performance against competitors.
Doing this lets you see if your content needs to be updated to keep people engaged. You can assign this task to a trusted employee or freelancer if you do not have time to handle it yourself.
Conclusion
The website serves as your company's digital home and is an essential part of showcasing your business online. With the rise of online shopping and consumer engagement, you have a huge opportunity to engage the modern consumer, so don’t miss out on this.
The aim is to build a site that not only ranks well on search engines but is also appreciated by customers. These are the ten simple steps to follow when building a site; however, maintaining it is another challenge you must be aware of.
