Website in Mind? Here are the 10 Essential Steps for a Small Business.
A great website is crucial for the success of your small business, regardless of whether you run a hardware store, are a freelance photographer, or run another kind of small business. As a webmaster who has worked on building or marketing over 100 small business websites, I know what it takes to create great and engaging business websites.
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.
1. Get a quality domain name
The main portal to your website is frequently your domain name, also known as your website address. It must leave a positive first impression in order to be effective for both search engine optimization and usability (SEO).
2. Invest in scalable, secure website hosting that offers responsive tech support.
A company that provides the technology and services required for a website to be viewed on the internet is known as a website host (or, occasionally, a website hosting provider). 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.
Hosting services can cost anywhere between $2 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.
3. Make a clear description of your company prominently visible.
To avoid confusion when customers visit your small company website, it’s critical to immediately communicate who you are and what you do. Make sure your primary homepage banner (often known as a “hero image”), any subsequent banners, and the introductory text blurb at the top of the page all serve as visual representations of your services.
Additionally, make sure that the “About Us” page links on your main and footer navigation menus are prominently displayed so that visitors may click them and read additional in-depth information about your company.
4. Use the top content management system available.
A software programme or application used to create and manage digital material is known as a content management system (CMS). Your site can be maintained with the aid of a good CMS, and using one doesn’t require much technical know-how. You should pick a CMS that is tailored to your specific requirements because different platforms are used for various factors, including user-friendliness, extensibility, and cost.
The popular systems listed below have discussions of their advantages and disadvantages.
WordPress: WordPress is the most widely used CMS worldwide.
Wix: Wix and Squarespace are very similar, but Wix is a little more user-friendly. It offers a monthly subscription but not an annual one and has comparable features. Wix is also a drag-and-drop builder—you can freely drag and drop elements anywhere on the page; in comparison, Squarespace is more structured in where you can drag and drop on the page. The learning curve to using Wix is even shorter than Squarespace, so if you need to publish a site quickly, this may be your best option.
5. Design an intriguing, enduring, and captivating website user interface.
Make sure the user experience on your small company website generates results. You can achieve this by putting the following advice into practise:
Make use of eye-catching images and legible typefaces.
Ensure that your visuals are optimised and compressed for quick download. Search engines like Google will lower your rating if your website is slow.
Implement comparable elements that will work for your small business website after researching the competition to see how they have designed and optimised their websites.
Find out what your target audience wants from your website through research, and then make it simple for them to get it.
Maintain brand identity throughout the entire design of your website.
Create a user-friendly navigation system.
6. Improve the search engine optimization of your small company website
In order for search engines to properly index, rank, and display your website to search engine users, you must implement a set of techniques known as SEO on your website. Your website will be in competition with other websites that have similar content once search engines have “crawled” it. Your website will rank higher on search engine result pages the better it is designed and written.
7. Create and publish high-quality material on a regular basis
Both the amount and the freshness of your content matter to search engines, so make a plan to produce high-quality articles and/or blog entries on both your website and other websites that connect to it. You must update your website with fresh, pertinent material as regularly as possible if you want to rank well in search engine results and draw visitors back again and time again.
Testimonials are an excellent type of material to post on your website in addition to static page content and articles. A fantastic approach to add new, high-quality material on your website is to ask for client testimonials and then publish them there.
8. Put webmaster tools in place
Install Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, and other tools to use important data to help you analyse traffic and site performance. Preferably, you should do this using Google Tag Manager.
9. Create a plan for website upkeep.
You shouldn’t build a website and then leave it to become outdated. You must make sure your website is properly maintained if you want to have a successful one that performs well in search engine results and isn’t hacked.
10. Do more of Social Media and Digital Marketing
At Graphics India Online, our focus is to help businesses reach a wider audience. We offer high quality design, marketing and digital services at affordable prices. From brand strategy to advertising & promotional campaigns, we can do it all for you.
Reach out to us at info@graphicsindiaonline.in