A Step-by-Step Guide to Get You Started Small Business Website Design
Your website is the most powerful sales and marketing tool in your arsenal. In five stages, you can design a stunning personal or commercial website that attracts visitors and entices them to collaborate with you. Here’s how you get started.
1. Select a domain name.
A domain is your website’s unique name.
You may select whatever name you like, but it’s preferable if it fits your business or professional name. This not only ensures that your branding is consistent, but it may also have a huge influence on how you appear in search results. A decent domain name may help you rank better in searches, increasing the amount of visitors who click to visit your site.
• When choosing a domain name, consider include important keywords to improve search engine exposure.
• Make sure it’s easy to spell.
• Use a domain name generator to jumpstart your thinking process.
• Keep your domain name brief to make it easy for visitors to remember.
• Avoid using abbreviations, acronyms, hyphens, and digits.
• Use typical top-level domains (TLDs) like.com or.net, or choose one that is relevant to your business.
• Ensure no one else is using it. While you may buy a domain from someone else, it can be pricey. You could be better off going with an alternative name or top-level domain, such as.net.
2. Register your domain and choose your design and hosting provider.
Once you’ve chosen a domain name, you’ll need to register it with a domain registrar. You may accomplish this using a website such as Domain.com or Network Solutions. Keep in mind that these vendors just register the name for you, which may cost between $10 and $20 per year, depending on the TLD.
You’ll still need to locate another provider to host the URL where you’ll develop your website and maybe use a different tool to design it. To make things easier, you may register your domain with a company that includes registration, hosting, and design services.
If you don’t have much or any coding skills, you could prefer an all-in-one platform like WordPress, Squarespace, or Wix.
If you decide to utilize different firms for web hosting and design, seek for a hosting provider that provides benefits like tech assistance, a free domain name, or a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate.
You should place a high value on the SSL certificate because it is a global standard security technology that allows for a secure connection while also protecting your and your visitors’ critical information. Simply simply, this security feature adds the S in HTTPS to the front of a website’s URL. It is well received by both search engines and visitors.
These features are more prevalent among all-in-one providers, but there is no guarantee, so make sure the one you pick has them before purchasing a subscription.
Bluehost, DreamHost, GoDaddy, and InMotion are some of the most popular web hosts, both with and without design integration.
If your web provider does not offer integration options, you may choose to utilize Canva and Adobe Creative Cloud services. These services allow you to create designs and embed them on your website’s pages.
3. Create useful pages with engaging content.
When it comes to organizing material about your business and its services, you have a lot of alternatives.
That being stated, try to include these vital sections on your website:
- A visually appealing homepage: The major center of your business website should capture visitors and explain exactly what you do and who you serve. Use eye-catching images, legible typefaces, succinct and clear explanations, and compelling calls to action.
- Include an informative ‘About Us’ page that explains your company’s genesis story. Highlight your accomplishments, goals, and values. You may also introduce any team members to build stronger relationships with consumers.
- Booking/shop page: Increase income by integrating a third-party online scheduling or e-commerce platform, like HoneyBook or WooCommerce.
- Make your contact page: easily accessible by include social media profiles, email addresses, phone numbers, and a contact form. If it matches your business, provide your operation hours as well.
- Share memorable content to position yourself as an industry expert and build a dedicated audience for your business. This might include blog posts, videos, podcast episodes, case studies, and more. Additionally, this material may improve your search ranking and attract more visitors.
- Providing solutions to frequent queries on your FAQ page may increase brand confidence and minimize support ticket volume.
- Testimonials and media coverage: Sharing your accomplishments can help you get more credibility. Create a page with favorable evaluations of your services and incorporate any mentions of your company in reputable media sites.
4. Optimize your website for search engines.
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process of improving your company’s website so that its pages appear higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), most notably Google. It’s what allows folks to locate you.
As you construct your website, keep these fundamental SEO strategies in mind to boost your exposure and attract more visitors.
- Use relevant terms (keywords) across your articles and pages. However, do not utilize keywords only for their own sake. Make sure your decisions are purposeful. Overuse may have a detrimental influence on your rating.
- Publish useful information for consumers or readers on a consistent basis.
- Conduct regular content audits and cleanups to identify areas for consolidation or refreshment.
- Optimize images and enable browser caching to keep your website’s loading speed as low as feasible. These changes can help your website appear higher in search engine rankings. GTmetrix allows you to measure your page speed. (Learn more about the significance of page loading speed.)
- Ensure your design and content are compatible with PCs, mobile devices, and tablets. Don’t underestimate your website’s performance on mobile. Smartphones account for up to half of all online traffic nowadays.
It’s fantastic to have a well-designed company website, but search engines want to see more to establish your authority when indexing it in their search results.
When optimizing your website for search, keep your visitors in mind. You’ll want to use simple navigation techniques and create pages that load quickly. To accommodate a wide range of user abilities, adopt Section 508 requirements to make your website as accessible as feasible.
5. Review Your Site Before You Hit ‘Publish’
Before you launch your website into the real world, you need test it to ensure it functions correctly.To guarantee accuracy, proofread your text thoroughly.
- Check for broken links.Remove unnecessary stuff from your website design or theme.
- Test your website on several browsers, including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, and more.
- Monitor your website’s performance with Google Analytics.
When you’re ready, click the publish button. To generate traffic to your freshly launched website, share it with friends, market it to clients, and feature it on your - LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, among other social media platforms.
Keep Your Website Up to Date.
You’re not finished with your site the moment you press publish. To retain top search rankings and improve your visitors’ experience, you must continuously update your website. Consider including the following on your webmaster to-do list:
- Use webmaster and analytics tools, such Google Analytics, to track user behavior on your website. Bounce rates, click-through rates, and average session time are some of the website engagement metrics to measure.
- Regularly update your website with blog entries, goods, and promotions.
- Monthly website evaluations verify all internal and external links, pages, and plug-ins function properly.
- Update your “About Us” page to reflect new team members or successes.
As time passes, you may wish to develop ties with other company websites in order to create reputation and boost your SEO. When other prominent websites connect to yours, search engines perceive your site as more reputable and deserving of better rankings in the results.
