Build A Simple Small Business Website In Three Steps
These days, building a simple small business website is an essential part of promoting your venture.
That’s
because most everyone has come to expect that any legitimate business
will be on the internet. It has been estimated that about 70 per cent of small businesses already have a web site and use social media.
It’s almost too easy to search for almost any small business on Google or any of the other popular search engines. And that includes YouTube.com which is its own search engine for videos.
So how do you get started building your simple small business website ?
IMPORTANT Words of Advice – Make sure that you yourself OWN the URL domain. (GOOD = PrettyPansiesCT.com), not someone else. (NOT GOOD = Pretty PansiesCT.dersite.com)
Here is a brief explanation of the web site building process:
1. Determine the name of your site, called it’s URL – “Uniform Resource Locator” and register it for usage on the web.
2. Select which service will host your site. It most likely will be the same one that registers your URL.
3. Actually build your site and make it live on the web.
Another way of explaining this process is to 1. name your business, 2. select your location and 3. fill your store with everything you need to make the sale.
It’s that simple. And the details of doing each step can be as rudimentary or complicated as your small business situation requires.
Simple small business website details
1. For the first task of determining the name of your site, simply take the name of the business, jam all of the letters together without spaces in between, add .com to it and do a Google search to see what comes up.
For example, take PrettyPansies.com. That’s a pretty broad search term, so you may want to localize that by searching for PrettyPansiesCT.com, with the CT representing Connecticut.
Continue doing this until you can safely predict that Google will list you for your exact URL since you don't see it listed in the results. Then you have an specific website name to register. And when you go to register your name, you will be told positively if anyone else already has that exact URL address.
2. As the second step, you’ll want to select a place that will host your site. This is most likely the same place that will register your site name.
GoDaddy.com
is very well known, VistaPrint.com and WIX.com are others.
Simply search for “web site hosting” and you’ll discover more sites than you can possibly imagine.
Words of advice: Use an internet query (ending in a question mark "?") to lead you to the services that rate the simple small business websites, compare their ease of use and their “up-time” reliability. Be sure to confirm your choice against multiple sources to keep you safe from fake reviews, etc.
Once you find the level of services you need, the prices shouldn’t be too much different. Some people tend to go with the popular ones that have been around for 10 years or more and have a good reputation.
Others opt to have their own site and hire someone to make it for them.
Now you have (1) your URL name and (2) the place that your on-line data will occupy, the next step (3) is to actually create the data for your website.
3. Once again, your web hosting service may have their own programs to build your simple small business website. Take a look and see if they have what you want – both for your current and future needs.
One of the most popular programs today is wordpress.org. Some compare their basic program to a basic automobile with an engine, body and tires. And the “apps” are individual “add-ons” like heated seats, wood steering wheels, etc.
Words of advice: This is the time to figure out what you want to do on the web with your simple small business website. You may want just one to five pages or you may want to grow into something bigger and more flexible.
Several years ago when I began to build this advertising-for-small-businesses website, I chose SoloBuildIt! that has become my trusted web business builder.
SBI is a “one stop” service that has the total package, including domain registration, hosting, website building, social media links, analytics, and lots more for less than $300 a year!
Personally, I LOVE their "Analyze It!" tool when writing my web pages because it lets me know in seconds if the page conforms to web standards and then tells me the exact steps to correct my errors! This has saved me from making mistakes I didn't even know anything about.
A word of caution at this point in your journey: Building your site or blog is the "easy” part. But successful people should start with formulating a strategy.
SBI also guides you through the processes of: a) the planning b) the traffic-building and c) the monetization (converting your website visitors into income). It's automatically up-to-date and there is nothing to install.
SBI is certainly worth a look, especially for all you get at such a value-packed price!
Another tool I use is Aweber*, the leading email autoresponder marketing tool that enables over 120,000 entrepreneurs, bloggers and other small business owners around the world to communicate with their audiences through email.
Aweber includes automated email campaigns and autoresponders, email templates, a stock-free image gallery, mobile apps, advanced analytics and segmentation capabilities and industry-leading deliverability.
You should also expect your provider to include some form of analysis of your website visitors.
The
most popular is the (FREE) Google Analytics tool that's loaded with lots of features.
By now, you can see there is a wide world of options for you to choose from.
Let me repeat this point: Having someone else set up your simple small business website for you is probably a very realistic choice. But remember to have them show you how to post your own material so you can make changes yourself.
If
you want more information about any of these items for your small
business website, please get in touch with us personally by using our contact page.
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