Building a website is the single most important thing that a company can do. As the world becomes more connected through the internet, businesses have a huge opportunity to cash on the moment. All successful businesses have a website to showcase their goods and services, along with offering an online store for customers to buy these products or services.
When building a website for a business, there are certain things which a business must get right in order to attract customers and persuade them into buying the goods or services of the company. A website is like a billboard of the company online, the more user friendly it is and the better the search ratings, the higher the chances of the company getting noticed by potential customers. It has become paramount for businesses to have an online presence.
There are many advantages of having a website for a business such as customers who would be more loyal and people trusting a business which has a website more as compared to a business which does not have a website. Therefore, it is vital for your business to have a website in order to remain competitive. Here are the 12 easiest steps to building a website.
Step 1: Select a Domain Name
Before even creating a website, one has to first select a name for their URL or website (Domain Name). It is the most important step as it will give your business a recognition on the internet. Customers judge a business by its domain name and for good reason which is why it is important to do your research before even selecting a domain name.
Also, one can not select a domain name which is already in use by another business. Everything that the business creates shall be linked to the domain name and visitors would know about your business by the URL or domain name that you choose.
A good idea for a business would be to select a domain name which closely relates to the main topic or service of the company and would be easily searched using a specific keyword. Keywords are your friend and it is important to use the hottest keywords and incorporate them into your domain name. This will help increase your chances of generating more traffic to the website. Whereas, some businesses choose a domain name which helps visitors identify the brand of the company and what it stands for.
Branding and SEO go hand in hand which is if your brand already has a name for itself, then you should use the brand name in the domain name. One should take their time and select a domain name which is the right choice for the company and reflects its business services.
Step 2: Register the Domain Name
Once, you have selected a domain name for your business, it is important to have the domain name registered. Normally, one can register their domain name of choice for as little as $10 to $20 a year and are required to renew the domain name every year.
It is extremely easy to find a registering service and can be found by searching best domain name registrars in no time. There are some website hosting service providers that offer a free domain name when you use use their services. It will help save you some dollars.
Step 3: Select a Hosting Service Provider
Mostly, when we register a domain name, we don’t consider selecting a hosting service provider but oncer the domain name has been registered, it is important to select a hosting service provider to host your website. There are many web hosting service provider which is why one should choose the best website hosting service provider for their website.The company provides an excellent customer service to its clients. Now, if you want to select a web hosting service, here are some tips which will be useful.
1. Ensure that the hosting service provider offers you good internet speed and reliability.
2. Learn more about the customer service of the company to check if they will be able to offer you excellent customer service when needed.
3. Next, check if the hosting service provides you accessibility of your website through the control panel so that you can easily manage the back-end of the website on your own.
4. Ensure that the company provides you with plenty of storage space for your website or else you would only be able to share limited amount of content or information.
Step 4: Connect the Domain Name with the Web Host
Now, if you have selected a web hosting service which offers your domain name with hosting services, then you can just skip this step.
If you have selected a registrar of the domain name which is different from the web hosting service, then you need to connect the domain name with the web host.
In order to connect the domain name successfully with the web host, you will need to ask the web host for the DNS or server name and plug the DNS into the domain name registrar account for it to connect or you could contact the domain name registrar and they could help you out with that.
Step 5: Download WordPress
WordPress is the best website builder for creating websites and it is free. If you want to create an e-commerce website or just a blog, WordPress is all you need. Thousands of free themes and plugins are easily available and will help get your website running in no time just the way that you want.
Most hosting services offer a simple one click setup to install WordPress on the website from the dashboard. If it is not provided, then you can just go to WordPress.org to download the web design for free on your own.
Step 6: Select a Theme for the Website
WordPress offers thousands of free themes and many premium (paid) themes for the lowest price so that you can make the website look the way you want and which suits the functionality of the website. Although, the free themes which are available on WordPress offer your website a design and some functionality, it is still better to choose a premium (paid) theme for you website as the premium themes look more professional and offer much more flexibility when customizing the website.
There are many professional options which are available for under $100. StudioPress offers you some of the best premium themes for WordPress which you can use for your website. Just about all the websites which are found online use WordPress. Even big corporations like Zara and many more use WordPress. Flexithemes offers a WordPress theme club that includes over 2,000 themes for only $60. This is by far the deal in WordPress.
Step 7: Configure the Website
Now that the website is running smoothly and you have already selected a theme for the website, it is time to configure the website in order to provide visitors with the best experience possible.
It is time to set up the navigation in order for visitors to easily navigate the website and access all the important parts of the website which you want them to check out. It is advised to select three or four primary colors so as to represent the website but do not go overboard by selecting too many colors as it would only do the opposite of attracting visitors.
Organize, highlight and separate all the important parts of the website to provide visitors with more clarity when using the website. Next, install any plugins which the website might need in order to improve its functioning and to give the website some final touches to attract the visitors in purchasing from the website.
Step 8: Add Content for the Website
Now that the website has been completely set up, it is time to add content to the website or post blogs in order to generate traffic to the website.It is time to use the best SEO practices to make the most of the website.
Website content is an organic way to generate content and is more effective as compared to paid traffic generation. Create content which could help you website go viral. Search the hottest keywords or phrases to generate the highest amount of traffic. Your website does not have value if it does not have any content on it which is why you need to create content and post it on the website.
Post blogs about the business and what it intends to do. You can write about the industry and just about anything as long as it is related to the business and adds value to the website. Content is what drives traffic to your website and that is why it is important to regularly post content to your website. SEO has provided many strategies for businesses to follow in order to make the most of the platform. Learn as much as you can about SEO or hire the services of the best SEO agency to go viral.
Step 9: Use the Services of An SEO Agency
If you want to take your business to the next level, then you need to use the services of an SEO agency. There are many seo agencies which provides services in every city, which is why all you need to do is search SEO agency and the city you reside in, it will help you find the most popular SEO agency in your area.
An SEO agency will help create content for your website so as to generate the maximum amount of traffic for your website. Every successful business uses the services of an SEO agency for their website content. Hiring the services of an SEO agency is a cost effective decision. The investment is truly worth it and would help generate higher revenues.
Step 10: Promote the Website
Besides using SEO as your only option to generate traffic to your website, there are many other ways to promote your website such as by using a PPC (Pay-Per-Click) Campaign or paying bloggers to write reviews about your products or services on their blog.
You can use email marketing, word of mouth, social media, paid search marketing and the traditional advertising forms to help generate much needed traffic. Do not underestimate the power of any of these promotion activities.
It is important to create a marketing strategy which uses a combination of all the promotion techniques in order to target different customers and ensure that they visit your website.
Step 11: Update the Website
If you have been running your website for a while now, and want to change some aspects of the theme or content that is available on the website, then it is time to update the website. You can use different primary colors to better target visitors or post content which is more likely to attract visitors to your website.
Additionally, many businesses provide new services which they did not provide when creating the website and that is why it is important to update the website with newer options to be available on the websites such as creating new web pages etc.
Every successful business updates its website after a certain period of time to show their commitment towards providing customers with a unique experience.
Step 12: Maintain the Website
Once everything has been done, it is still important to maintain the website by regularly posting content on the website. Provide new information and details about the business on the website and stay updated with the latest SEO practices to keep up with the industry.
Maintaining the website will help ensure that traffic is generated on a regular basis and that visitors have something new to check out every time they visit the website. Post information about the latest products, events, services and sales. Customers love using websites which have all the latest information about the company and its’ products or services.