A strong website is crucial for the success of your small business, regardless of whether you run a little small town bakery, are a freelance photographer, or run another kind of small business. Here are some essential stages to get starting and assisting your small company website to compete effectively in the internet marketplace. You may also find this helpful if you’re trying to develop a new startup website or make your current site more effective.
Find a catchy domain name
The main portal to your website is your domain name, also known as your website address. It must leave a positive first impression to be effective for both search engine optimization and usability (SEO).
Here are some suggestions for selecting the best domain name:
- Make the spelling simple. Avoid using highly obscure words, made-up, or slang.
- Make it as brief as you can. It is simpler to remember and type accurately the shorter it is.
- Please use the correct domain extension. Try to choose a.com domain name (rather than one ending in.net,.co, etc.), unless.gov,.edu, or.org would be a better choice.
- Avert using hyphens and numerals. They are less elegant, and more likely to be misconstrued when spoken aloud than word-only domain names.
- Make the address inclusive to allow for future expansion. For instance, Amazon.com has a considerably wider range of products than BooksOnline.com.
- Make it memorable, please. Because there are so many websites, your name must be memorable so that people will know how to find it.
- Verify that the price is fair. Find out if you can buy the domain name for your website since most good domain names have been bought.
Display a concise description of your company prominently
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, ensure that the “About Us” page links on your main and footer navigation menus are accessible so visitors can click them and read additional in-depth information about your company.
Use the most effective content management system
A software program or application used to create and manage digital material is a content management system (CMS). Your site can be maintained with a competent CMS; using one doesn’t require any technical know-how. You should pick a CMS tailored to your specific requirements. Different platforms are employed for various factors, including user-friendliness, extensibility, and cost.
The popular systems listed below have discussions of their advantages and disadvantages. It is important to research and find issues with your website so you can correct them moving forward.
The most widely used CMS worldwide is WordPress. There are numerous helpful plugins to increase the functionality of your site and a sizable, vibrant support community. (And if you cannot locate a plugin that performs your desired function, it is simple to get a WordPress developer who can create one for you!) Additionally, cost-free and reasonably easy to install WordPress. Finding an individual or company that can work on your site is not difficult. Because of its adaptability and extensibility, I suggest small businesses utilize WordPress to build their websites.
However, it should be emphasized that WordPress’s major security flaw is that due to its popularity, hackers frequently attack it.
Squarespace is a service you may subscribe to making it simple to “drag and drop” content onto your website or blog. It is an all-inclusive service that covers website design, development, software maintenance, metrics, a domain name with an annual purchase, SSL security, 24/7 support, and unlimited bandwidth and storage hosting. It offers you top-notch design templates and is especially ideal for creatives. This is a fantastic solution if you have a limited budget. It requires a straightforward and attractive website but cannot pay a website designer. Compared to WordPress, there is a considerably reduced learning curve with Squarespace, but there aren’t nearly as many expansion choices.
Pick a reliable eCommerce platform
You will need the proper technology if you intend to sell products and/or services on your website. (If you don’t sell anything already, you might want to think about starting since e-commerce could perhaps boost your income.) You must select the appropriate platform for your business model if you plan to allow users to conduct financial transactions with you online.
One of the most well-liked e-commerce platforms in the world, WooCommerce enables you to create an online store from a WordPress website. It connects to WordPress and offers a wide variety of plugins, making it just like WordPress in terms of flexibility. For WooCommerce, there are numerous pre-built free and paid themes available.
(Typically, using a premium theme from a reputed developer is preferable because it will provide better security and support.) You will probably need a WordPress developer to assist you in setting it up and using it if you are not tech-savvy. WooCommerce also provides your small business with a huge range of features and scalability that it might require.
An online store may be created and customized using the Shopify cloud-based e-commerce platform, which lets you control products, inventory, payments, and delivery. Because it is an independent platform housed on the Shopify server rather than a WordPress extension like WooCommerce, your e-commerce site would technically be separate from your primary website.
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 practice:
- Make use of eye-catching images and legible typefaces.
- Ensure that your visuals are optimized 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 company website. Research the competition to see how they have designed and optimized their websites.
- Find out what your target audience wants from your website through research, and then make it simple for them to obtain it.
- Maintain brand identity throughout the entire design of your website.
- Create a user-friendly navigation system that allows people to easily access the required pages.
- Publicize contact details that are simple to find.
- Include clear calls to action, mainly “purchase now” buttons.
Once you have all the required elements in place, you need to test the user experience to ensure the user experience is positive. Partner with a UX Consulting Firm to hope you complete your testing thoroughly to be confident everything is working as it needs to be.
Make your small company website search engine-friendly
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 compete with other websites that contain comparable material once search engines have “crawled” it. Your website will rank higher on search engine result pages the better it is designed and written.
The following techniques are primarily used in SEO:
- keyword exploration and application
- best website coding
- quickly loading
- having an SSL certificate installed; SSL is the industry-standard security protocol that guarantees the privacy of data transferred between web servers and browsers.
- having a mobile-friendly site
- existence of high-quality backlinks to your website (links on other websites with relevant content)
- obtaining a lot of favorable reviews online (Google, Yelp, Facebook, etc.)
- Utilizing internal connections on your website will keep visitors clicking and reading.
- linking to your website using social media (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.)
SEO is a crucial continuing procedure that may make the difference between having your website appear on page one of search engine results (leading to many free visitors) or on page 300. (resulting in no traffic).
Create and publish quality material regularly
Create a plan to publish high-quality articles and/or blog entries on your site and on external websites that link to your site because search engines value both the amount and the freshness of your material. 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 repeatedly.
Testimonials are an excellent type of material to post on your website, in addition to static page content and articles. A fantastic method to add new, high-quality material to your website is to request customer testimonials and then publish them.
Making a fantastic small company website may not be as easy as you think. However, if you follow the procedures outlined in this article, your small business will have a great chance of success in the digital economy.
