Your website is an essential tool for attracting and engaging potential customers. It’s the first thing people see when they search for your business online, and it needs to make a good impression. Creating a website may seem daunting, but with the right approach, it’s easier than you think. In this step-by-step guide, we’ll walk you through the process of making a small business website in 2023.
Pick a Domain Name
Your domain name is the unique address of your website, and it’s crucial to choose a name that reflects your business and is easy to remember. It’s best to select a name that matches your business or professional name. Ensure that the name is short, easy to spell, and doesn’t contain abbreviations, acronyms, hyphens, or numbers.
While brainstorming domain names, keep these helpful tips in mind:
- Include keywords relevant to your business to boost your visibility in search engines.
- Choose a traditional top-level domain (TLD), such as .com or .net, or one that best relates to you or your business.
- Ensure that no one else is already using it.
- Use a domain name generator as a jumping-off point if you’re having trouble brainstorming.
Register Your Domain and Pick Your Design and Hosting Providers
Once you’ve chosen a domain name, you need to register it with a domain registrar. You can use a website like Vodien.com or Godaddy.com to do this, which may cost between $30 and $80 per year, depending on your TLD.
You’ll also need to find another provider to host the URL where you will build your website and potentially use another program to design it. You may choose an all-in-one option like WordPress, Squarespace, or Wix, which offer registration, hosting, and design capabilities. If you choose to use separate companies to manage your web hosting and designing, look for a hosting service that offers perks such as tech support, a free domain name, or a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate.
SSL certificate is a crucial security measure that adds the “S” in HTTPS at the front of a website’s URL, enabling a secure connection and protecting your and your visitors’ data and sensitive information. Search engines and visitors look favorably upon it.
Add Engaging Content and Useful Pages
Your website’s content is critical for engaging visitors and encouraging them to work with you. Your site should have a striking homepage that captivates people and tells them exactly what you do and whom you serve. You should also include an enlightening ‘About Us’ page that shares the origin story of your business, highlights your achievements, mission, and values, and introduces any team members.
Other essential pages you should include are:
- Booking or shop page to drive more revenue and integrate a third-party online scheduling platform or an e-commerce platform, such as HoneyBook or WooCommerce.
- An accessible contact page that includes social media accounts, emails, phone numbers, addresses, and a contact form.
- Compelling content, including blogs, videos, podcast episodes, case studies, and more, that establishes you as an expert in your industry and helps grow a loyal community for your business. This content may also help boost your ranking in search results and increase site visitors.
- A robust FAQ page that gives answers to common questions and helps build more trust with your brand.
- Testimonials and press coverage that boost your credibility by sharing your successes and positive reviews about your services and any mention of your business in notable media outlets.
Optimize Your Website for Search Engines
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of refining your business website so your pages rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), particularly Google. As you build your website, keep these basic SEO practices in mind to increase your visibility and drive more traffic:
Use relevant keywords throughout your posts and pages, but don’t overuse them as it may negatively impact your ranking.
Consistently publish valuable content for your customers or readers.
Keep your website’s loading speed as low as possible by optimizing images or enabling browser caching.
Ensure your design and content work correctly on computers, mobile phones, and tablets.
As you optimize your site for search, keep your visitors in mind. Choose easy navigation systems and build pages that enable fast load times. Follow Section 508 guidelines to make your site as accessible as possible.
Review Your Site Before You Hit ‘Publish’
Before you publish your website, you need to test it to ensure that it works correctly. Make sure to read through your content to ensure that everything is accurate and error-free. Check for any broken links, remove any filler content, and test your website across different browsers like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, and more. Connect your website to Google Analytics to monitor its performance.
Once you’re ready, hit publish. To drive traffic to your newly created website, share it with friends, market it with clients, and include it on your LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and other social media profiles.
Keep Your Site Up to Date
Creating a website is not a one-time task. You need to maintain your website regularly to remain high in search rankings and improve your visitors’ experience. Consider adding the following to your webmaster to-do list:
Use webmaster and analytics tools, such as Google Analytics, to monitor how people use your site.
Regularly update your website with blog posts, products, and promotional offers.
Perform monthly reviews to ensure all aspects of your website, including internal and external links, pages, and plug-ins, are working as intended.
Update your “About Us” page with new team members or achievements.
As time goes on, foster relationships with other business sites to establish credibility and improve your SEO. When other important websites link to your website, search engines see your site as more credible and worthy of being ranked higher in the results.
Creating a small business website in 2023 is an essential step to attracting and engaging potential customers. Follow these six steps to create a website that reflects your business, engages visitors, and encourages them to work with you. At TT Media we specialize in creating beautiful, functional, and effective websites that help businesses grow. If you need help creating a website or want to discuss how we can help your business succeed online, schedule a free consultation discovery call with us today
