Creating a Website in 5 Easy Steps
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) estimated last year that 50 percent of all small businesses still didn’t have a website. That’s bad news: Without a presence on the web, your small business can easily go unnoticed by potential customers.
Now the good news: It’s easier than ever to create a website, especially one that your customers can access from their mobile devices. More than 75 percent of mobile phone users access the Internet through their mobile devices, and that will rise to nearly 86 percent by 2018. Remember, too, Google now favors sites which work well on mobile in its search results. You definitely want to be one of the top results when people go looking for your product or service.
Here are the five things you’ve got to do to get your website going in 2016:
Select a website building platform
Once upon a time, you would have had to build your site from scratch. Now there are platforms which let people with no coding experience create a site simply by dragging and dropping the elements they need, whether it’s for a blog or an e-commerce site. These tools are user friendly, flexible and low cost—some are even free. Look for the features you need, and make sure the site can grow with your business.
2. Choose a domain name & hosting
A domain is the address of your business on the Internet, (YourCompanyName.com), and I strongly recommend owning your own domain name. (Not every site-building platform will let you do that, especially the free versions of those platforms.) If you’re creating a new business, think about a name which will create a domain name, one which is short, memorable and marketable. Before you go to a domain registrar site to purchase your domain name, test it on Google to make sure somebody else doesn’t already own it. As for hosting, the service which connects your site to the Internet, it’s included with some site-building platforms, but not others. If you have to pick your own, you want a host which can ensure your company’s website will load quickly and won’t shut down unexpectedly, which is extremely important for customers browsing for your business. If you need assistance selecting a hosting service, PC Magazine recently wrote an article on the best ones for 2015.
3. Set aside some setup time
You want to create your site and get back to business, right? Depending on the platform and the hosting service which you have chosen, your setup can be done in as little as one click. Even the open-source platform WordPress, paired with a service like Bluehost, WPEngine or DreamHost, can work this way. Once the setup is done, you can customize the look and feel of your website to your liking by selecting a new design or “theme”. Search through WordPress for options, but be sure to include the word “mobile” or “responsive” in your query. Responsive designs automatically adjust according to the device your customer is using.
4.Test & get feedback
Before encouraging the general public to surf your company’s website, it’s vital to test it. You want to make sure every element works as intended and is easy for potential customers to find the information they need, whether it’s your address and phone number or your specials for a Monday night. Ask your friends, family members and employees to test out the website, and take their feedback to heart. Some design platforms have a “sandbox” area where you can park your site while it’s under construction and being tested.
5.Keep evolving
Some of the most innovative and successful companies are always in “beta,” meaning they—and their website—are in an endless phase of improvement. That’s especially important with a website because web technology is constantly changing. When Bizfi started in 2005, there wasn’t technology to let us have potential customers chat with our funding specialists in real time over the Internet. There is now, and it’s a big feature on our website. No matter how you design your website today, it’s a safe bet that there will be better ways to market online before the year is out, even for small businesses.
