6 Tips for How to Make a Website
COVID-19 drove the masses online in 2020. People went online to buy everything from fitness equipment to groceries. You would think that businesses rushed to revamp their online presence.
That’s not the case for all businesses. Even in 2021, about 23% of businesses still don’t have a website.
Many cite the costs and knowledge as major obstacles to building a website. They don’t know how to make a website and think that it costs a lot to do.
The costs of building a website have dropped dramatically over the years. You could have a very basic website for less than $100 a year.
Learning how to make a business website is much easier than you think. Are you ready to find out how to make a small business website for any business?
Let’s get to it!
- Planning the Website
What do you want your website to do? You just might want a basic website so people know that your business exists.
Some people want to sell products or book appointments on the website. Think of how your website fits in with the customer journey. You want to make sure your site appeals to people at each step, whether they’re at the beginning stages or they’re already customers.
You might want to create a competition website. That requires a lot more planning.
There are laws and regulations that govern competitions. You could be liable for lawsuits or fines if you don’t know what you’re doing.
The next step is to define your brand. Your brand is the one thing that people think of when they think of your business.
The brand needs to come through in your website’s design and content. The colors, images, and text all matter because they create an impression in the mind of the user.
Once you have those things in place, you should create an initial sketch of your website. This is called a wireframe. It is an organizational chart of the pages of the website.
It also helps you figure out the site navigation. For instance, you’ll have the home page at the top of the wireframe. Underneath that, you’ll have navigation items for the blog, products, about, and contact pages.
You can then add additional pages underneath those items if you need to.
This tells you how many web pages you need and how the site gets organized.
- Know What Makes a Great Website
Websites are like a retail locations. Visitors make up their minds about your website and your business in about five one-hundredths of a second.
What do users look for in a website? The first thing is site speed. This is usually determined by your website host and your website template.
There are other factors of site speed, such as a WordPress site that relies on too many plugins.
Make sure the site is easy to access and read on all devices. Most people will visit on a phone. If your site is hard to read, you’ll lose people.
Use a lot of images and graphics. Have large headlines, followed by text. People tend to scan websites, they’re not going to read every single word.
Have calls to action on every page of your website. A call to action tells people what the next step is. For instance, if you have a blog post that appeals to people at the beginning of the buyer’s journey, have them sign up for your newsletter or book a free consultation.
- Choose a CMS and Hosting
Choose a name for your website and purchase the domain name.
CMS stands for Content Management System. That’s the system that runs your website. WordPress is the most well-known CMS for websites.
You’ll then need to sign up for a hosting plan. For small websites, a shared hosting plan is the least expensive and easiest option to start with.
You could opt to purchase hosted plan that takes care of hosting and the CMS on one platform. Shopify, BigCommerce, and Squarespace are a few examples.
- Build Your Website
Now is the time to take your wireframe and start building your website. You might have to install your CMS first. Hosting plans allow you to do this with one click.
It’s usually easy to add pages to your website to get started. In WordPress, go to the left-hand side of the menu and click on Pages. A dropdown menu will appear and you’ll select Add New.
You’ll name it and add your images and text.
If you’re unsure about designing a page yourself, you can use a template and customize it with your text and branding. This is a great way to introduce you to building a small business website.
- Optimize for SEO
Of course, you want people to be able to find your site online. There are hundreds of factors that determine search results, and many of them have to do with your website.
Your CMS might have SEO built into the framework. You just need to enter your keywords, page titles, and descriptions.
WordPress sites operate a little differently. There are several plugins available that help you get your site SEO-ready. RankMath, Yoast, and All-in-One SEO are just a few examples.
- Maintain and Track Your Website
Websites require regular maintenance. Hackers love to hijack outdated websites. Set aside a few minutes a week to update your CMS and any plugins.
You’ll also need to install Google Analytics and Search Console. These are free tools that help you track traffic, user behavior, and how your site appears in search engines.
Learning How to Make a Website
Did you finally figure out what it takes to make a website? Learning how to make a website isn’t that difficult.
It does take a lot of planning. When you put time and effort into planning, the rest of the steps are easy.
Be sure to visit this site often for more business and technology tips.
