Overview
First impressions are important, and your website is often the first impression potential customers will have of your business.
A well-designed website can help you stand out from the competition and set yourself up for success. But where do you start?
What we’ll cover
This guide will walk you through the basics of getting started with a website for your business. By the end, you’ll be ready to take your first steps towards building a successful online presence.
Let’s get started!
Table of Contents
Why You Need a Website For Your business
Investing in a business website is essential in today’s digital age.Not only does it make your business look professional, but it provides numerous advantages.
Big Benefits
Increase Visibility
With the right search engine optimization, you can elevate your small business’ visibility online by ensuring people find you quickly and easily.
Sell Online
Additionally, having an online store helps businesses sell their products to anyone around the world.
Appointment Booking
Building an engaging website establishes trust with potential customers and allows for easy appointment bookings.
Find your Target Audience
Lastly, creating content for a small business website gives you an opportunity to reach out to your target audience and better tailor services for them.
How to Get Started With Creating a Website
Building a small business website can feel like an overwhelming task, but it doesn’t have to be.
Should I Use a Website Builder Like Wix?
While the temptation may be there to use a website building service, having a professional web agency create and design your small business website is the best way to ensure that you get the best site possible.
What Does The Process Look Like?
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This process typically begins with finding your domain name. Think of the domain name like your address on the internet. Web agencies can often be of great help with this step to get the best deals, and find a domain name that’s easy for customers to type in, suits your business name, and is memorable.
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From there, the project will move on to development as the web agency creates an aesthetically pleasing and user friendly design that fits into your current brand identity. A good web agency will ask a lot of questions about your business.
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Throughout this development process, the web agency should be showing you progress and getting your feedback. That’s how a great business website is made
What you need to include on your website - It Depends
When building a small business website, there are several factors to consider when it comes to what to include.
Taking the time to review similar websites around your industry can be extremely helpful in deciding what you need to ask of your agency. You can also ask your web agency for tips on what features they see working on other business websites.
E-Commerce, Appointment Booking
Depending on the type of online store or service you offer, they will likely require a hosted eCommerce platform where visitors can shop or book an appointment through an integration with something like Calendly.
Email Marketing
Additionally, consider if obtaining potential customer emails could be helpful. With most businesses this can give you a great opportunity to promote new products or services to existing or potential customers.
External Links to Social Media Accounts
External links to any social media accounts should be included as well.
All these small details can make all the difference for building a business website with the customers in mind and ensure that it meets their expectations and needs.
If you own a landscaping business, we have another article with some ideas on what you can include on those websites that we’ve seen work very well.
How to make sure your website is successful
Your business website should include
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An online store if applicable
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Email marketing campaigns
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Links and postings to social media accounts
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Appointment booking capabilities if applicable
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Any other information you wish to share with customers or methods for them to interact with you
In addition to building the right website,
Successful strategies for boosting your small business’s visibility on the web include
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Digital and content marketing - can be as simple as making a blog post once a week or posting on TikTok
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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - Your web agency can handle this and integrate seo tools you can use to further monitor
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If you’re in E-Commerce, remarketing campaigns via Google Ads or Facebook Ads.
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Content Management Systems to allow you or your non tech savvy employees to customize content without getting in the code
These tactics will help engage users and draw them back to your website with targeted messaging tailored specifically to their interests.
Tips for maintaining your website
Building a small business website is an exciting endeavor, but to be successful and maintain that success, you need to make sure your website is managed properly.
When you work with a good web agency, they should include monthly maintenance as part of the package. Here are some things you specifically should seek for them to do.
A well-maintained website should have
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Fresh content regularly created and updated
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Stay optimized for search engines by using SEO tools like keyword research, internal linking, and external links building. You can ask your web agency to take care of this for you.
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Additionally, online stores should ensure their storefront functionality is working optimally by taking performance measurements.
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Make sure your web agency has back-ups of both the site design and content so if a change needs to occur it can do quickly in case of any data loss or hacking incidents.
Following these important tips can help guarantee a successful and secure small business website.
FAQs About Websites For Businesses
What are some tools I can use to analyze visitors to the website?
There are a number of different tools you can use to analyze traffic to your website. Google Analytics is a popular option, as is Hotjar. You can ask your website builder to include this in your website and you’ll have an excellent dashboard of statistics to analyze
How can I get content written for my website?
One easy way to get content written for your website is to hire a freelance writer. You can find freelancers through online marketplaces like UpWork or Freelancer, or by searching for writers on social media platforms like LinkedIn. This can be done quite affordably if you are willing to hire overseas.
Where can I find a web agency to make my website?
We at Valiev Ventures provide professional website design services tailored to your specific needs, giving you a powerful platform for marketing, selling products or services, or simply connecting with customers.
Conclusion
Now that you understand the importance of having a website for your business, it’s time to get started on creating one. In this guide, we’ve outlined what you need to include on your website and how to make sure it is successful.
Remember, maintaining your website is important in order to ensure that your customers have a positive experience and continue doing business with you.
Have any other questions about websites for businesses? Check out our FAQ section above or contact us below. Thanks for reading!
Looking to get a website done for your business?
We at Valiev Ventures have worked with a variety of businesses, large to small, and focus on these concepts listed in this article.