Your website is the front door to your business online. Here’s a step-by-step approach on how to build a small business website that helps convey the best first impression to your prospects as they approach your “online front door.”
Table of Contents
Picking Your Website’s Domain Name
The website address, also known as the domain name, is the point of entry. It helps in search engine optimization (SEO) and leave a good impression if your domain is easy to remember.
Take the points below into account when choosing a domain name:
- Keep it as short as possible
- Make it easy to spell
- Use the right extension (.com dis preferable to .net and .co)
- Keep in general to facilitate future growth (if you want to expand)
- Avoid hyphens and numbers; they are harder to remember
- Make sure it is memorable
- Check the price
- Research the name to avoid choosing one that’s very similar to an existing name
- Avoid nonsensical names
- Create an SEO-friendly URL
Select the Right Website Builder
Quite a number of website builders can help you get your small business website going. Here are some of the best ones.
WordPress.org
WordPress is the top choice. It powers more than 30% of all websites in the world. It boasts a flexible, user-friendly content management system, a wide variety of themes, and other benefits.
Multiple drag and drop site creators are available to you to create a website on WordPress, such as Divi, Elementor, etc. They will all make it appealing and professional. The WordPress themes are attractive yet minimalist, helping achieve the best possible effect.
If you want to run an e-commerce store, it’s also a great choice because it accepts credit cards easily. The open-source website builder features thousands of plugins as well. These can offer more functions and features. What’s more, there’s no shortage of platforms for hosting for WordPress.
As a disadvantage, you’ll be responsible for maintaining a site on WordPress. This includes taking care of security, backups, and updates. While WordPress.org is free, you’ll be charged for the name and the hosting.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact lets you create a site very quickly, thanks to the intuitive drag and drop feature. They offer customer service by live chat, phone, and email. It’s available around the clock. The platform features a free SSL certificate to guarantee security and comes with a blog, e-commerce options, and other key features.
As a downside, it has fewer features than WordPress. It’s also less customizable, but that’s hardly a surprise. Last but not least, there is a free version of this website builder.
BigCommerce
If you want to set up an e-commerce site, this will do the best job of all. Perhaps it’s the best website builder for a small business. In fact, world-known franchises like Ben & Jerry’s were built on BigCommerce, which is quite knowledgeable when it comes to the niche.
The builder lets you maintain, manage, and grow your small business without any specialist knowledge whatsoever. There are no technical aspects to be concerned with. It keeps your financial information safe and includes protection from DDoS attacks.
It’s very easy to design an e-commerce store. It features a large number of beautiful templates to choose from.
In terms of options to customize, you can take advantage of reviews, shipping tools, and more.
Like all products, it’s not perfect. There’s no free version, and you can only install a very small number of third-party extensions.
SiteBuilder
This builder has some high-quality templates and nice customizable layouts. It is intuitive and affordable and makes it possible to create a small business site quickly and easily. You can also use it for an e-commerce platform. It’s a great choice for everyone seeking something basic and simple.
Shopify
The final choice specifically targets small online shops and other businesses. Shopify powers hundreds of thousands of product and business sites. The all-in-one managed solution does away with the need to take care of backups and updates. Even laymen of tech can use it with simple drag and drop functionality.
Optimize Your Website’s Content
Learning how to build a small business website is one thing. Getting found online is another.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is often an overlooked step in attracting clients. While your website is the front door to your online presence, it’s not enough.
Think of it this way: having an attractive website is like having an attractive race car. It looks great, but it needs fuel to run the race. The fuel is the content and SEO for your small business website. Without keeping the car fueled throughout the race and your foot on the gas pedal, you’ll end up in last place. Similarly, without constantly keeping your website tuned for SEO, new prospects won’t find you.
Read our free online guide on the Top 10 SEO Ranking Factors to learn what you can do to get found on Google. You might also consider our SEO coaching or SEO services to quickly learn exactly what to do for your site.
