How to Use Mind Mapping in Your Everyday Life

 10 Key Steps To Building A Great Business Website

Introduction

Whether you're an independent photographer, own a hardware store, or have another kind of small business, a great website is essential to your company's success. As a site supervisor who builds or markets more than 100 small business websites, I know what it takes to create great and attractive business websites.

If you're looking to create a new startup website or make your current site more effective, here are 10 key steps to getting started and helping your small company's website compete effectively in the online marketplace.

1. Get a good domain name

Your domain name, also known as your website address, is often the point of access to your site. It is important to make a good impression for usability purposes, as well as to improve search engines (SEO).

Here are some tips for finding the perfect domain name:

• Make it easy to spell: Try not to use a word, made-up or top-secret words.

• Make it as short as possible: the shorter it is, the easier it is to remember and write properly.
• Use the appropriate domain extension: Always try to make it a domain name .com (unlike .net, .co, etc.) unless it's more appropriate to use another extension, such as .gov, .edu, or .org.
• Avoid numbers and hyphens: They are difficult to remember and are less elegant and memorable than domain names that contain only words, and maybe misunderstood when pronouncing a domain name.
• Make the title broad to facilitate future growth: for example, Amazon.com is a much broader website address than BooksOnline.com and allows Amazon to sell every kind of consumer goods instead of just books, as its original purpose was.
• Make sure it's memorable: with so many websites on the Internet, it's important that your website name is attractive so people remember how to access it in the future.
• Find the domain name: Google to see if a similar website address already exists on the Internet, and search the USPTO gov site to make sure it doesn't have any registered trademarks.
• Check if the price is right: Select whether you can buy the desired website address at a reasonable price because most good domain names are taken and you'll need to buy them from the current owner.
• Avoid illogical names: Choose a name that conveys meaning so users immediately know what your business is. Yahoo and Google are both attractive names, but they were very expensive for the brand, and your small business may not have the same budget.
• Create an SEO-friendly URL: When appropriate, try to come up with an SEO-friendly website address with keywords and a geographical location, for example, "www.LasVegasElectrician.com."

2. Purchase secure, scalable website hosting with good tech support

A website host (sometimes referred to as a web hosting provider) is a company that provides the technology and services needed to view the website. You connect your domain name to your hosting provider so that when users visit your website address, the website you store is displayed at your hosting account.

Hosting services can cost between $2 and $100 per month, depending on the type of technology and support you choose. You can usually get a discount if you buy an annual plan instead of a monthly plan.

Here are some guidelines for choosing a good website hosting plan:

• Although you can get a "shared server" hosting plan for $2 per month, I would advise you not to do so. Co-hosting means you share a server and its resources with other customers, which can affect your site's performance. Also, if one of the other websites on your shared server is hacked, your website may be infected.

• A Dedicated Server hosting plan is the most expensive option -- the cost can range from about $100 to $2,000 per month -- but it will make your website work optimally. Having a custom server plan means that the actual server is entirely dedicated to your site, so all resources are yours and are safer than a shared hosting plan, as long as the technology is optimal. However, they are much more expensive than most small businesses usually want to pay. Once you have a high-performance site, this may be what you need, but it's considered an exaggeration for most small businesses and early stages.
• The compromise I usually recommend is a virtual private server hosting plan (VPS) that offers the best of both worlds. The cost ranges from about $20 to $50 per month, which is accessible to everyone for the hosting services you will receive. VPS is a single divided device to function like multiple machines, giving it a similar shared hosting capability, with security and performance capabilities similar to a dedicated server hosting plan.
• Make sure that your hosting company has supported you over the phone and/or chat so you can help you quickly if you have a problem. Email support often takes a long time and becomes frustrating when you need to solve a problem immediately. Phone support is the best, but chat works well too.
• There must be an easy-to-use server interface like cPanel to access your server. You don't want to have to use terminal commands to view the contents of your server and make changes unless you can hire a professional server administrator to help you.
• Check to see what type of server security applies to the server you're thinking about. You'll need to be able to access your server via the Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP). There must be daily backups of your server's contents. There must also be an easy way, with one or two clicks, to install secure socket layer certificates (SSL). Make sure that the host company performs regular security maintenance. Ideally, your hosting company has a published security protocol that you can review so you know how to keep its servers safe.

Some popular web hosting companies include:

1. GoDaddy
2. DreamHost
3. Bluehost
4. InMotion
5. SiteGround

3. Prominently display a clear description of your business

It's important to let people know who you are and what to do right away so they don't get confused when they visit your small company's website. Make sure that your homepage banner (also known as "Hero Image") and subsequent banners are visual representations of your services, and also that you have a preface text ad near the top of the page describing who you are and what you're doing.

In addition, make sure that both your main navigation lists and appendix have easily accessible "About Us" page links so that people can click them and read more about your work in detail.

4. Implement the best content management system

A Content Management System (CMS) is a program or application that is used to create and manage digital content. A good content management system will help you maintain your site, and you don't need much technical knowledge to use. You should choose a content management system (CMS) designed for your unique needs; different systems are used for various reasons, such as ease of use, scalability, and budget.

The following are some popular systems with descriptions of their strengths and weaknesses.

WordPress: WordPress is the most common content management system in the world. It has a broad and active support community and many useful plug-ins to expand your site's functionality. (If you can't find an additional component that does what you want, it's easy to find a WordPress developer who can create one for you!) WordPress is also free and relatively simple to install. Most web developers are familiar with it, so it's not hard to find an individual or agency that can work on your site. I usually recommend that small businesses use WordPress to create their websites, because of their flexibility and scalability. 

However, it should be noted that WordPress's biggest vulnerabilities are security - since it is so common, hackers target it the most. Your WordPress site needs maintenance and insurance regularly so it doesn't get hacked. Also, it's difficult to secure every third-party plug-in, so keeping your WordPress site safe must be a constant commitment through many best practices (checking to see if the plug-ins have been updated over the past few months, making sure they're the plug-in provided in the official WordPress repository, deleting unused plug-ins immediately, etc.).

Drupal: Drupal is another common content management system. Many offer the same WordPress benefits, including flexibility, ease of use, and a large support community. Notably, it's a safer content management system than WordPress (safer than malicious activities); however, it doesn't have many plug-in options or features, making it less scalable. For many years, the White House site (Whitehouse gov) was run by Drupal but has since turned to WordPress, which he still uses today.

Joomla!: Another popular CMS is Joomla! Out of the box, it has better SEO, security, and multilingual capabilities than WordPress; however, with the help of a few plugins, WordPress surpasses Joomla!’s capabilities.

Squarespace: Squarespace is a monthly or annually shared service that makes creating websites and blogs an easy "pull and drop" experience. Includes website design and development, software maintenance, metrics, a domain name with annual purchase, SSL security, 24/7 support, unlimited bandwidth, and storage hosting in one package. It's especially suitable for creators and provides you with first-class design templates. If your budget is limited, and you need a simple and beautiful site, but you can't afford a website designer, this is a great service for you.

There is a much smaller learning curve with Squarespace compared to WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla! However, if you have little or no technical knowledge and are looking for a quick and easy way to create a website, Squarespace is an excellent choice for you.

Wix: Wix is very similar to Squarespace, but it's more user-friendly. Offers a monthly subscription, not an annual one, and includes similar features. Wix is also a drag-and-drop builder - you can freely pull and drop items anywhere on the page; by comparison, Squarespace is more organized where you can drag and drop on the page. The learning curve for using Wix is shorter than Squarespace, so if you need to deploy a site quickly, this may be your best option.

Wix has far more templates than Squarespace to choose from, but once you choose a template, you must stick to it or have to rebuild your entire site. With Squarespace, you can change your form at any time without having to rebuild the entire site. 

5. Choose a good e-commerce platform

If you plan to sell goods and/or services through your website, you will need the right technology to do so. (If you're not selling anything right now, you might want to think about doing so because e-commerce may increase your profits.) If you decide to allow users to deal with you financially online, you'll need to choose the platform that's right for your business model.

Here are some popular small business e-commerce platforms:

WooCommerce: WooCommerce is one of the world's most popular e-commerce platforms - it can turn your WordPress site into an online store. Like WordPress, there are many plug-ins available, and they are connected to WordPress, making them very flexible. There are many free and premium features pre-designed for WooCommerce. (As a rule, it is best to use a distinctive feature of a reputable developer because it will provide better security and support.) If you're not a technology expert, you'll probably need a WordPress developer to help you set it up and use it. WooCommerce also offers a very large amount of capabilities and scalability that your small business may need.

Shopify: Shopify is a cloud-based e-commerce platform that lets you create and customize an online store and manage products, inventory, payments, and shipping. It's not an extension of WordPress like WooCommerce - it's a stand-alone platform hosted on a Shopify server - so if you have a major website, your e-commerce site will technically be separate from that. You can link to your Shopify account from your regular website created with WordPress, Drupal, Wix, etc. unless your main website has an additional Shopify integration component.

Features include unlimited products, unlimited bandwidth, fraud analysis, discount codes, reports, and more. The main benefits of Shopify are that you don't need a developer to create a store and that everything on the back end has already been set up for you when you sign up. The downside is that you don't have as much control or flexibility in your store as WooCommerce.

Shopify Plus: Shopify Plus is Shopify, but with a higher level of customization, more employee accounts, and international e-commerce options. It also has a higher level of support. However, this all obviously comes at a higher subscription cost and still lacks all the flexibility and customization capabilities like WooCommerce.

Business Squarespace: Squarespace has an e-commerce subscription option, so if you choose Squarespace to build your site and have very simple e-commerce needs, you can choose this path. Business Squarespace charges for transactions, but this can be overridden by upgrading your subscription to a core online store. Includes free-range, SSL and SEO security, refund of an abandoned shopping cart, discounts, real-time carrier shipping, and more. However, it has been noted that they are not as easy to use as Shopify. And like Shopify, they are simply not as flexible as WooCommerce.

Wix: Wix actually has a Shopify extension and is very easy to use. You will have to upgrade your Wix account and subscribe to Shopify to use it.

GoDaddy Online Store: GoDaddy has a relatively new e-commerce subscription platform that is relatively easy to set up and use. Very little technical knowledge is required to start your store using GoDaddy Online Store. The templates are simple, clean, and fairly customizable. Features include marketing tools, search engine optimization, social media integration, appointment booking, SSL security, quick page download, and more.

6. Create an interesting, memorable, and engaging website user interface

Make sure your small company's website interface makes a positive impression that leads to results. You can do this by implementing the following suggestions:

• Use beautiful graphics and easy-to-read lines.

• Make sure your graphics are compressed and improved for quick download. If your website is slow, search engines like Google will punish your ranking.

• Look at the competition to see how they designed and improved their websites.

• Find your target audience to see what they want from your site and make it easy for them to achieve.

• Keep the brand down throughout your website design.

• Designed an easy-to-use mobility system that allows users to quickly access the pages they need.

• Publish easily accessible contact information.

• Include action-prompting phrases (especially the "Buy Now" buttons).

• Create standard web pages for small businesses, such as:

1. Home
2. About us
3. Products/Services (with descriptions and visually appealing images)
4. Sitemap (for SEO purposes)
5. Management team
6. Contact us
7. Terms of use (the online contract governing how users can use your site)
8. Privacy policy
9. Additional pages relevant to your specific small business

7. Optimize your small business website for search engines

SEO is a set of practices that you apply to your website to ensure that search engines are indexed, categorize your website appropriately, and then show it to search engine users. Once you "crawl" to your website by search engines, it competes with websites that contain similar content. The better the design and content of your website, the more your site appears on search engine results pages.

SEO essentially includes the following practices:

• Keyword research and implementation

• Optimal location code
• Fast loading speed
• Be safe and have a proven SSL certificate;
• Having a mobile-friendly site
• Existence of high-quality backlinks (links on external websites with related content) that lead to your site
• Having lots of positive reviews online (Google, Yelp, Facebook, etc.)
• Use internal links throughout your site to keep people clicking and reading
• Using social media to link to your site (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.)

Improving search engines (SEO) is a very important ongoing process and can mean the difference between appearing on the first page of search engine results pages (resulting in large amounts of free visits to your website) or page 300 (resulting in no traffic).

8. Regularly create and publish quality content

Both the amount and novelty of content are important to search engines, so you must create a plan to post high-quality articles and/or blog posts on your site and on external sites that are connected to your site. If you want to get a high ranking in search engine results and encourage people to go back to your site over and over again, you'll need to update your website with as new and convenient content as possible.

In addition to static page content and articles, certificates are a great form of content for posting on your website. Requesting certificates from your customers and then posting them on your website is a great way to post new, high-quality content on your site, making your small business more attractive.

Make sure your content uses a brand-friendly tone so people enjoy reading it.

9. Install webmaster tools

Take advantage of vital data to help you analyze traffic and site performance by installing Google Analytics, Google Search Console (both preferred via Google Tag Manager), and Bing Webmaster tools. These tools can be used to track the following types of information:

• Daily, weekly, and monthly visitors to your site

• Number of views on each page of your site
• “Bounce rate”—the percentage of users who come to your site and leave after having only viewed one page (Google algorithms give higher rankings to websites that have a low bounce rate, on the theory that visitors are spending more time on the site and find it valuable.)
• Average time spent on site by visitors
• Crawl errors on your site (errors that the search engines found on your site in crawling its content)
• Broken links on the site
• Keywords that lead users to your site
• Backlinks to your site
• Web page download time
• Other information that can help you enhance your SEO

10. Implement a website maintenance plan

A website should not be created and then allowed to become obsolete. To get a successful website that ranks well in search engines and is not compromised, you need to make sure it is maintained correctly.

Here are some tips for creating a small business website maintenance plan:

• Check Webmaster Tools data at least once a month and have any vital errors emailed to you in real-time.

• Use traffic data to learn more about your audience so you can better cater to them.
• Use performance data to optimize and fix warnings and errors.
• Make sure all software is always up to date.
• Run security scans so you know your website is clean of malware and hasn’t been hacked.
• Use “split testing” to see if certain variations of your website help performance; for example, if you are selling a product, you might have two versions of a particular landing page with different images and wording—the split testing allows you to see which version has a higher conversion rate.
• Follow my advice about SEO (see point #7), and continually publish quality content (see point #8).
• Find on-trend and effective ways to market your business online.
• Allow website users to provide you with feedback about your site.
• Continue to check out your competition from time to time to see what they are doing with their online presence and see if what they’ve done can work for you as well.
• Make sure your website is backed up in multiple ways at least once a day and at least 10 days back.

Conclusion

As you can say after reading this article, creating a great website for small businesses may not be as simple as you initially thought. However, if you follow the steps described in this article, your small business will have an excellent opportunity to succeed in the online marketplace.