Nowadays, the most powerful weapon in your sales and marketing arsenal is your website. But if you’re feeling uncertain on where to start, here are a few tips to get you on the right track.
1. Choose a Domain Name
Your website’s unique name is referred to as a domain. When selecting a name, it is advisable to opt for one that aligns with your business or professional name, as this will maintain the consistency of your branding. Having a strong domain name can also improve your search engine rankings, ultimately leading to more clicks and traffic to your website.
A few helpful tips:
- To increase your visibility in search engines, incorporate keywords that are pertinent to your business
- Be sure that it’s easy to spell
- If you encounter difficulties brainstorming, you can utilize a domain name generator to assist with your thought process
- Keep it short and simple
- Skip acronyms, hyphens, numbers, and abbreviations
- Strive to use conventional high-level domains, also known as TLDs, such as .com or .net
- Ensure that the domain is not already in use by someone else. Acquiring a domain from another individual can become quite costly
2. Choose your design and hosting providers and register your domain
After deciding on a domain name, you’ll have to register it with a domain registrar, which can be accomplished via websites such as Domain.com or Network Solutions. There will be a small annual fee depending on your TLD, between $10 and $20 per year.
You will have to search for a different provider to host the URL for your website and possibly utilize a separate program for designing it. To make things easier, you could opt to register your domain with a provider that provides registration, hosting, and design services.
For those with zero to little coding experience, websites like Wix, Squarespace or WordPress are great options.
When opting for different entities to handle your website design and hosting, seek out a hosting provider that provides benefits like technical assistance, a complimentary domain name, or a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate. The SSL certificate is of utmost importance as it is an internationally recognized security technology that ensures a secure connection and safeguards your and your visitors’ confidential data. To put it simply, this security feature appends the S in HTTPS at the start of a website’s URL. This is viewed positively by both search engines and visitors.
3. Add Engaging Content and Pages
There are many different ways you can go about displaying your content on your website. But there are a few important pages to consider:
Distinct homepage: Your business website’s homepage should be attention-grabbing and informative, conveying your services and target audience. To achieve this, use attractive visuals, easy-to-read fonts, concise and transparent explanations, and compelling calls-to-action
‘About Us’ page: Tell the tale of how your business came to be, emphasizing its accomplishments, purpose, and principles. Additionally, you may introduce team members to cultivate stronger bonds with clients.
Shop or booking page: Increase your revenue by incorporating a third-party online scheduling platform or an e-commerce platform like HoneyBook or WooCommerce.
Contact page: Make it convenient for individuals to contact you by providing your social media accounts, emails, phone numbers, addresses, and a contact form. If applicable to your enterprise, also include your business hours.
Share content: By sharing interesting and informative content, you can position yourself as a knowledgeable authority in your field and cultivate a dedicated following for your company. This could entail publishing blog posts, producing videos or podcasts, showcasing case studies, and other similar materials. Furthermore, this content has the potential to enhance your search engine rankings and drive more traffic to your website.
Reviews and coverage: Increase your trustworthiness by showcasing your achievements. Create a page that displays favorable feedback regarding your offerings and highlights any recognition your enterprise has received from reputable sources.
4. Make Your Website Search Engine Friendly
To increase your online visibility and attract more traffic, it is important to refine your businesses website through search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. SEO involves optimizing your website to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), particularly on Google, which helps potential customers find your business. Therefore, when building your website, it is crucial to keep in mind the basic SEO practices.
- Incorporate pertinent keywords into your posts and pages, but avoid using them unnecessarily. Be deliberate in your selection of keywords as excessive usage can adversely affect your ranking.
- Regularly produce valuable content for your audience.
- Conduct routine evaluations of your content to identify opportunities for consolidation or updating.
- To improve your webpage’s search engine ranking, optimize images or enable browser caching to reduce loading speed.
- Make sure that your website’s design and content are optimized for computers, mobile phones, and tablets. Don’t overlook the importance of your website’s performance on mobile devices, as smartphones now account for up to 50% of web traffic.
5. Before Publishing, Make Sure To Review Your Site
Prior to launching your website, it is essential to conduct testing to ensure that its functioning properly.
This includes verifying the accuracy and error-free nature of your content, identifying and repairing any broken links, eliminating any extraneous filler content within your website’s theme or template, conducting cross-browser testing across platforms such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, and others, and linking your website with Google Analytics to track its performance.
Once you’ve successfully completed the steps to optimize your website, you’re ready to share it with the world! Be sure to include links via your social media platforms and utilize connections to spread the word. And if you’d like assistance with this process, consider enlisting a website design agency, such as Boylan Point!
