Creating your own website for your business is easier than ever. Whether you use do-it-yourself tools or pay to have a web designer build your website, these tips can help.
There are a lot of options on how to build a business website. Which you choose depends on your needs and your budget. You can build a simple small business website yourself in a matter of hours, but for more complex sites or online stores, you might need to spend more time and money. Websites with a lot of functions and features might require a web designer (and maybe a web developer) to get correct, which will typically cost more than using do-it-yourself (DIY) tools or something like WordPress.
The good news is that building a quality and professional website is easier than ever, and even website builder tools can give you the professional designs and functionality that only pros could provide five years ago.
Creating a professional website is essential for any business or individual looking to establish an online presence. A well-designed website can help increase credibility and trust with potential customers, reach a wider audience, and define your website’s purpose. Ensuring a positive user experience for your website visitors is crucial for maintaining engagement and driving conversions.
Having a professional website allows you to establish an online presence and reach a global audience. With a website, you can showcase your products or services, share your story, and connect with customers from all over the world. A website is also a great way to establish your brand identity and build a reputation online. By presenting a cohesive and polished image, your professional website becomes a central hub for all your online activities, making it easier for customers to find and engage with your business.
A professional website can help increase credibility and trust with potential customers. A well-designed website shows that you’re serious about your business and willing to invest time and effort into creating a high-quality online presence. This can help build trust with potential customers and increase the chances of converting them into paying customers. When visitors see a professional website, they’re more likely to perceive your business as reliable and trustworthy, which can significantly impact their decision to do business with you.
A website allows you to reach a wider audience and connect with customers from all over the world. With a website, you can target specific keywords and phrases to attract organic traffic from search engines like Google. You can also use social media and other online marketing strategies to drive traffic to your website and reach a wider audience. By optimizing your website for search engines, you can improve your visibility and attract more site visitors, ultimately increasing your website traffic and potential customer base.
Claim your domain name, set up a beautiful website, and find peace with ZenBusiness’s custom website builder.
Before you decide which path you want to go down for creating your website, take the time to understand the web development process. Then, ask yourself a few questions. Start with these three:
Choosing the right website builder is crucial to ensure that your website meets your needs and can grow with your business.
Then, consider the answers to these additional website requirements questions before deciding on the best way to get your website set up.
Before creating a website, it’s essential to define its purpose. What do you want to achieve with your website? Do you want to sell products or services, share information, or build a community? Defining your website’s purpose will help you create a clear and focused online presence that resonates with your target audience. A well-defined purpose helps ensure that every element of your website, from design to content, aligns with your business goals and meets the needs of your visitors.
Once you’ve defined your website’s purpose, it’s time to choose a domain name and web hosting. Your domain name is the address of your website (for example, www.example.com), and web hosting is the service that stores your website’s files and makes them accessible to the public. Choose a domain name that’s easy to remember and relevant to your business, and select a web hosting service that meets your needs and budget. A good domain name and reliable web hosting are foundational elements that help ensure your website is accessible, professional, and easy to find.
By following these steps, you can create a professional website that establishes an online presence, increases credibility and trust, reaches a wider audience, defines your website’s purpose, and chooses a domain name and web hosting.
Do-it-yourself tools are a great way to create a free website that meshes well with your business and brand image. You can find free website builders with basic options, or you can pay premium prices for unlimited customization and advanced SEO, marketing, and eCommerce tools.
Many DIY website builders also offer built-in SEO tools to help you optimize your website for search engines and improve your online visibility. Effective SEO strategies can help your website rank higher not only on Google but also on other search engines, increasing your overall visibility.
Website builder pricing varies depending on the tool you choose and which of their plans you want. While a free website builder may seem tempting, you could end up with too many restrictions and feel that you’re forced to start paying monthly.
While do-it-yourself website builders offer a wide variety of choices, most DIY users are relative beginners looking for easy, low-cost, and low-maintenance web designs.
Wix offers powerful website templates that can be used as is or fully customized to meet your needs, including setting up an online store. Wix offers a variety of advanced features like a blog or e-commerce store. You have complete control of how your website looks and what you include on each page. You can also edit your website’s mobile view so that you can better optimize the site for smartphone and tablet browsers. Wix provides SEO guidance to help your website rank higher in search engines, and your entire website is built through the most effortless drag-and-drop interface available.
Weebly is an easy-to-use website builder that offers a variety of themes and templates to match your needs. As Weebly advertises, you can “give your business credibility [and] make it easy for customers to find you.” Weebly provides options for both service-oriented small businesses and e-commerce stores that use Square to take payments. You don’t need coding skills to create a website on Weebly, and the built-in tools maximize your customization. You can build a simple and professional business website on Weebly in just an hour or two.
If your small business is centered around e-commerce and selling physical goods, Shopify is an excellent source to build a business website. Shopify allows users to create online stores that are fully customizable. The site offers over 70 pre-designed themes, or you can create a custom theme to match your e-commerce store. If you’re not sure how to build the website that you want, you can connect with a Shopify web designer to get started. Using Shopify’s credit card processing option avoids the need to set up your own merchant account if you don’t have one.
You’ve probably heard of WordPress, but you might not know that the company offers a DIY web-based tool at WordPress.com. This is very different from the WordPress publishing platform that is used by millions and requires more technical know-how.
WordPress.com offers hundreds of templates that can be used to create various web pages, from blogs to e-commerce sites. WordPress.com has many templates (some free, some paid) and is accessible for beginners to use. To get the most out of your new website, you’ll want to move to a paid plan. If you’re looking for a huge library of templates, a simple interface, and easy-to-use tools, WordPress.com is an excellent choice. There is a basic free option and then several different price tiers depending on the level of customization for which you are looking.
Claim your domain name, set up a beautiful website, and find your peace with ZenBusiness’s custom website builder.
Building a website can get costly if you use a DIY tool that has monthly and/or startup fees. But while it’s tempting to use only free tools, when there’s no monetary investment, you pay in other ways to use the tools.
For example, free tools often come with stipulations like advertisements that you don’t choose. You might not have the option to monetize your website through ads, meaning that if there are ads on your page, you’re not earning money from them. You might also have the web company’s logo stamped in your header or footer, which you can’t remove. WordPress.com has free site building options, but they put all three of these stipulations on your account. If you want to remove their logo, make money off ads, or remove unwanted ads from your site pages, you have to move to a paid plan.
Paid tools often come with advanced features, including search engine optimization (SEO) capabilities, which can significantly improve your website’s visibility and performance.
If you don’t have time to learn how to use a DIY tool to set up your site, don’t know much about design, or need more than a simple site, you have the option to pay a web designer to use the do-it-yourself website builder for you. Most web designers work for a set or hourly fee, but you should end up with a quality website that looks professional and meets your requirements. If you choose this route, ask the person you hire to show you how to make content updates yourself once the site is set up.
Learning how to create a website with DIY tools can take time at first, but the entire process can take as little as one or two hours for a basic site. And when you need to make changes, you’ll be glad you can do it yourself.
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The WordPress platform is used by millions of websites and is different from the DIY builder at WordPress.com. The WordPress platform is used by both huge websites and small businesses, as it offers nearly unlimited options for design and functionality.
WordPress is best suited for people with moderate to advanced technical knowledge, as it requires some technical skills to launch and keep updated. Once built, the interface for creating pages and editing content is generally straightforward. It’s more intensive labor to get started than do-it-yourself website builders and typically doesn’t come with drag-and-drop features; however, there are third-party tools (called plugins) like Elementor that add “drag and drop” functionality.
If you hire a web designer to create your website, they will often use WordPress for the job. There are thousands of templates available. Some are free; some are fee-based. There are also countless third-party plugins to add functionality for everything from SEO to e-commerce and analytics. WordPress is extremely popular because it’s open-source software, and it’s available to download for free. All you need to get started is the software, a domain name, and a web hosting company.
Even though using the WordPress platform is more challenging than a do-it-yourself website builder, anyone can learn how to build a business website if they dedicate enough time to the task.
A theme is a collection of templates, stylistic choices, and examples. You can use a theme to change your website’s appearance to show off better what your small business is about. Most themes offer full customization of the on-page elements.
A WordPress plugin is software that adds a specific function to your website, like taking orders or making transactions. Plugins let you add functionality to your business website and incorporate new features when you need them.
WooCommerce: Manage transactions, track your incoming and outgoing cash flow, and monitor any open disputes on a transaction. WooCommerce is by far the most popular plugin for e-commerce websites.
Yoast SEO: Yoast SEO optimizes your webpage content so that your website ranks higher in search engine results. You’ll get more visitors from Google, Bing, social media platforms, and other areas where SEO is vital.
Contact Form 7: A popular contact form plugin that adds reCAPTCHA API keys to your message forms. ReCAPTCHA functionality prevents bots from overwhelming your contact form with nonsense messages.
WordFence: WordFence is a high-end security plugin that offers firewall protection and a security scanner. You can use WordFence Central to monitor and manage multiple websites in one place if you have more than one WordPress website.
If using a do-it-yourself website builder or learning how to create a website with WordPress is more than you’re willing to take on, you should consider finding and hiring website designers. Quality web designers can build a stunning business website that meets your requirements and does exactly what you need. However, paying for a quality web designer can get expensive.
Some designers charge hundreds or thousands of dollars to do the work well and on time. If your budget can afford this option, then it’s a practical choice. If you have a smaller budget, don’t try to hire a less expensive web designer as a workaround to getting a website. Web designers who advertise rock-bottom pricing may provide poor customer service, bad communication, and lackluster websites.
If you choose to hire a web designer, be sure to look at their portfolio and also ask for references and check them. Find out if they have built sites that will function the way you want yours to work. Someone who has never built e-commerce sites, for instance, might not do a good job creating your e-commerce site.
Whichever way you decide to go, you can build a quality website for your small business that generates new business and takes your company to the next level. Work through the various options available to you and decide which method of creating a site works for your business type, needs, and budget.
If you decide to use a DIY builder, choose a host that provides the options and features better suited to your style. If you opt to build a site on WordPress.org, research the best themes and plugins to customize your company website. At the end of the day, if neither of these is appealing, hire an experienced and reputable web designer or web developer.
Building the business website of your dreams should be exciting and lead to increased sales and conversion rates. If you find that your business isn’t doing better after you spend the time and money on a website, consider whether you built the right site for what you do, how you’re promoting the website, and whether or not it’s been optimized to be found in search engines. Don’t be afraid to go back to the drawing board if you need to.
For additional information on building a website, see our website design tips page.
Be wary of scams that may offer you a website for free! See more: Website Scams Target Small Businesses
Disclaimer: The content on this page is for information purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, or accounting advice. If you have specific questions about any of these topics, seek the counsel of a licensed professional.
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