Without online presence, a website for instance, it’s no longer feasible for a business to run. Why? From product research, location, to operating hours, people nowadays turn to the internet when it comes to checking businesses. So, if you don’t have an online presence yet, consider creating a website for your business. If you want to know further why and how to create one, stay and read this blog post.
Reasons Why Your Business Needs A Website
Many businesses aren’t convinced yet that they need a website. Too bad for them, but that’s an opportunity for you. If you want to get motivated, here’s a list of benefits that your business will get by creating a website.
- Improve Your Advertising Effectiveness through digital ads.
- Save Money on Printing and Distribution Costs through an online brochure or catalog.
- Easy Access to New Customers through URL sharing.
- Improve the Company’s Productivity through digital service details.
- Easily Educate and Notify Customers through webpage content.
- Expand Your Market and Local Reach through the website’s global availability.
- Improve Customer Care Services and Communication through a digital contact form, and contact info.
- Low-Cost Market Research through online surveys.
- Build Reputation through blog posts.
There are many more than meets the eye. Creating a website unlocks further possibilities for your business.
Guide for Creating a Website for your Business
Determine your Website’s Purpose
For a business to have a website, usually there are two reasons why. Either to provide general information about your company or as a direct platform for e-commerce. List down the things you want to achieve for creating a website before creating one.
Tip: Your website’s purpose should be visible on your homepage. So customers will know right away what you as a business.
Choose a Domain Name
The URL or the Web Address of your Website is your domain name. It is one of the important features, and it will be the address that you’ll give to your customers or audiences for them to find your website. And with that in mind, you have to ensure the following:
- Use an easy to remember but a catchy domain name.
- Use your own business name or close to it if it’s not available anymore.
- Use .com or .net as the suffix because it’s easy to remember and identified as a website.
- Always check for trademark infringement when using a domain name.
Note: A domains name is something that you need to buy through web hosting companies. And you also need to check its availability. That’s because no websites should have the same URL.
Choose a Web Host
When creating a website, you need a host. It’s the server where all the websites data will be safe. That’s how your customers will be able to access it all the time. And unless you can host your own, which is actually too expensive, you have to choose an external host. Choose a web hosting company that suits your website’s needs and also budget-wise.
Tip: Aside from Web Host and Domain Name, your website also needs an SSL Security. That is to ensure that you and your customers’ data are secured. Most web hosting companies sell it separately. So try to look for web host packages that include it, like Siteground for instance.
Build Your Web Pages
In this section, unless you know how to do it yourself, creating web pages should be done by experts. Hiring a web designer is a good investment to ensure that your website objectives will be met. Just make sure you’ll be somehow involved in the process of creation by emphasizing your business needs for a website. For instance, clearly state that you need call-to-action features, this and that color schemes, payment methods (if applicable), etc.
Tip: When hiring a web designer, choose someone who can do graphic designs as well. So you can ask for a logo design, buttons, pictures, etc. It is much cheaper that way, rather than hiring two different people.
Also, ask your designer to install a way for you to measure your site’s performance, like analytics, and metrics.
Run Tests and Publish your Website
Like a product that needs to be introduced in the market, you need to test your website. Check every function if it does what it should be doing, try it on multiple web browsers on computer, mac, apple, and android devices, and more importantly check its speed.
Market your Website
Let your target market know that you have a website. Share your URL to your social media accounts, give pamphlets, etc. Whatever you do to notify them about it, make sure you will only be where they are and not everywhere. That’s to avoid wasting marketing effort. And then, provide them with means to come back always (i.e. through blog posts).
Maintain and Improve
As I’ve said, provide your audiences with more reasons to come back and check your website. For instance, give them updates about your business, continuously share new content on your social media, do weekly blog posts, etc. And also, test it at least once a month to see if all functions are still working. Lastly, listen to your customers. Give them ways to provide feedback so you can improve your website.
See Also: IS BRANDING IMPORTANT?
