0
0
0
0
This article provides an overview of the stages of creating a website for your business, as well as recommendations for the tools to use based on your business’s kind and level of understanding. We will also provide additional tools to assist you in meeting your objectives and getting your business website up and operating as soon as possible.
When you’re ready to get started, visit our Best Website Builder Review to uncover the best web hosting services and other resources for your small business.
What Kind of Website Do You Need?
How to Build a Website For Beginners Step by Step
Before you begin, consider what kind of website you will require.
The type of website you require will vary depending on the type of business you run. While all websites have many characteristics, your business site will require things that others do not.
If you own a restaurant, for example, you’ll almost certainly want to include a menu on your website. A certified public accountant (CPA), on the other hand, will most likely consider an easy-to-use contact form important.
We’ll look at several business categories and give recommendations for the best website development software for each one.
Local Business
Local businesses include restaurants, CPAs, plumbers, real estate brokers, flower shops, tanning salons, and so on. Consider any corner store or market you might come across while traveling down your main street as a fantastic illustration of a specialized business with specific website requirements.
While these businesses do not normally require large or complicated websites, their websites must convey basic information about them while also assisting clients in solving their problems.
Some local businesses require incredibly simple websites with only one page that displays their contact information and hours of operation. Others will require sites with more functionality, such as ordering systems, chat responders, or even Internet data exchange (IDX) connectors. Finally, the type of business you run will strongly influence your website requirements.
Remember that simply having a Facebook page, a Google Business Profile, or a Yelp profile for your company isn’t enough. While all of these will assist to market and raising the visibility of your brand, having complete control over your website is the first true step toward becoming a legal business.
Also Read: AI Business Name Generator Free: Best Business Name Generators 2023
Large Business
Large companies or brands are businesses that most people are familiar with. Every company that places things on the shelves of your local grocery store, for example, needs a business website.
Surprisingly, they frequently produce far simpler web pages than you might assume. Many of their sites are simply large-scale blogs. While a large company website may have hundreds or thousands of pages, the technology required to make it is no more sophisticated than what is required to build a tiny, simple blog.
WordPress is the most popular content management system for these types of websites. A large company is likely to already have a few technology or web developers on staff. This suggests your company has the internal resources to design and maintain a good WordPress website.
How to Build a Website For Beginners Step by Step
Online Service Business
Software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies, membership sites, social media companies, and forums are a few examples of this sort of business. An online service business’s website, like firms that require a blog or portfolio site, takes center stage in promoting the organization. The main distinction is that big companies require sites with extensive functionality and technical integration.
Unless you’re a seasoned web developer, you’ll almost probably need to employ or contract with technical expertise to build a website that meets the needs of your online service business.
E-commerce
If you want to offer things to clients directly online, you must have an e-commerce site.
The e-commerce industry has experienced substantial growth in recent years. This includes people who sell both physical and digital goods, as well as those that use a dropshipping strategy. New software tools that streamlined the entire online selling procedure and reduced the cost for small firms and entrepreneurs to enter the market contributed significantly to this tremendous expansion.
While significantly more difficult than a regular blog or portfolio site, e-commerce websites are straightforward to construct and run thanks to software designed expressly for this purpose.
Content Creators
In general, a blog or portfolio website is appropriate for those who wish to establish a personal online presence or for artists who need a location to display their work.
In the case of a blog, the website serves as the business rather than as a support element. This will have an impact on the software you use to build the website. Because you will “live” in that software on a regular basis, it must be a comfortable environment with all of the technological features you require.
If you want to create your own blog, check out our free blogging course. It will lead you through all of the necessary procedures to get your blog up and running.
For various types of content creators, from video essayists to podcasters, having a website that can hold your in-depth information as well as link it to all the other platforms where viewers may engage with it is critical. Not many website builders have this functionality or make it simple to use. It is critical to find the appropriate fit.
If you want to construct a portfolio website to promote your artistic work, design control may be crucial to consider while selecting software. Most web development software platforms make design easy by providing a large number of templates to pick from.
Choose a Website Builder or Platform
Given all we’ve advised thus far, you might be wondering why we recommend some tools over others. This section will provide you with a little more context to assist you to decide which web hosting or building platform to utilize when you build your website.
We’ll start with the WordPress platform because it might be difficult to disentangle and comprehend. WordPress is not a website builder in and of itself, but rather a content management system (CMS) that can also build websites. We know it’s tough, but stick with us!
Then we’ll go through a general overview of traditional website builders, including what they normally offer and how to choose the best one for you.
We will also go through crucial needs and resources that will have a significant impact on your ultimate decision. The following are the most important considerations when selecting a website builder or platform:
- Required Skill Level – How much do you know about website development?
- Required Resources – Do you have enough time, money, and patience?
- Flexibility – How complex are your website’s requirements?
- Sustainability – Will the intricacy of your website increase as your firm grows?
WordPress
So, why would anyone refuse to utilize WordPress?
Because with all that versatility comes a great deal of complexity. To begin building a website with WordPress, you must:
- Register a domain name (URL) with a domain registrar.
- Find a suitable web hosting service to store and serve your website’s data.
- Select a WordPress theme that provides the appearance and functionality that your company needs.
While these stages aren’t tough, you should be aware that creating a WordPress website is a modular process. To add something to your site that goes beyond the fundamental capabilities of WordPress, you must either install a third-party plugin or find a custom-coded solution. Even something as easy as getting started frequently necessitates two or three separate purchases from different firms.
However, as more web providers integrate corresponding website-building tools, navigating the complexities of WordPress becomes easier. This is why we advocate services like GoDaddy, Bluehost, and Kinsta. Using services like these makes it simple to get started, design your website, and never have to worry about keeping up with bothersome plugins and theme changes.
WordPress Summary
- Required Skill Level – Medium. Before constructing a WordPress website, you should have some web experience.
- Required Resources – Medium. If you want to build it yourself, you’ll need a lot of time and patience, or you can pay a lot of money to have an expert do it for you.
- Flexibility – High. WordPress allows you to create practically anything.
- Sustainability – High. If properly developed, your WordPress website can scale indefinitely.
Website Builders
Website builders have also been around for a long time. Due to their increased quality and ease of use, modern builders such as Wix and Squarespace have surged in popularity in recent years.
Unlike the convoluted feel of WordPress, these website builders provide an all-in-one solution for developing your business website. In most cases, you choose an available domain name from a website builder’s platform and then the program walks you through a series of questions about your company. After answering those questions, you’ll have a working website shell in roughly five to thirty minutes.
The trade-off of this massive increase in simplicity is less flexibility. However, this only matters if your website has complicated functionality. Ninety percent of small firms will not be inconvenienced by the more flexibility, which can sometimes impede the process of getting your site up and running.
Also Read: Blog Name Ideas: How to Choose a Blog Name
Website Builder Summary
- Required Skill Level – Low. There is no prior web development expertise required, although basic computer operation experience will be beneficial.
- Required Resources – Low. Monthly fees for website builders are extremely low. Furthermore, because you will not need to pay a developer, your time will be the most expensive.
- Flexibility – Depending on the platform, you should be able to locate the options you require to run your website. However, don’t expect to see an easy answer for every bizarre characteristic you can think of.
- Sustainability – High. Almost all websites established with their software can be maintained throughout the life of the site. If not, you may always relocate your site.
How to Build a Website For Beginners Step by Step
Choose a Template or Theme That Suits Your Business
After deciding on the software platform for your website, you must select a template or theme to give your site a design and layout that meets your business requirements.
WordPress themes are used to customize the look and feel of your website. Third-party firms provide the best and most useful themes. In many situations, these themes manage not just the aesthetic of your site, but also its back-end functions. To understand more, read our post on the Best WordPress Themes.
Templates are used by website builders to determine the look and feel of your site. Your template selection will have no effect on the back-end layout or functionality of your site.
The theme or template you choose will depend on the type of business you run and your personal style preferences. Use the following characteristics to help you decide which theme or template to use.
Functionality and Simplicity
The most crucial feature of a theme or template is its user-facing functionality and simplicity.
If visitors to your website are unable to navigate its pages or find the information they need, your site becomes a liability rather than an asset.
We’ve all been “trained” over the years to detect several crucial aspects of a well-designed website. For example, navigation bars and buttons should be placed in expected positions so that visitors do not have to look for solutions to their questions. Well-designed websites also avoid using insane color combinations that make their text difficult to see on a variety of screen sizes.
Most themes and templates don’t deviate too far from the mean, so you should have no trouble finding one that fulfills all of these requirements.
Brand and Visuals
After ensuring that your chosen theme is simple to use for your customers, you should hunt for an alternative that matches the visual features of your company’s branding. Many new firms get their brand images from their websites rather than the other way around.
If you’re confused about your company’s overall brand or style, start with your logo. If you don’t already have a logo, use our free logo maker tool.
If you haven’t gotten that far yet, use our business name generator or business ideas generator to begin the process of building your company from the ground up.
Also Read: List of 10 Best Free Traffic Sources for Website 2023
Create the Pages Your Business Needs
Websites are made up of carefully curated pages. Each page should have its own worth and purpose. Without overcomplicating things, all websites require some fundamental pages, and you’ll also want to include other pages that are specifically customized to your type of business.
Pages Every Site Needs
Here are the five pages every website needs:
- Home Page: As the front page of your website, this should succinctly convey the objective of your business and how to connect with it. It should also include any additional information you believe is crucial for your customers to know.
- About Page: This page should give your consumers an overview of your company, its people, its goal or mission statement, and any other distinguishing information.
- Contact Page: Customers can contact you through this page. Many websites provide contact forms, but you should also provide clients with direct means to contact you. You may also include your hours of operation and business address on this page.
- Privacy Policy Page: While clients may seldom see this page, it is crucial to include if you collect any customer information in the course of your business’s everyday operations.
- Terms and Conditions Page: This page, similar to a privacy policy page, effectively establishes an agreement between you and your consumers outlining how your business and/or website functions.
You should find it pretty simple to design your site’s Home, About, and Contact pages on your own. Check out these stunning websites developed with GoDaddy if you’re looking for some inspiration.
The Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions sections will require a little more development. If your company has an attorney, ask them to assist you in writing appropriate content for these websites. If you don’t have an attorney or don’t want to spend a lot of money on one, consider Rocket Lawyer. It provides a range of forms, including templates for such pages, at a fraction of the cost of an attorney.
Pages Specific To Your Business
You may want to add a number of different pages geared to your specific sort of business in addition to the pages that every website requires.
While not an exhaustive list, the following page kinds may be appropriate for your business website:
- Product Page: This page details a product that you sell. If you own an e-commerce company or a physical store, a product page can help your customers understand the product and may even allow them to purchase it.
- Pricing Page: A pricing page, which is common among organizations that sell services, describes a company’s various service level offers and their associated rates. A link to a pricing page is usually found in the top-level navigation bar of a website.
- Menu Page: If you own a restaurant, you simply must have a menu page. When your clients search for your menu online, you don’t want them to find merely grainy photographs of your actual menu.
- Service Page: If your company provides more than one sort of service, a service page is an excellent way to present a comprehensive description of these offerings.
- Blog Page: A blog can be used by any type of business. Most people establish company blogs to help with search engine optimization for their websites. (SEO).
Whether or not you add these pages to your site is determined by the type of business you run. You can also be creative and combine or add any of these page categories as you see appropriate. Remember that internet users expect to see certain patterns, so going too far beyond the norm may cause more harm than good.
Connect a payment system
The ultimate purpose of creating a website from scratch is to earn sales. You want to make it simple for people to buy from your website. A flawless payment mechanism is not negotiable.
Shopify enables business owners to effortlessly take credit cards and other common payment methods. You can offer express payment alternatives like Shop Pay, G Pay, or PayPal, or you can let clients pay over time with Afterpay.
You don’t have to deal with third-party activations when you set up Shopify Payments. To get started selling online quickly, simply enter your employment identification number and financial information. Shopify Payments is included with all Shopify plans.
Also Read: Unblock Instagram: How to Unblock People on Instagram
How to Build a Website For Beginners Step by Step
Maintenance, Updates, and Optimization
After successfully launching your business website, your work is not done. You should always look for methods to improve your website throughout the life of your firm. Even if you opt not to make major changes, you must still keep the site up to date.
The amount of hands-on maintenance required varies depending on the software platform used to develop your website. In most circumstances, the modular architecture of WordPress will necessitate more constant input than a website builder platform.
Other types of optimization work will be required regardless of the platform you pick to build your site.
Remember to keep the following points in mind as you plan for the future of your website.
Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization is the practice of increasing the visibility of your website’s pages in search engine results pages. Depending on how you market your company, increasing your Google rankings and online exposure could have a huge impact on your success.
Plugins and Updates
If you decide to use WordPress to develop your site, you must keep your theme, plugins, and core WordPress software up to date with all essential changes. While this is a manual process, it is usually as simple as logging in and clicking a few buttons.
Because WordPress is modular, each plugin will have its own updating schedule. While some will have more updates and patches than others, you will need to update them all on a regular basis. These updates typically address bugs and avoid security risks, but they may also include new features and capabilities.
You won’t have to worry about updates if you utilize a website builder to design your business website.
These technologies’ all-in-one structure allows its creators to work behind the scenes to update your site with absolutely no input from you. This is one of the most significant benefits of using a website builder.
Start Your Business Website
Creating a business website is now easier than ever. The availability of high-quality, user-friendly products should make your task a lot easier than you previously imagined.
Based on our recommendations, you should have a decent sense of which software platform will work best for your company.
Build a website FAQ
Can I create a free website?
Yes, without any coding skills, you may construct a free version of your e-commerce business or personal website. When you create a free Shopify website, Shopify will be added as a subdomain to your domain name. You must pay for hosting if you want a custom domain.
How do I get a domain for my website?
How can I make my own website domain for free?
