How to Build a Business Website: A Complete Guide

In this century, a business without a website might as well not exist. Websites aren’t just an optional marketing strategy anymore. They’re the face of your business. When you’re trying to attract new customers, it doesn’t matter if your business comes recommended by their grandmother and three closest friends. If you have an uninviting, shady-looking website, you’ll send them running straight to your competitors.

“Word of mouth primes your customers to spend their money with you; your business website seals the deal.”

It used to be that if you wanted to make a website, you had to sit for hours grappling with endless lines of code or you had to fork over buckets of cash to have someone else do it for you.

“Now, you don’t even have to learn to code if you don’t want to.”

In ten easy steps, you can create a gorgeous business website that your customers will love!

How to build a website in ten simple steps:

  1. Register your website’s domain name
  2. Choose a website builder and hosting provider
  3. Choose your template and plugins
  4. Create your web pages
  5. Organize your site content
  6. Set up your payment system (if you need one)
  7. Make sure your business website works on all major browsers
  8. Make sure your website is mobile friendly
  9. Use SEO and market your business website
  10. Test and publish your website

Register your website’s domain name

Before you build a website, you need to register a domain name. (A domain name is the name and address of your website. It looks like this: www.insertdomainname.com.) When you’re registering your domain name, use the “.com” version of the name (instead of, say, the “.net” version) if it’s still available. People are more used to seeing “.com” websites and tend to trust them more.

Keep your domain name simple and to-the-point. A domain name that’s relevant and easy to remember will get you more business than one that’s funny but doesn’t really have anything to do with your brand.

Once you’ve chosen a domain name, you need a website builder and hosting provider.

Choose a website builder and hosting provider

Website builders are the reason you don’t need to learn to code to build a website. Our website builder has hundreds of templates for you to choose from, so you can create a gorgeous website without any technical knowledge at all.

As for hosting, websites don’t just float untethered in cyberspace. They need to be stored on servers. To get access to a server for your website, you need a web hosting provider.

When you host with us, you get access to our easy-to-use website builder.

 

Choose your template and plugins

We have lots of templates for you to choose from, and if you’re not quite sure what you want, you might not know which one to choose. Here are a few tips we’ve found useful:

  • If you’re selling products, choose a template that’s good for displaying photos. Pictures help customers imagine using the item you’re selling, which makes them more likely to buy from you.
  • If you’ll be using your site for eCommerce, make sure the template supports this.
  • Don’t just take a template and apply it. Tweak the colors, fonts, banners and layouts until every inch of the template has been infused with your brand.

 

Create your web pages

A business website should be easy to use, with straightforward text and calls to action on each page. When you’re writing copy for your web pages, think about your brand’s personality. Is your brand warm and nurturing, or is it cool and edgy? This will determine how your copy will sound.

Don’t try to create all your web pages at once. It’s impossible to create that much volume all at once, and you’ll end up getting frustrated. Instead, create these important pages first:

  • Homepage: Your homepage is your first chance at making an impression on potential customers. Your homepage needs to hook them, so they’ll want to explore the rest of your site. Testimonials also work great on your homepage, because they’re an excellent way to show customers that you know what you’re doing and that people just like them are already using (and enjoying) your product.
  • Products or services: Showcase the products you sell or the services you offer, in a way that entices customers to buy them.
  • About Us: Use a headline and a short paragraph to tell your customers about your company and the products and services you offer. Use a call to action to make visitors want to click through to the rest of your website.
  • Contact us: Make it really easy for customers to contact you. There’s nothing more frustrating than visiting a website that offers interesting products but no way to get help when you need it.

 

Organize your site content

Unless your business website is an educational website, you might want to steer clear of long, unbroken blocks of text.

When you’ve written your page content, figure out how you’re going to organize it so that visitors will have an easy time reading it. (Think lots of white space and easy-to-read fonts.)

Figure out how to say everything in the most concise way possible, so your copy doesn’t end up looking overwhelming on the page.

 

Set up your payment system (if you need one)

If you expect your customers to pay you online, you’ll want to incorporate an electronic payment system into your website. Ask your hosting provider about options for eCommerce websites.

 

Make sure your website is mobile friendly

A mobile-optimized website alters your site layout so it still looks gorgeous when viewed through smaller screens. Most customers have multiple devices, and at some point, they’ll want to use their phones to access your website. When this happens, you don’t want your text and images to go haywire. So, make sure you optimize your website for mobile users.

Use SEO and market your business website

It won’t matter how great your website is if nobody ever reads it. SEO (“Search Engine Optimization”) is a strategy that increases your site’s search engine ranking. When your website ranks higher in search results, people are more likely to see it and click on it. An easy way to increase your search engine ranking is to include keywords on your site pages and alt tags on your images.

Also, market your business website on social media so people know it exists. Make your marketing intriguing and interactive enough, and you’ll have customers flocking to you in droves.

Test and publish your website

Before you send your precious website into the world, make sure it looks great on all major search engines and not just the one you like to use. You can recruit your friends and family for this. Ask them to open your website on different browsers and see if they can access all the pages and features.

Now you’re ready to take a deep breath… and publish your website.

That’s it! Those are the ten easy steps to publishing your business website. Now that you know how to create a website, you might want to look into even more ways to use technology to make more money. For instance, hosted exchange will change your company’s life.

The wrap-up

Making a business website doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive. If you follow these ten easy steps, you can build a website that attracts the kind of customers who’ll adore your brand.