Whether you work as a freelance photographer, own a hardware store, or run another sort of small business, having an excellent website is critical for your company’s success. I know what it takes to develop outstanding and engaging small company websites as a webmaster who has created over 100 business websites. Here are 10 essential actions to take right away and assist your small company website to compete effectively in the internet marketplace.
Here are 10 key steps to getting started and helping your small business website compete effectively in the online marketplace.
1. Establish Your Website’s Purpose
The very first step in developing a great website is to establish its purpose. What will the website be used for? Is it meant to provide information about the company and its products, or will it be used as an e-commerce portal to sell products and services online? Once you know what the website is meant to do, you can start planning its contents and structure.
2. Choose A Suitable Domain Name And Web Hosting Provider
Once you have determined your website’s purpose, the next step is to choose a suitable domain name and web hosting provider. The domain name is the web address and the web hosting provider is the company that will host your website on their servers. Both of these are important decisions and should not be taken lightly.
3. Plan The Website’s Contents And Structure
Once you have determined your website’s purpose and chosen a domain name and web hosting provider, the next step is to plan its contents and structure. This includes creating a sitemap (a map of all the pages on your website), designing the website’s layout, and writing the content for each page.
4. Design The Website’s Layout
The next step is to design the website’s layout. This involves creating the website’s header, footer, and navigation menus, as well as designing the individual pages.
5. Write The Content For Each Page
The next step is to write the content for each page. This includes writing the headline, body text, and keywords for each page.
6. Add Images And Videos
One of the best ways to engage website visitors is to add images and videos to your pages. This can be done by either uploading your own images and videos, or by using images and videos from online sources such as YouTube and Flickr.
7. Use Appropriate Web Design Techniques
In order to make your website look good and work well on all types of devices, it’s important to use appropriate web design techniques. This includes using responsive design principles to make the website flexible and adaptable to different screen sizes, using CSS to format text, aligning elements on the page, and creating background effects (such as drop shadows), and using HTML to structure the content into separate sections.
8. Include Google Analytics Code And Other Tracking Codes
In order to monitor how people are interacting with your website, it’s important that you include Google Analytics code and other tracking codes from web analytics tools such as KISSmetrics. This allows you to see which pages have been visited, where visitors come from (geographically), which keywords they searched for before visiting your site, what pages they visit after leaving your site, and more.
9. Add A Blog To Your Website
Adding a blog to your website lets your website visitors see that you are an authority on the topic. This gives your company more credibility and can lead to more sales conversions (especially if other pages on your website link to relevant blog posts).
10. Improve Website Performance
The final step is to improve website performance by increasing its speed and efficiency. This typically involves using caching plugins (such as W3 Total Cache), removing unnecessary scripts and styling (CSS) rules, de-cluttering HTML code, optimizing images for web use, using a content delivery network (CDN) service, implementing Autotomize plugin for WordPress, and improving website security.
There you have it! 10 key steps to building a great small business website that will effectively compete in the online marketplace. By following these steps, you can create a website that looks great, works well on all devices, and provides visitors with the information they need to make a purchase decision. Thanks for reading!
