Not having a website means you’re losing out to potential customers. The excuse of sites being overly complicated or too expensive to create is no more legitimate. Bluehost offers you a domain, a business email, AND an expert WordPress site for only $2.95/month.
Stick to the 5 easy steps in this guide to have your small business website up and running in no time:
Step 1: Choose and Register Your Own Small Business Website’s Domain Name
The very first step is to decide what name you’ll give your site — for example, www.YourBusiness.com.
First things first, you will want to test and see if your company name is available. To discover, enter it in the domain search tool below, powered by Bluehost. If you’re taken straight to the registration page, it means your name is available, if you find a message that the domain isn’t available for registration, then you will need to correct your organization name.
If the .COM edition of your business name is available, consider using this to your site. Otherwise, try various phrases before settling for another suffix, such as .NET or even .INFO. Consumers overwhelmingly utilize .COM when entering a web address. So even in the event that you market your .NET site, you could lose clients who typed in the .COM version instead.
Tips for Finding Business Website Domains
If your company name is taken, here are a few tips to keep in mind as you search for alternate names:
- Domain names are important for search engines, like Google. Contemplate including words that people are likely to use when browsing for your business. “ProStar Lawncare” is probably better than “ProStar USA.”
- Domain names should be simple to pronounce and remember. Keep your name as brief as possible and prevent punctuation such as dashes. As a simple rule of thumb, make sure somebody can find your domain if they hear it spoken out loud.
- Utilize location to Discover a Exceptional URL. If all other options are taken, then add your city/area name to the domain name. By way of example, a firm named Smith Plumbers located in Albany, NY, could try www.smithplumbersalbany.com. This, again, can help your website appear in Google since clients will probably enter their town name when searching for a service.
If you still require assistance picking a domain name, visit our Top 25 Domain Name Tips From The Experts.
Step 2: Pick Which Platform & Host are Ideal for You
Once you’ve selected a domain name, the next step is to choose where to host your website. A server is the service that actually stores your website and transmits it to people. In our experience, both greatest server platforms are Bluehost and Weebly.
Price: $2.95/moIssue: Intermediate
Uses: Serves huge Assortment of companies; templates for Virtually Every business
Visit Bluehost
Difficulty: Easy
Software: Simple informational Sites, mild blogging and e commerce capability
See Weebly
Bluehost is the most flexible hosting choice and the one which delivers the most value. You can register your domain, host your site, AND get a company email address for just $2.95 per month. Click here to check out Bluehost’s hosting programs.
Weebly is somewhat more user friendly, and provides more personalized customer support. This can make it a much better choice for less tech-savvy users that simply need a simple information site. However, the tradeoff is a higher price tag $12/mo, and this does not include a domain or email account.
Now let us explore all these options in more detail:
Option 1: Create a WordPress Website with Bluehost ($2.95/month)
If you’re slightly more technologically savvy, and want access to infinite features and performance, WordPress is the way to go. Bluehost offers cheap hosting plans and a free WordPress website (with a domain and company email account included) for just $2.95/month.
You might also learn how to setup a WordPress website here.
Getting Started with WordPress
Just remember: WordPress is a intermediate website builder. You won’t need any programming knowledge per se, however you’ll have to familiarize yourself with their backend menu. Contrary to Weebly, which permits you to edit the website by simply dragging and dropping elements, WordPress has a more traditional edit menu.
That said, we’ve written a few guides and recorded a video that explains how to make a WordPress site using Bluehost from begin to finish. Should you follow one of our manuals and use the same theme, you should get the majority of the work done in under one hour.
Check out our WordPress guides below. For each of these, we utilize Bluehost, which provides you a WordPress website, domain and business email for only $2.95/month:
- Produce a Company Site (With Company template)
- Create a Restaurant Website (With restaurant template)
- Produce a Salon Website (Using Salon template)
Choice 2: Use a Website Builder such as Weebly ($12/month)
For small business owners that are short on time, are less technologically advanced, but are ready to pay just a little bit more, we recommend using Weebly. Weebly is part of a new class of tools called website builders that utilize drag-and-drop interfaces to make it easier than ever to look for a site
With Weebly, you begin by picking a template, then customize with your own pages, text, pictures, etc..
Examples of website templates from Weebly
The editing procedure is quite intuitive. If you’ve ever used Microsoft Word or PowerPoint, you’ll easily grasp the tool. Add components by dragging them from the sidebar. Adjust the dimensions by dragging in the corner, and alter text by clicking within the text box.
It’s also quite simple to add interactive features to your website. Most website builders are going to have click-to-add option for Google Maps, YouTube/Vimeo embeds, web forms, and more. This makes your customers more likely to share and invest more time on your website.
You can read how Weebly stacks up from Wix and WordPress within our website builder buyer’s guide, or go right ahead and check out our step-by-step directions about how best to make a site using Weebly.
When to Use a Website Builder Besides Weebly — Ecommerce Website ($29/month)
If you’re just selling a couple of products, Weebly has the capacity to deal with this. However, if the primary purpose of your site is to market goods, you might want to choose a web site builder which specializes in making an internet store. We advocate Shopify as the best dedicated e-commerce platform as it’s all-in-one multichannel selling alternative comprises a complete suite of internet store, marketplace, social, and in-person marketing tools. It’s pricing is comparable to Weebly’s e-commerce program at $29 per month.
Measure 3: Outline Your Own Website Content
Now that you know which stage you’re going to use, it is time to decide what your site will say. Figuring out what to say on your site can be tough, and one of the main reasons business owners put off creating one.
The great news is that you do not have to say much at all. Company websites work best when they’re easy, including minimal text and just a single”option” on each page — i.e. entry type, or”contact us” button.
Business websites also tend to stick to a standard format, using these 4 key pages. As you go through the list, do not worry about formatting each page yet — only think about the text, images, and content you’ll include:
- Homepage: On the site, you should include the title of your company, in which you are located, and a simplified pitch — a few lines about what makes you unique and/or why clients should choose your business.
- Products and Services: A webpage with details about the products that you promote or services your supply. On the page that you detail products or services, spend one to five paragraphs describing every kind you offer and provide the pricing.
- About Us: Provide your business history and listing organizational memberships such as being a part of the Better Business Bureau. Also include customer testimonials, which helps make your company seem more trustworthy and credible.
- Contact Us: Your address, email, phone number, the hours you’re open for business, and hyperlinks to some social networking accounts like Twitter and Facebook must appear on this page. You also ought to embed a Google map of your location and include various methods for getting there (i.e. subway, or train, car etc) if applicable.
“Reviewing the types of pages featured on competitor sites can also give you ideas for articles you want to incorporate on your site.”
— Sally Kane, Content Director, PaperStreet
Special Tools for Mobile Websites
These days, more than half of customers browse from their smartphones instead of a computer. As a small business owner, this means it’s crucial to have a mobile-friendly site.
The good news is most of the best web-builders, including Weebly, automatically create mobile-optimized websites for you. Known as”responsive” topics, these websites can detect the kind of device you are browsing from and automatically shift the content to supply you with the best experience. WordPress also has multiple responsive themes out there.
Thanks to G&B Coffee and Science Retail for sharing these mobile site tips
Nevertheless, even if your site is responsive, it’s normally a fantastic idea to create some additional adjustments for your mobile site. In general, you want to remove any surplus details. Your cellular site should focus entirely on your call-to-action — whether that is getting customers to call your business, fill-out a contact form, join a mailing list, or create an online order.
Click-to-call buttons are especially beneficial if you want mobile visitors to dial your business. This is a button which — when clicked from a cell phone — automatically populates your business’ phone number into the visitor’s dialpad. An embedded Google Maps widget is also key for customers that are browsing on-the-go, since they can instantly bring up navigation to your shop.
Step 4: Decide on a Logo
The colours, font, and design of your logo will affect the design of your website. This is because you would like a consistent motif between your logo and web pages.
If you currently have a logo that you are utilizing from the offline world, then ideal. Find the digital file, or make a high resolution scan to utilize in your site. If you do not already have a logo, or want to upgrade from your Current layout, you will find three Important ways to create one:
- Do it Yourself — There are a number of logo design applications out there that will permit you to produce your own emblem. We recommend Tailor Brands if you want an easy way to produce an attractive logo. You may give it a try for free, and if you discover a design you like then it’s only $24 to download.
- Use Fiverr.com: Fiverr.com is a website that suits you with all kinds of service providers that are willing to do jobs, such as logos, for just $5. If you apply the $5 option you will have to wait a few weeks to get your logo. For about $20, you can generally get it the exact same week. If you discover a designer with a portfolio you like, this is easily the smartest choice for the cost.
- Utilize 99Designs. Id: 99Designs. Com runs competitions where multiple designers compete for your logo and other design business. This is a great option because you get to see many different creative and professional designs (It is the way we found our logo at Fit Small Business! ) ) , yet only cover the one you end up picking. The price on 99designs ranges from $299 to $799 depending on the number of designers you need competing along with the caliber of these designers.
Cases of Logos From 99Designs. com
If you are interested in obtaining a logo from 99Designs, check out our full guide How To Create a Logo, Flyer, or Menu using 99 Designs.
Measure 5: Design Your Site
Now that you have all of the bits for your small business site ready, it’s time to put them all together into a nice looking website.
It has been shown that it takes someone less than 3 seconds to decide whether to remain or leave once they hit your website, therefore it’s very important that you create a fantastic first impression. Here are a Couple of tips to ensure your site is keeping people engaged:
- Have clear navigation — You need people who come to your website to instantly understand what your company is about and where to go to find out about your products or services, find pricing, and contact a representative. If your website is not apparent, people will get frustrated and depart out.
- Use call to action buttons — Implementing buttons with clear actions will instantly attract the user’s eye. This assists you to lead the man to take your desired action.
- Make sure that your site is loading fast — folks are impatient, and if your site takes a fraction of a second too long to load, people will give up and look elsewhere. Make sure your web host provider, like Bluehost, has rapid load times.
- Keep it minimal — Don’t overdo it with the layout and definitely do not feel like you want to pay every square inch with information or a layout. White space is your friend. By keeping the appearance minimal, you are able to focus attention on the things you want people to actually pay attention to.
Instance of simple yet effective site from birdandstone.com.
Consider Hiring a Professional to Construct Your Small Business Website
If you merely don’t have enough time to create a site, or if you’d like a exceptional design, there’s a few different ways to hire an expert.
“In case you intend to outsource your website, ensure you haveaccess to it in the event you will need to make modifications. Many of our customers have had their websites held hostage and charged exorbitant charges to create simple edits after a design has been approved. Control your digital assets by requesting account passwords for everything if you want to avoid this.”
— Tom J. Cameron, President, Digital Pudding, Inc..
Hire a Designer on Upwork ($50-$300)
If you’re just looking for a simple website (text, photos, videos, email capture forms, online store, etc.) you should find somebody to design it using a web builder, such as Weebly. Freelance sites like UpWork have people who will design your website for around $10 — $20 per hour.
Hire a Professional Designer using 99Designs ($1,000-$4,000)
If you want to produce an innovative web site on WordPress and aren’t happy with some of those templates available, or do not possess the skills to customize one, hiring a designer is another option.
Just because you’re able to find a logo designed by 99Designs. Com, you can also have your full website designed by means of this site. The concept is exactly the same: you submit a brief on what you’re looking for and get back anywhere from 20 to 60 designs. You only pay for the design you select, and the cost ranges from $599 to $1,599, depending on what package you proceed with. We utilized 99designs here in FitSmallBusiness.com for our website — so in the event that you would like to find a good instance of a 99designs website, you are considering one!
When you have decided on the winning style, you will have to find someone to code the design for your site. 99designs has coding partners that’ll be able to do so for you and who have experience working with templates out of 99designs. Typically the cost to code 1 responsive page (a page that also operates on cellular ) is $300, and each internal page (all pages other than the homepage) costs around $150.
To find out more about the costs involved when a professional creates your site, view our comprehensive guide to site expenses.
Bottom Line
To make a small business website, the least-expensive and most versatile option, by far, would be to use Bluehost. It is possible to get a domain, professional WordPress website and business email accounts for just $2.95/month.
That said, people seeking a simpler and quicker solution should consider Weebly. At a very good price of $12/month (domain name and email not included), Weebly gives you excellent user-friendly system to design a web site AND attentive customer care.
If you’re prepared to dive in, have a look at our article how to create a small business site using Weebly.
