How to create a small business website in 2024 – Forbes Advisor

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Read our easy guide on how to create a small business website. Learn about important design considerations, useful tools, and how to publish your site.

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How to Create a Website: A Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Started

A website is the most effective sales and marketing tool in your arsenal. In just 5 easy steps, you can create a beautiful personal or business website that captivates your visitors and makes them want to work with you. Here's how to get started:

1. Select your domain name

A domain is a unique name for your website.

You can choose any name, but it's best to choose a name that matches your business or professional name. Not only does this keep your brand consistent, but it can also have a huge impact on how you appear in search engine results. A great domain name can help you rank higher and increase the number of people who click through to your site.

When brainstorming a domain name, keep these helpful tips in mind.

• Include keywords related to your business to increase your visibility in search engines.
• Make sure it's easy to spell.
• If you're having trouble brainstorming, use a domain name generator as a starting point.
• Keep your domain short so it's easy for your visitors to remember.
• Avoid abbreviations, acronyms, hyphens, and numbers.
• Aim to use a traditional top-level domain (TLD) such as .com or .net, or whatever is most relevant to you and your business.
• Make sure no one else is already using it. You can also purchase a domain from someone else, but it can be expensive. Instead, you may want to choose a different name or use a different top-level domain, such as .net.

2. Register your domain and choose a design and hosting provider

Once you've decided on a domain name, you'll need to register it with a domain registrar. This can be done using websites like Domain.com and Network Solutions. Note that these providers only register domain ownership, which can cost between $10 and $20 per year, depending on the TLD.

You will need to find another provider to host the URL on which you want to build your website, and you may need to use another program to design your website. To make things easier, you can choose to register your domain with a provider that offers registration, hosting, and design features.

If you don't have much or no coding experience, you may want an all-in-one option like WordPress, Squarespace, or Wix.

If you use another company to manage your web hosting and design, look for a hosting service that offers perks like technical support, a free domain name, or a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate.

You should value SSL certificates because they are a world-standard security technology that enables secure connections and protects you and your visitors' data and sensitive information. Simply put, this security measure adds an S for HTTPS to the beginning of your website's URL. Search engines and visitors view it favorably.

These features are often used by all-in-one providers, but there are no guarantees, so make sure your chosen provider offers these features before purchasing a plan.

Popular web hosts with or without design integrations are Bluehost, DreamHost, GoDaddy, and InMotion.

If your web host doesn't offer integration capabilities, consider third-party design programs such as Canva and Adobe Creative Cloud applications. You can create designs on these platforms and embed them on your website's pages.

3. Add useful pages and engaging content

There are many options for how to organize content about your business and its services.

However, try to include the following important pages on your website:

• Impressive homepage: The central hub of your business website should captivate people and tell them exactly what you do and who you serve. Incorporate eye-catching graphics, easy-to-read fonts, concise and clear descriptions, and a compelling call to action.
• An enlightening “about us” page: Share the origin story of your business. Highlight your accomplishments, mission, and values. You can also introduce any team member to foster deeper connections with your customers.
• Reservation or shop page: Increase your revenue and integrate third-party online scheduling platforms and e-commerce platforms like HoneyBook and WooCommerce.
• Accessible contact pages: Make it easy for people to contact you by including your social media accounts, email, phone number, address, and contact form. If it makes sense for your business, add your business hours as well.
• Memorable content: Sharing engaging content helps establish yourself as an industry expert and grow a community loyal to your business. This may include blogs, videos, podcast episodes, case studies, etc. As a bonus, this content can help improve your ranking in search results and increase your site visitors.
• Robust FAQ page: Answering frequently asked questions not only increases trust with your brand, but it can also reduce the number of calls and support tickets you receive.
• Testimony and reporting: Build credibility by sharing your successes. Create a page to share positive reviews about your services and include mentions of your business in prominent media outlets.

4. Optimize your website for search engines

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of improving your business website so that it ranks higher on search engine results pages (SERPs), especially Google. It helps people find you.

When building your website, keep these basic SEO practices in mind to increase visibility and increase traffic.

• Use relevant phrases, called keywords, throughout your posts and pages. However, don't use keywords for their own sake. Make sure your choices are intentional. Overusing it can negatively affect your rankings.
• Continually publish valuable content for your customers and readers.
• Perform a routine content audit or cleanup to see what can be consolidated or updated.
• Keep your website loading speed as low as possible by optimizing images or enabling browser caching. These adjustments will help your web page rank higher in search engine results. You can measure page speed with GTmetrix. (Learn more about the importance of web page loading speed.)
• Make sure your design and content works well on computers, phones, and tablets. Don't underestimate your website's performance on mobile devices. Today, up to half of web traffic comes from smartphones.

Having a beautifully designed business website is great, but search engines look for more than that to establish your authority when indexing search results.

When optimizing your site for search, keep your visitors in mind. We recommend choosing an easy navigation system and creating pages that have fast loading times. To accommodate a variety of user abilities, follow the guidelines in Section 508 to make your site as accessible as possible.

5. Check your site before clicking “Publish”

Before you publish your website to the real world, you need to test it to make sure it works properly.

In particular, check the following:

• Read through the content to ensure that everything is accurate and free of errors.
• Check for broken links.
• Remove filler content from your website theme or template.
• Test your website in browsers like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Safari.
• Connect your website to Google Analytics to monitor its performance.

When you're ready, click Publish. Drive traffic to your newly created her website by sharing it with your friends, promoting it to your clients, and including it on your LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and other social media profiles.

Keep your site up to date

Your site isn't created the moment you click publish. Your website requires ongoing maintenance to stay high in search rankings and improve your visitor experience. Consider adding the following to your webmaster to-do list:

• We use analytics tools such as Webmaster and Google Analytics to monitor how users use the site. Website engagement metrics to track include bounce rate, click-through rate, and average session duration.
• We regularly update our website with blog posts, products, promotional offers, etc.
• Perform monthly reviews to ensure that all aspects of your website, including internal and external links, pages, and plugins, are working as intended.
• Update the About page by adding new team members and achievements.

Over time, you may need to cultivate relationships with other business sites to establish credibility and improve SEO. If other important websites link to your website, search engines will think that your site is more trustworthy and deserves to be ranked higher in the results.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)