At least one of your friends or well-wishers might have suggested you get a website.
If you don’t have a website for your business, you are at a loss!
Here is how,
Do you know, about 4.5 billion people (i.e. 59 % of the global population) are active Internet users? Some percentage of these Internet users might be searching for your business, i.e. they are your potential customers. And a website is the only means to draw those online customers. Moreover, a website makes your business services and products 24/7 accessible to the customer. Meaning that you get endless business and customers!
So, aren’t you at a loss?
Don’t worry; it is not a nightmare yet!
You are still not late to build a website, establish an online presence and outshine the competitors.
But, what is the fear factor that is preventing you from getting a website yet?
Is it the cost? Or the difficulty of building a website? Or maintenance? Or all three?
Of course, these should be the reasons for not having a website. But, not today! Website development and maintenance have gotten a lot easier and faster over the years. Thanks to platforms like WordPress, Wix, Joomla, Weebly, Shopify, and many more. With any of the CMS based platforms, you can easily build a professional website and manage it like a pro.
Now coming to our main concern, how can you build a website? Here we will help you understand this in a few easy steps.
Understanding how to build a website in seven simple steps:
Let’s dig deeper,
Before you start building a website, you must have a name for it, exactly like before starting a business; you fix the name of your business. While thinking of the name, you must consider the one which describes your business best. In other words, the way or the keywords that your customer will use to search your business or services.
For example: If Alex opens a Cafe Shop and thinks to name it “Alex & Friends” then getting business with this name will be a little tough, as customers will search for the word “Cafe”. So the best-suited name could be “Alex Cafe”. Hence while choosing the business name, you should be aware of the keywords.
Discovering Keywords:
Keywords are the first important part of your website. They are the popular words or phrases that users enter into a search engine to resolve their query. Keywords play an essential part in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) which will further improve your google ranking and grow your business more and more. So before fixing any name, do an excellent keyword research.
As you have done with the name & keyword research, you are half done for buying a domain; now your business name will become Domain name. But before purchasing a domain make sure that it agrees on the below checklist,
The extension is as important as your domain. Thus you need to be careful while picking this as well. You have several options for extensions to choose from other than .com. Here is the list of all extensions with their meanings:
Based on your website or business type and specific requirements, you should pick an appropriate extension.
For purchasing the domain you have several sites like GoDaddy, BigRock, NameCheap, etc. You just need to follow these simple steps:
Now you have a perfect domain name with you; it’s time to find a host for your website. Did you say “what is hosting”?? Web hosting is a service essential for posting your website or web page on the Internet. Your hosting provider provides you with the services and technologies( server) required for your website to be viewed on the Internet. Your website will be stored or hosted on a server. When the users search for your site, they will be connected to the server.
As the performance of your website will also depend on the hosting, you have to choose the hosting provider and package wisely keeping in mind several technical points. You will find a long list of hosting providers, which includes:
Among so many options choosing the best one is difficult, as each hosting provider comes with some pros and cons. For now, we are focusing on WordPress.com and will see how to build a website using it.
Apart from service providers, choosing the right hosting plan is also important. There are three options to pick from:
Shared Hosting
This is the most economical and attractive option for hosting your website. In shared hosting, a single server hosts hundreds of websites, and the cost is divided between all users of the server. Though it is affordable, the shared hosting may come with some disadvantages. For instance, due to the multiple users, you may face several security issues and poor uptime.
Managed WordPress Hosting
Managed hosting is the most prefered plan. In managed hosting, you get a dedicated server for your website on which you will have full control. As the server is not shared with anyone, your site works quite faster and is more secure. If cost is not a concern for you then, you must go for managed hosting.
VPS Hosting
Virtual Private Server is somewhat similar to shared hosting. In this, the hardware is shared equally between a few users only instead of a large group. This is also a good option you can opt for.
After picking the right hosting plan, the next, most important step is to install WordPress. The installation can be simple and quick, depending on which hosting provider you choose. Some hosting providers like Bluehost offer a one-click installation option on the hosting dashboard that makes your job quicker. While some offer manual installation, in which, first you need to download WordPress and then reupload it to the hosting provider.
If you have chosen a managed hosting plan like Kinsta, then installation can be done using a brief form.
After complete installation you are ready to get creative with your website. WordPress has a treasure of themes, plugins, and customization options that help you create a perfect, eye-catchy website.
Themes:
The theme is like a template that you can use for your website by modifying and adding your own content. When you login into WordPress, you get the option to choose a theme of your choice. You can take a demo of each theme and decide which one best suits and describes your business.
Plugins:
Plugins are something that help you to extend your WordPress website functionality. Thousands of plugins (paid and free) are available for different purposes and following are some that your WordPress website must have:
Speed Plugin:
A speed plugin helps to improve your website loading speed in different ways like optimization. It shows you how much time is your site taking to load, which page is taking a long to load and why it is happening. A faster loading website helps you avoid the bounce rate and get the best rank on the search engine.
Image Compression and Optimization Plugin:
The plugin helps to optimize the images and multimedia of your site, as they can slow down the page load speed.
SEO Plugin:
An SEO plugin helps to get more organic traffic to your website and improve its ranking on the search engines. Moreover, it will help you to get connected to social media. Also, you can easily index the page for search engines and add title and meta description into it.
Security, Limit Login & Attempts Plugin:
This plugin will add security to your website. If some unauthorized person tries to login in your website’s WordPress account and tries for three to four times with wrong credentials, this plugin will block the IP of that user. So this plugin becomes essential to secure websites from hackers, cyber thieves, malware and other security threats.
To achieve the best website functionality and performance, you must consider integrating these plugins. You have to pick an updated and reliable plugin so that it will not cause any problem to your site. On the other hand, try not overuse plugins, as it may slow down your website performance.
In today’s world, content is the king. Nowadays people are very impatient, so develop such content that can engage your customer in a few seconds. Make use of images, videos, gif or any multimedia, which can grab your viewers attention and keep their interest.
Try to develop your blog in an easily understandable form. Like, highlight the words or sentences in bold which are title or important. Use paragraphs, bullets and other formatting options as well. A good formatting will improve readability of your blog.
Even if you developed a very nice content, it’s not over yet. Managing content is another significant part. You should always make sure that the content of your website is always up-to-the-date as your user won’t be interested in getting outdated information. Suppose if you are having a site of automobile parts, then you should update your site timely with new parts and components, whenever any new automobile is launched, or any update is made in the sector. So your customer or viewers will be aware of the same.
Now when you have done with all the stuff of finalizing theme, building content and multimedia, installing plugins, etc. it’s time to get your website live and check it out. We suggest you run and check all the pages that you have made and all the work that you have done, just to confirm that everything is working well.!!!
Yes, with these seven steps you are good to go for creating a website for your business.
But, is it all enough to get a professional website and get maximum business with it?
Website development comprises a lot of crucial activities that only experts can accomplish successfully. For instance, the website needs to be tested with several testing methods to ensure flawless functionality. Other than this, several technicalities need to be considered while developing a website such as:
Therefore, it is better to take professional assistance or outsource WordPress website development to a professional agency.
Here as well you have options!
Option 1:
Create some Photoshop designs for your website and then outsource the PSD to HTML conversion work to an agency.
Option 2:
Create Photoshop designs, and then outsource the PSD to WordPress conversion work to an agency.
Option 3:
Outsource complete website development.
Depending on your budget and business requirements you can decide what website work to outsource.
Half of your website success has already been reserved as you decided to build it with WordPress. Now you have to put efforts to bring the website to reality and work for further success. This quick guide must have helped you enough to understand the process of website development with WordPress. Still, if you incur any doubt or face difficulty with technical aspects, don’t forget to consult with professionals.
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