A website is a great place to make your contact information easily available to potential customers. You can even publish your contact information in a header or footer so it appears on every single page. Snakes and Lattes, a small chain of board game cafes, has placed phone numbers for all four of their locations in their website footer: Snakes and Lattes displaying its various locations Modern website builders (more on those in a bit) also make it easy to create a contact form, which can protect your business email from spam. You can integrate your website with Google Maps so people can find you more easily A website lets you embed maps directly into your content. Some businesses, like STEAMLabs, have a map embedded directly onto their home page: Steamlabs embeds a Google Maps map An embedded map makes it easy for people who don’t spend a lot of time in your area to find your business. This is particularly great if you host events, as they might attract people who wouldn’t otherwise spend time in the neighborhood your business is in.
Your website establishes your place in your industry As of 2021, 71% of small businesses have websites and 81% of customers research things online before they buy them. In other words, if your competitors are online and you’re not, those competitors get the first interactions with customers. Creating a website gives you a space to share what your business is about, establish your role in the industry, and connect with the customers who need you. A website is no longer intimidating to create and manage Modern website builders like Squarespace and Wix make it easy for you to build an attractive, mobile-friendly site without any knowledge of code. Even WordPress, the most popular way to make a website, has transitioned to a block editor: The WordPress block editor makes it easy to create a website for your small business In other words, it has never been simpler to create a functional, aesthetically pleasing website.
How to make a website with WordPress 👈 A website ensures your success over the long term As of January 2021, almost 66 billion people (55% of the global population) used the Internet. In many countries, that number is much higher. In the US, for example, over 90% of people are online. Without a website, your business is invisible to these people. As we progress further into the digital era, your business will become invisible to everyone unless you invest in a website. So to stay competitive in this increasingly digital world, your business needs to get online. You can get all of these benefits without spending a fortune Building a website isn’t just easier than it used to be; it’s also more affordable. If you’re willing to follow a simple, non-technical DIY approach, you can build a website for under $100/year.
WordPress, which again is the most popular way to build a website, is 100% free for the core software. If you add a free WordPress theme like Neve or Hestia and cheap website hosting, you can be up and running at a very low cost. Learn more about how much a website costs 👈 So, do I need a website for my business? The final verdict Hopefully, by now you’ve realized that the question isn’t “do I need a website for my business”, but “can I afford to not have a website in the digital era”. And the answer, if you want to continue thriving in the long term, is no. More and more, even staying afloat without a business website is impossible. Your customers are online, your competitors are online, and if you’re not there to intervene, your competitors and your customers will connect, leaving you in the lurch. Does your small #business need a #website? 10 reasons the answer is a resounding yes 🙌 CLICK TO TWEET If you’re ready to get started, check out our recommendation of great website builders for small businesses, or our simple, step-by-step tutorial on how to make a website with WordPress. Again, WordPress is the most popular way to build a website – it powers over one-third of all the websites on the Internet. It’s also affordable and accessible to non-technical users, which is a big part of why it’s so popular.
HelpYour small business needs a website. Here's how to build one. Building a small business website is important to inform your audience, explain your value proposition, boost brand recognition and drive sales. To build a business website, you first need to choose a domain name and secure web hosting. Then, optimize your website to improve your search engine rankings and drive traffic. Keep your website up to date and optimized for mobile devices. Also, ensure your site speed is adequate to improve your search engine rankings. This article is for small business owners looking to build a website or improve upon their existing website. It’s no longer feasible to run a business, even a brick-and-mortar one, without a web presence. Consumers turn to the internet for everything from product research to location and operating hours. Even just a simple, well-designed website can give you an edge in your field, and if you have products to sell, your site can open up new markets and expand your business cheaply and easily.
Website design software has evolved to be easy for anyone to use. You don’t need to know coding to develop an attractive and functional site. No matter what program you use, you just need to follow some basic rules and tips to give your website a professional look, make it easy to find, and show your company in the best light. Here’s our step-by-step guide to creating a successful business website. Determine the primary purpose of your website. A business website generally serves as a space to provide general information about your company or a direct platform for e-commerce. Whether you create a simple website that tells a little about your company or a more complex e-commerce site, the most important thing you must do is say what your company does – on the homepage in plain terms. Don’t make customers root around to discover if your company can do what they need, warned Erin Pheil of website design company Followbright.
Editor’s note: Looking for the right website design service for your business? Fill out the below questionnaire to have our vendor partners contact you about your needs. “Think about your specific user experience and the journey the user will go through as they navigate your site,” added Gabriel Shaoolian, CEO of website design and digital marketing agency Blue Fountain Media. “Whatever the fundamental goal of your website is or whatever the focus may be, users should be easily able to achieve it, and the goal itself should be reinforced as users navigate throughout your site.” If you don’t plan to accept payments (like Apple Pay) through your website, you won’t have as much work to do in setting it up. If you are a retailer or service provider and want to offer customers the option to pay online, you’ll need to use an external service to receive your payments, which we’ll discuss later in this article.
Decide your domain name. Your domain name is one of the most important features of your website. It’s the URL you’ll share with your current and potential clients and promote on social media. Therefore, you want it to be descriptive and easy to remember and type in. Try to keep it short, and steer clear of abbreviations, acronyms, and numbers, if possible, to avoid customer confusion. You also need to decide your top-level domain, or TLD. This is the suffix at the end of your domain name, such as .com, .net or .biz. However, nontraditional TLD names have grown in recent years. These TLDs can be based on location, such as .nyc, or type of business, like .marketing, .agency or .law. While these can be descriptive, .com is still the main go-to. Read our article on choosing a nontraditional TLD for more information. Once you’ve selected your domain name, you’ll need to confirm its availability and purchase it through a domain registrar. These are some popular domain registrars: Domain.com Wix GoDaddy Squarespace
