Creating a website for your new business is a big step. It should also only be taken once you have fully fleshed out your business and online strategy out on paper. If you know what niche you’re going for, what your website needs, and what you can do to keep customers returning to your site, then you are ready to follow this step-by-step guide:
Choose a Great Web Host
The first step to building any great website is to choose a great web host. This host should ideally have these three main qualities:
Fast and Secure
Your host needs to provide you with a fast and secure service. Your website should be instantaneous to access, barring poor internet connection.
Committed to the Environment
Though a green mindset and commitment to the environment might not seem like something your company needs to care about, it is. Data storage centers are set to consume 3x as much energy as they do now, and if the source of that energy is unsustainable, the CO2 output will be significant. krystal.uk/ offers exceptional web hosting services powered by 100% renewable energy, meaning you can set your company on the sustainable track right from the start.
Dedicated to You
You should be able to contact your host for issues and repair requests. If they are dedicated to you and to offering a great service, then they are the right company.
Choose Your CMS
For most beginners, WordPress.org offers a very powerful, simple, and customizable content management system for free.
Choose a Great Theme
Unless you have the budget to hire a web designer to build your website from scratch you will want to go through and choose a premium theme that looks great, is fully responsive, and is easy to use. There are some themes that offer powerful website builders so that you can customize it right on the page.
Create the Base Set of Pages
Creating your base set of pages is critical. You will be adding more pages and posts, and auditing regularly later on. When you first launch, however, you will want these pages set up:
- Home Page
- About Page
- Contact Page
- Blog Page
Other pages that you will want to have set up (that depend on the type of business that you have, include:
Services Pages
If your business offers services, you will want to create individual pages for each service. These should have an overview section or box on the main page, with the link to the category page. To start, focus on the main services and then create more sub-service pages as necessary later on.
Products Pages
A page for every product will eventually need to be made. For now, work on creating the main product page so that products can be filtered. You will then want to work on creating subcategory pages, and then finally the product pages themselves. This can take a lot of commitment if you have a large set of stock, but by properly investing in the time to create product descriptions and details as you upload the product into your ecommerce platform you will be able to avoid issue down the line.
Focusing on these pages first will help get your website up and running faster. Once they are completed, then, of course, you can look into adding more. Your website is never complete, so schedule regular audits so that you and your team can go through, check for errors, update information, and improve the SEO and user friendliness of your site.
