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If your business is not online yet, you lose opportunities and potential markets. It makes sense to want a new website, and you should build one as soon as possible.
We live at a time that most businesses have already a website, followers on social media, subscribers, and an online marketing strategy. Even big businesses that sell only offline have created accounts on social media and websites to promote their brand.
Of course, building a website is an easy process these days, but it still takes some work to keep it updated and relevant to the trends of your niche. However, the short-term and long-term benefits can be huge if you do the right thing.
The good news is that you can get started at a very low budget, and then it’s on you to build and promote it to meet the needs of your business.
Again, running a website does not have to be expensive. If you can’t work by yourself on your site, it does not cost much to find an agency or freelancers to help with your projects.
In this post, you will read why a website is important in your business, and how you can build your own website today.
Why Do You Need a Website?
If you don’t have a website these days, you lose money. There is no doubt about that. Your competitors are already out there and bid on keywords relevant to your niche and your brand.
In many cases, people who have heard about your business before will search for it on the internet. If they don’t find your website, they will find what other people say about your industry. It can be review sites or competitors. Even if no one talks about you, you lose an opportunity to give people more information and close the deals.
So, you need a website because it will help you to get direct traffic and turn the visitors into leads. You cannot afford to lose potential clients because they can’t find information for your business online.
Next, you can target new markets and customers. In 2020, there will be 2.93 billion users on social media, and the biggest website in traffic is still Google. You can claim traffic from all the big platforms for free only by publishing content. But you can’t do that without a website.
A website will be the center of your marketing efforts on the internet, and then you can apply strategies relevant to each platform. For example, you need a different strategy to get traffic from search engines than from Instagram. Also, you may need a different way to get customers. At the end of the day, you want to send all the traffic to your website because there you can have bigger control compared to social media, where you just can’t fully make your sales offers.
As you can see, a website can help you to attack new markets and protect your existing marketing efforts. If you want to sell products or services on the internet, it makes perfect sense to build a website, while it can give more visibility to any other type of business.
The Importance of a Website For Your Business
The most important reason to build a website is that it puts you in a position to build a strong brand in your industry. It is a process that takes time, but it’s worth it if you plan to stick to your business for a long time.
When you have a website, many people assume that you are serious about business. They will search and visit your website, find more information about the people of your business, and check your products. It’s evidence for them that you are an expert who can solve their problems.
If you are really interested in building a brand, your website should be the place to start. It should have your logo, your message, a nice design, and included content that adds value to the visitors.
Everything is important, and the more positive choices you make on a website, the better results you will get in the long-term.
Another thing to consider is the benefits that you can get only from the online world. If you are active on social media and create content regularly, you will start getting more and more traffic. You can build a following of people who are interested in learning news from your business.
Lastly, the old websites have a higher domain authority than the new ones. After a while, your website will have more chances to get ranked on Google for any keyword you want. It does not mean that it’s too late to start a site, but you lose by waiting.
Start Your Business Website Now!
The best time to start a website is right now, and you will read a step-by-step guide on how to build your first site on Bluehost below.
We recommend Bluehost because it is affordable, has great technical support, and you can build a WordPress website that allows you to use it with no skills or experience in website building from your part.
Step 1: Get started and choose a plan
When you visit the homepage page of Bluehost, you want to click the get started button and move on to the next page for more information.
On the second page, you can check the hosting plans. There are four plans, and you can read their details. You will notice that they give you a lower monthly price if you are willing to buy a package for many months. If you buy for 36 months, you get the best possible price. The pricing of Bluehost is great for businesses that are committed for a long time and allows them to save money.
Step 2: Register A Domain Name
The first important decision is to choose a domain name. You probably want a domain name relevant to your business. The best scenario would be to buy the exact name, but it is not always possible.
Bluehost gives you two options on that part. The first one is to register a new domain name, or you can use an existing one from another registrar. If you have bought a long term hosting package, you can register a domain name for free.
While you can think of many ideas on that part, here are some tips that can be helpful. You need domain names with the following criteria:
- .com extension
- Short length (2-3 words max, less than 15 characters)
- Memorable
- Easy to spell
- Easy to write
- Relevant to your niche (SEO benefits)
- Avoid numbers or hyphens
- Avoid trends
When typing a potential domain name to check availability, it will let you go to the next page or give you some suggestions. The suggestions are not always good enough, so it’s better to use the rules above.
Step 3: Fill In Your Details
The next step is to fill in all your personal details like your name, business name, email, country, etc.
Then, you choose the plan and any extras. Based on your selections here, you will determine the cost of your site when it comes to hosting. For the best value, you can go with the lengthier option, but it depends on your budget as well.
Next, you can proceed to the payment and make sure that you have read and understood the terms and conditions of the hosting provider.
The last step before start building your site is to create your password. It would be a good idea to create a unique password for this site only. Your website will become an important asset for your business, so make sure that no else has access to the password.
Step 4: Choose A Theme
The theme is a template that determines how your website will look. You do not have to worry here. It’s super easy to change it later. However, you need to choose one, click if you want to build a personal or business website, and go to the next step.
Part 5: Start Building Your Website
You can click on Start Building and log in to your WordPress dashboard. Congratulations, you can have a new website. Now, you can start working on it. You can customize it, change the options, and start creating content.
If you want to see a complete step-by-step guide on how you can fully build your WordPress site, you can visit this article.
You can design your website in any way you want, add users, and add new pages. If you need a hand with anything, Bluehost has great support, and there are many tutorials on their blog.
You can also find information from other sources. Many website owners and bloggers use WordPress, so you can find guides anywhere. Many authority websites create content for WordPress users alone.
You will probably figure out all these technical elements soon. It is easy to run a WordPress site. So, the next step will be to focus on the marketing part of your website and get the maximum out of it.