If you operate a company and you do not have a site yet, you should really look at building one. Why should you build a business website? The fact of the matter is that you cannot afford to not have one.
Your small business website can help you create more customers throughout all aspects of the client acquisition cycle, like when a prospective customer:
- Performs a extensive online search for what type of businesses can assist with solving his/her problems — and finds you;
- Wishes to discover more information about particular businesses to find out if he/she should ask for more information;
- Retrieves your contact information to reach out to you either through email or the telephone.
The scenarios on how you can benefit from having built a company website are endless. Let’s face it; you probably use the World Wide Web to learn more information about various businesses also, right?
Gone are the days when you can only rely on having your business listed in the Yellow Pages or word-of-mouth. While these “old school” methods continue to be effective to a certain degree, developing a company site is complementary to other techniques of attracting new clients.
If you are wondering how to build a company website, just know that it’s not as difficult as you think. This guide will walk you through everything you need and how to begin in building your first business site.
You probably have a million things on your own to-do list, and adding a web site to your long list can be overwhelming. This is why we make this ultimate guide to show you the way you can quickly and easily build a professional website design all on your own.
Here are the 5 easy steps to begin:
Get a Domain Name
Anyone who used the internet knows you will need to insert a web site address for to any site. A domain name is the address of your site. While it is very common for companies to have domain names which are exactly the same as their company names (for example, walmart.com), you can select a domain name to add any text phrase you want as long as it isn’t already taken.
There are two costs associated with getting your own domain name:
- Price to obtain a domain name; and
- Price to maintain your domain name registered annually.
A domain name typically costs around $10 to $12 to buy, and the identical price range that you keep it registered in your name each year.
If someone already owns the domain name you want, you will need to decide on a different domain name or otherwise you can reach out to the owner to purchase it.
Get a personalized business email address
To make your business look more professional and established, you’ll need a customized business email address. You probably don’t want your potential clients to see that you’re using a Gmail email address for example jane@gmail.com.
They’ll probably perceive that your company is much less established. Though this is pretty judgmental, it is just human nature. If you want to build yourself up as high quality advisors, you need to look the part.
The most common company email addresses format really uses your company domain name. Obtaining a personalized company email address is fairly simple, fast and inexpensive. Our recommendation is to use G suite that’s powered by Google. It is basically Gmail for companies except you have a personalized email address. You receive the friendly user-interface, reliability, and safety of Gmail.
It only costs $5 per month per email address, which in our opinion is a very reasonable price to pay to receive your own customized email address and you can sit back and let Google handle everything else.
Pick a Business Website Builder
This is one of the main steps when building your company website. This is because if you choose the right site builder software based on your requirements, building a company website can be as relaxing as a walk in the park versus scaling Mount Everest. There are lots of web site builders out there and they all have their own sets of advantages and disadvantages.
When picking a website builder, keep this in mind:
Never select a site builder that is too complex and provides all sorts of features which you don’t need. It so easy to get enticed by all the bells and whistles and make the error of falling for the professional website builders that provides the most tools. After all, our 
brains are naturally wired to feel that more is better.
Features are great only if you actually use them. Remember, the more features a site builder have, the more complicated and difficult it might be to use. Try to keep things easy and it’ll make your life somewhat easier.
When choosing the right website builder, make sure you think about your website design and technical skill levels, and what complicated features you realistically need for your site.
There’s absolutely not any such thing as an ideal site builder for everybody. Some business website builders will work better for many people. Provided that you do not get side-tracked by fancy tools that you may potentially use 5 years later on, you’ll be fine. To help you through the selection procedure, here is a guide we wrote on how to choose the right site builder with 9 easy questions you can ask yourself.
Here are our recommended website builders and what they’re best suited for:
Wix
- com strikes a great balance between flexible and easy-to-use capabilities. This drag and drop site builder can manage any sites from e-commerce shops to powering online bookings for hotels or courses down to simple websites for mortgage brokers.
- You’ve got access to some advanced design tools which are ridiculously easy to use, such as 500+ trendy template layouts, parallax scrolling, video backgrounds, and artificial intelligence site design assistance (known as Wix ADI).
Who is Wix best for?
- If you will need a whole lot of design assistance and guidance. Wix provides pre-populated template layouts so that you can easily swap in your own content and images without needing to design your own designs. If you would like Wix to construct a site for you, you may use Wix ADI. It’s an artificial intelligence design program that asks you what you enjoy and takes your ideas and builds a customized website design for you.
- If you want more flexible tools to get a specialty site. If you will need an online booking / booking program, music selling program, hotel booking program, restaurant / purchase take out program, or various programs that include more practical functions to your site, Wix is the one you should go with. They have massive app marketplace with 260+ programs you can pick from.
Squarespace
- Squarespace is similar to the Apple of company website builders; they are trusted and can provide easy solutions for your business website. They can help you create visually stunning, minimalistic sites which may capture your customers’ attention.
- Squarespace has the best looking designs amongst its rivals that can make your company stand apart from other people. Additionally, it provides you an advanced template layout customization tool that provides you the freedom to personalize your website design without needing to touch any codes. So they are extremely user-friendly for non-technical people.
Who is Squarespace best for?
- If you would like to make a visually stunning website for companies in industries like photography, design, restaurants, ecommerce, etc.
- If you will need the ability to highly customize your site design.
Weebly
- “Keep it simple” is a part of Weebly’s DNA. An extremely low learning curve when it comes to building a business site with Weebly.
- Pick various pre-designed page designs so that you can quickly set up your pages and swap in your own text and graphics.
- Since Weebly is a dead easy to use, it does not offer as many features as other site builders. If you just have to have a relatively simple website with no specialty functions (like online reservation), exceptionally stunning layouts, Weebly will probably be a great fit for you.
Who is Weebly best for?
- If you’re extremely frightened of technologies and need something which is very simple to use, if you just require a simple business site that needs little to no complex functionalities then Weebly is for you.
WordPress
- WordPress is a powerful site builder that could create any sort of website you can imagine. There are hundreds and hundreds of template layouts, from broad categories to niche categories such as a mortgage broker website template, and plugins to choose from to add additional functions to your site.
- If you know how to code, or if you hired a competent coder, there are almost no limits when it comes to what you can do with WordPress.
- WordPress have a much steeper learning curve and installation costs than fully managed site builders such as Wix, Squarespace or Weebly. WordPress also doesn’t supply you with a dedicated service team so you will have to troubleshoot issues yourself (or hire someone).
Who is WordPress best for?
- If this isn’t your first site and you have some understanding of web hosting and basic coding skills to have the ability to manage a WordPress site by yourself.
- If you will need to heavily customize the design of your site or need an incredibly customized tool / attribute that drag & drop site builders cannot cater to.
- When you have enough time to learn how to use and handle a WordPress site or have adequate funds to hire a professional to help you begin.
Pick a website template design
A website template is a pre-made website design that you can just add to your site to instantly create a professional looking site without the requirement of hiring a website designer. Consider templates as distinct variations or styles of clothing but for websites.
It’s the easiest, design-dummy and economical way of owning a well-designed site and you do not need to hire a professional designer to help you do so. Most business owners believe that their only option is to hire a designer to create a custom design for their company site.
A fantastic website designer has plenty of value to add. If you’ve got a few thousand bucks lying around and do not want to bother with creating the site yourself, then hiring a website designer may be the thing to do.
But if you have a limited budget or want to be smart about creating a functional site that’s still professional, hold off on hiring a website designer if you have never built a company website before.
Here’s why…
You need real data to make a user friendly website that caters to specific customers. As this may be your first site (and possibly a new company), you most likely don’t have any ideas yet on how your customers really experience your brand, what they’re considering, and how they interact with your site.
Without this crucial information, splurging on a custom layout without fully understanding what your customers are actually searching for and how they interact with your site can be a financial catastrophe.
After collecting and understanding this information, you can then consider investing in a customized website design that’s made upon real data of what works best for your company.
Remember that you can always invest in custom-built design afterwards once you determine what you really want, not what you believe you require. It is never too late for that.
Where to find website templates?
- If you’re using a self-hosted site builder such as WordPress, you can find decent WordPress templates at Woothemes and Mojo Marketplace.
- If you’re using a fully managed site builder (for instance, Wix, Squarespace or Weebly), they will offer you free website template designs.
Populate your site with your business content & information
It comes to the interesting part — inserting images and content into your website. This is the area where you will spend the majority of your time, enjoy it!
Conclusion: how to build a business website in 5 easy steps
Building your first business site or improving on an existing one does not have to be too complicated. You can either approach it in a very complex manner or keep things simpler by using the correct tools with the ideal plan. A business website does not have to be expensive or time consuming to create. When you understand what to do and which tools to use, building a company website can be a good deal simpler than you’re led to believe.
Having a good drag & drop site builder, you may create a professional looking and functional website in weeks or days while maintaining keeping costs low, as opposed to spending months and tens of thousands of dollars. All the tools we have discussed in this guide provide you free programs or free trials. This allows you the option to check and determine which one you prefer working with.
