Pretty much every company has their very own website these days. And it makes so much sense why they chose to go online, even if they have a bricks and mortar shop. More and more people are logging online to find new products and services. So even if you don’t sell online, your company website is a great way for your business to be seen and discovered by a wider audience. Interested in setting up your business website? Here’s a checklist to make sure you don’t forget anything.
CreditGet A Domain
First things first – you need a website host and a domain on which you can host your website. The host can be an easy to use website such as Squarespace or WordPress. The hosting websites provide you with different templates and styles to help you create your bespoke site. Then, once it is ready, you need to buy a domain. The domain gives you a URL that internet users will type into their browser to get to your website. There are loads of different domain hosting sites that you can use for your company site. For some inspiration, you can read what other users think in this iPage review at WHSR.
Design A Brand Or Company Logo
If you don’t already have one, you will need to design a brand or a company logo. This will be incorporated into your website and will brighten it up. If you have a graphic designer in your company already, ask them to come up with a couple of logo designs. You can then pick the best one that suits your business’s current look and style. If you don’t use one of the first design suggestions, you can use them to let your designer knows which bits you like and which bits you don’t. They can then use your feedback to design something that better suits you. Don’t have a graphic designer currently working in your company? Don’t panic; you can always hire a freelance one to work on your logo with you.
SEO
One key thing to remember is to get your website SEO ready. SEO is very important as it has an effect on how your website is ranked in Google searches. If you have a strong SEO game, your website will appear at the top of the search results. There are various ways you can improve your SEO. One of the best ways is to include plenty of keywords in the content of your website. These keywords will be what Google matches to the phrases people search. So if you have a phrase such as ‘buy t-shirts’ then you will be very likely matched with people who search for ‘buy t-shirts now’ for example. Another good point is to be original. If Google thinks your content on the site isn’t original, it might not look so highly on your site. You need to make sure your website is totally original.
Create A Blog
Another great way to get your SEO ranking high is to create a company blog. Your blog can be about anything you like, as long as it is somehow related to your business. So if you are a wine merchants, you could set up a cocktail blog. And if you sell clothes for a living, a fashion blog would go down really well. Or, how about blogging about celebrity style? Make sure your blog is also ready for SEO. Use plenty of keywords and be sure to link to external websites. Pictures can also help to increase the SEO as well. The whole point of a company blog is to get more people onto your company website. If your blog is coming up high in Google searches, more people are likely to click on it. They will then see your website connected to your blog. And the more people you get looking at your site, the more likely you are to increase your orders and sales.
Keep Updating It
It is very important that your website is kept up to date and is changed if any of your business information does. Many customers will use your website to find out your address and contact details. If any of these are out of date, they might not be able to get in touch with you and will take their money elsewhere. If you ever introduce any new services and products, make sure these are also included on your website. It is also a good idea to let people know whenever you introduce any new products by posting about them on your blog. This can create a buzz about them and get people excited about the prospect of buying them.
Connect Your Social Media
Hopefully, you’ll already have social media accounts for your company on platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. Social media marketing is super important these days as it can help get your business out to a wider audience. Once you have set up your social media accounts, link them to your website. That way, anyone who lands on your site can then easily get to your Facebook and Twitter accounts. You can even set your blog up so that it automatically posts to your social media once you publish a new post.
To Advertise Or Not To Advertise?
If you want to fund your website, you can always get a sponsor to advertise on the site. It can be a company in a completely different line of work from you, but it should be someone that website visitors will take an interest. One great idea is to get a sponsor from your local area. They will then pay you for the advertising space.
Worried about setting up a website for you business? This blog post should have given you plenty of peace of mind and useful information. Just make sure you follow all these points, and you won’t go far wrong. You might even get the tech bug and become a bit of a whizz on the internet!
