What should a small business consider when setting up their first website? Here are the 4 key areas you should focus on if you are thinking of setting up your new website.
Website Considerations for a Start Up business
1. How to choose a domain name
A domain name will be the address of your website. It will cost you around £10 + VAT per year. Search for a company that sells domain names (like Fast2host) and enter your chosen name to see if it’s available. Buy the .co.uk version but also consider buying .com if your product or service is available overseas. You can point both domains to the same website.
2. How to choose your Web Host
Your website needs to be held on a web server. Companies that provide this service are called Web Hosts. They will provide space on their servers for around £50 + VAT per year for a basic website. There are lots of hosting companies available but it is wise to choose a host that has their support service in the UK. Dealing with complicated jargon and technical issues is hard enough for the newcomer so don’t over complicated things by adding a language barrier into the mix. Fast2host is a great web host whose support service has never let us down.
3. Which package should I use to build my website?
There are lots of web packages available but we recommend WordPress above all others. You can create a website yourself using WordPress. WordPress is free – you simply upload the package to your web host, choose a theme (skin) and then start building it without any need for inputting code. It’s rather like using Word. However, it is time consuming, so you can pay an expert to create the site for you, from around £545 depending on your requirements. The best thing about WordPress is that once created, it is very easy to update yourself so you wont need to pay a web designer ongoing costs every time you want to upload a new image, add a page or change some text. More reasons to use WordPress.
4. How do I get Search Engines to find my site?
Don’t expect customers to visit your site once it is up and running. It is not enough these days to just have a web presence. As 80-90% of UK customers use Google to search on the internet, it’s vital that your site is liked by Google. Thankfully, Google loves WordPress because it’s easy for search engines to read. However, to ensure your site ranks highly on Google’s pages (known as Search Engine Optimisation or SEO) your site needs to optimised for Google. If you search on Google, there’s plenty of information on how to do this yourself or you can pay an expert. The key areas to focus on are using keywords in prominent places, ensuring your images and links are set up correctly, keeping your site updated and full of very useful content. However, the most important element is to encourage other websites to link to yours. This is called Inbound Link building. The more relevant inbound links your site has the more Google will ‘trust’ it and therefore display it in search results. So consider an Inbound Link strategy which includes suppliers, partners, customers, industry bodies, directories etc. Google will also take into account your social media presence.
5. How do I drive traffic to my new website?
As well as inbound link building (see above) an excellent way to drive traffic to your website is to be active on social media sites. As a minimum, set up business pages on Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, Linked In and Google+. The key thing to remember on social media is NOT to directly sell. Your strategy should be to position yourself as an expert in your field so build up trust and therefore followers. Create a blog or section on your website to display top tips, advice, research, interesting images, ‘how to’ videos etc then post links to these pages on your social media sites. This will encourage click-throughs to your site and if your site is set up correctly, visitors will explore it and this should lead to more sales.
If you would like more information on any of the above, please contact us – we’d be happy to help.