How you build your website is critical in giving a great impression to your customers. People expect a professional site when learning about businesses online. Reports show that 94% of first impressions of companies are now related to website design.

That’s why you need to do things right when building a business website. Follow the guide below to ensure you get the job done right and create an amazing experience for your customers.

Define Your Purpose

There’s more than one type of business website. You may be able to get away with a small informational site, but other companies will need something more complex that meets their needs.

Here are a few types of website types you can consider:

• Portfolio site
• Ecommerce website
• Service website
• Blog
• Community website
• Lead generation website

Your choice will depend on your needs, so you need to do enough research into what you need for your site and which platform will give you what you need.

Pick a Website Platform

The next step to making a business website is to figure out what you need to run things. You don’t need to handle everything from scratch anymore. There are now countless platforms that make your job as a web admin easier.

For most small businesses, using WordPress will be enough. It’s easy to install on most web hosts and has countless themes and plugins to make setting things up easier.

On top of that, there are endless WordPress developers available to handle any work you need. Of course, there are other platforms too. Research each one to see what features they all offer.

Find a Web Host

You don’t want to host a website yourself. You need a web server and the expertise to keep it online. That’s why you should look for a web host that can host your website software.

Shared hosting is great if you’re on a budget. You share resources with other websites, so you don’t pay much to get a website online.

However, a VPS or dedicated server is great if you need more resources and privacy. It costs more money, but you’ll have more control over your server and don’t need to deal with security issues from other websites.

Get a Website Design

You’re ready to design your website once you get your website software online. This isn’t a challenge if you stick with pre-built themes.

Popular software like WordPress has thousands of free and premium themes available. Look through theme marketplaces to see if any of those themes work well for your business. Many themes also offer customization options that allow you to change how things look.

On the other hand, investing in custom website development is a great way to get a unique website design that stands out from your competition. It will cost more money, but you’ll likely make your money back with a better converting website.

Install Website Extensions

It’s not hard to add extra functionality to your website these days. Since most popular website software are extendable, you can install plugins that add features to your website.

Here are a few examples of website functionality you can add with plugins:

• Live chat
• Forums
• Ecommerce functionality
• Contact forms
• Calendars
• Slideshows
• Membership systems

You can browse plugin marketplaces to see what’s available. The chances are good that you’ll find several useful pieces of software for your business.

Create Your Website Content

A website theme isn’t enough to serve your customers. You need great content that informs your visitors and convinces them to work with your business.

Your goal is to provide as much information as possible about your business. Create pages that describe each of your services if you’re a service business. Portfolio websites from freelancers should showcase their past work. Product pages need great product descriptions that showcase your product features.

You’ll also need to focus your content on terms that people search for. It won’t do much good if nobody can find your site when they search on Google.

Optimize for SEO

Content isn’t the only thing you need to get traffic from Google. If Google can’t learn about your site, it’s hard for you to take advantage of search traffic.

SEO is the process of adding meta-information and optimizing your website structure for Google to read. You’ll optimize your website design to make things easy to read and discoverable by search engine spiders.

You can search to learn how to best optimize for SEO using your website software. It takes time for SEO to be effective, so don’t wait until later to start the process.

Add Website Tracking

If you’re like most businesses, you’ll start advertising campaigns to drive traffic to your site. It won’t only be in the form of SEO, either. You’ll create social media campaigns and invest in paid ads.

It’s hard to track those campaigns when you don’t have any data. That’s why it pays to install tracking software on your website.

Software like Google Analytics will help you when running a business online. You’ll see where you get your traffic and which visitors convert to customers.

Now You Know What Building a Business Website Takes

You can’t afford to have a subpar website when it plays such an important part in establishing the credibility of your business. Unfortunately, not every design choice will be great and can be a detriment to your brand.

The above guide is a great way to start building a business website. Keep it in mind to ensure you have everything necessary to create an amazing online experience for your customers.

Check out the blog to learn what it takes to drive traffic to your new online business website.