Simply having a physical store is not enough anymore. Your business might be popular in the neighborhood, but is that enough?
Wouldn’t you want more people to talk about your products/services?
Your brand needs an online presence to truly shine. And a website is one of the first things a business needs in order to establish its space on the internet.
Having a website for your business opens you to several opportunities like
- establishing brand awareness,
- communicating with the target audience,
- generating and converting leads,
- enhancing customer experience.
Building a website is easier said than done. It requires a lot of in-depth research and meticulous planning.
And one of the first things you need to do is host your business online
Think of a web hosting service as your online business address. A hosting provider basically allocates space for you online to store important website info, files, codes, images, etc.
At Page Potato, our website designers can help you set up and manage your business website from scratch. This includes choosing templates, designing the website layout, setting up the landing pages, and more
And if you have the time, you can use our step-by-step guide to set up your own website in one day. Let’s find out how.
Design and Build your Website
The first step towards building your own website is selecting a suitable layout/template.
Platforms like WordPress, Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace have some excellent readymade template options that you can pick from
These templates come with image and text blocks. All you have to do add your content, add some graphics, customize the layout and you’re set.
A quick tip- don’t keep your website very text intensive. The more visually appealing your landing pages are, the better it engages the visitor.
In fact, our web developers can help you create interactive videos to sell your business idea to present and potential customers!
The only thing to remember here is to keep it simple.
Remember that you only have a few seconds to leave an impact on the minds of your viewers and coax them to re-visit your website or recommend it to others.
Therefore, keep the below-mentioned tips in mind to nail your web design:
- Keep the background white
- Choose not more than two plain fonts
- Include a lot of graphics, audio, or videos.
- Keep an opt-in option ready for people to leave their email addresses
- Make the buying process smooth, do not let the buyer take more than a couple of clicks to reach the checkout page
- Make sure that your website is customer friendly
Hosting Options
To host your business online, you would need a hosting service provider. Our experts recommend popular options, like Bluehost, HostGator, and Wix, available to choose from.
However, for novices and first-time users, we recommend the use of Wix for web hosting.
Wix gives you the freedom to let your website look the way you want it to on a laptop as well as a mobile phone.
It offers several templates to choose from and lets you create your own website with immense ease using its feature Wix ADI.
Wix provides you with an entire package that includes but is not limited to website builder, web hosting, advanced security, and effective SEO for your website.
What’s more? They have a free trial version where you could experiment before starting.
However, if you are looking to create a WordPress website, you could host it easily on WordPress.
We recommend the use of WordPress for hosting a WordPress website because it is specially optimized with functions like enhanced speed and reduced loading time.
It is also well-equipped with features like auto backup, regular updating, and security.
Readers who want more insights on website security can check out this blog on- enhanced WordPress security hacks. This would give you an in-depth understanding of all the things you can do to keep your WordPress website safe.
Write Content that Sells
Do not overload your audience with information that they might not be interested in.
Instead, provide relevant information that convinces the viewers of your page to make a purchase.
Given below is a proven sales formula that works wonders on visitors starting the moment they visit your page.
- Use an impactful headline to garner attention
- Discuss the problem that your product is capable of solving
- Gain the trust of your viewers as a solver of the problem
- Add reviews and testimonials of existing customers
- Make an offer they cannot refuse
- Guarantee good results
- Create an urgency
- Pitch for Sale
In a nutshell, help the viewer understand why the product is a perfect fit for him.
Once the recognition of the need is taken care of, half your job is done. Market the unique selling points of your product and see how well it sells.
Our team of content writers helps you figure out personalized content solutions that best communicate your brand’s voice and message.
Work with a Hosting Provider with a Long Trial Period
Before you pick a service provider to host your business online, there are a few things you should know about.
Web Hosting providers typically provide about a month, however, some offer a longer trial period.
Such companies are often confident of the quality of service they are capable of offering, which is why they do not mind offering their customers a longer trial period.
Do not be surprised if you come across a few hosts who offer to process the full refund in case you are dissatisfied with their services.
Websites like iPage and BlueHost have a money-back guarantee.
In such cases, if you make an advance payment for an entire year of service but realize that you are unhappy with the services say 3 months down the line, you can cancel your association with the company for the remaining period or even ask for a full refund.
Therefore, you can be more confident while choosing to do business with such companies that have full faith in their services.
Register Primary Domain with Another Party
Several hosting companies permit you to register your domain for free as a part of their hosting package.
However, we recommend that you spend a few dollars on registering your primary domain with a different party. You could choose to use the free domain for your secondary websites.
This is because there are chances of the domain getting tied with the hosting company, which would make all your efforts of attracting traffic to your website go waste in case you ever plan to switch.
However, in case you register your domain with a separate party, it becomes a lot easier to move to a different hosting party later.
Even if you have registered the domain with the hosting company already, you can still get it transferred to a third party. For instance, GoDaddy has clear instructions on how one can transfer the domain name to their party.
Do Not Use Blacklisted IPs
This sounds like an obvious tip but you would be surprised to know how many novices fall prey to the temptation of using Blacklisted IPs.
You must refrain from using such hosting companies because of their bad reputation among users and more importantly to prevent your mails from being blocked by other providers because of your IP.
Yes, that’s right.
Using a blacklisted IP could result in your emails being blacklisted too.
Therefore, make sure you ask for the IP address of the web host before signing up.
You must also become doubly sure by quickly running through the Spam Haus Lookup Tool before deciding on a hosting website.
This should be pretty much all the information that you will ever need to launch your own website within a day. So get going and watch your business flourish before you.