Whether it’s for personal use or for business, starting your first website can be quite an exciting time. It’s also likely to be quite an overwhelming process. But it doesn’t have to be. The main reason people struggle and waste so much time when creating their first site is simply because they don’t know where to start or what options to go with.
To make this process easier, I want to highlight some of the best tips, resources and tools to help launch your first small business site. Best of all, they don’t cost a thing.
Come Up With a Great Domain Name
Picking a great domain name for your site is always going to be important. If the domain name you want to use for your site is the same name as your business, the domain name should still be available if it’s unique.
However, thousands of domain names are registered daily, and once they’re gone, they’re usually gone for good. If your domain name isn’t available, try any of these top domain name generators to help come up with a great alternative name for your site.
Go Live With Your Site
Creating a website is now easier than ever before. Thanks to the power of WordPress, a free software solution for creating websites and content, your site can be live in just a few minutes’ time. In addition to setting up WordPress, you’ll also need to set up web hosting to connect to your domain name. The web hosting for your site is how your data will be stored online, and allows it be accessed from anywhere in the world. To make this process even more seamless, most web hosting solutions now have one-click install processes for installing WordPress.
The important thing to know is that domain names, web hosting and WordPress are all very simple to set up, and once completed you really won’t need to mess with them again. To learn more about this process, take a look at this infographic on how to start a site, which visually breaks down the process into seven simple steps.
Create Content for Your Site
Now that your domain name and web hosting are taken care of, it’s time to use WordPress to start creating content. While you probably have a good idea of what type of content you want to cover in the future, it’s important to make sure you go live with the most important content for your site now. That includes your site’s “about” page, privacy policy, Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice, etc.
I recommend reading LogoDesignTeam’s “7 Pages Every Small Business Website Should Have.” It not only highlights the pages you need to create for your site, but shows real examples of how each page is displayed on its own site.
Share Your Site With the World
Now that your site is live and content is published, it’s time to start sharing it with the world. If you already have active social media profiles on sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, these are a great place to start. You can also send out an email to any newsletter or customer mailing lists you might have.
As your site continues to grow and develop, it will rank higher and more frequently in search results. Google will automatically find your content on its own, but you should also connect your site with Google Webmaster Tools and use Google Analytics to track and monitor traffic to your site.
Starting your first small business site is as simple and direct as following these quick steps. Walk through each of them and make sure you have a good idea of what you want to create before you take action.
