If you are like many business owners, you may be ready to launch your first website. Maybe you have not even launched your business yet, but you want to stay ahead and have a strong online presence right away! That’s a great idea! Launching your first website can be done in many different ways. There are also a lot of little details that need to go into it to ensure it’s a site you are proud of. Keep reading while we talk about how to launch your first website.
You will want to pick out a domain that typically is the name of your business followed by .com. There are various hosting sites to use for this. Once you have decided on a name, simply purchase it and you will be ready to connect it to your WordPress site.
If you are looking for a website to blog or you want a blog on your website, it’s a great idea to set this up right away so you can have content going out on a regular basis. Many people wonder how to start a wordpress blog on hostgator tutorial and think that they will simply connect your domain with the host and start blogging. It’s very popular to have just a blogging website, but even if you do, you will want more content on it than just the blog.
If you feel unsure of what theme you want on WordPress simply go and look at other websites. They can be in your niche or just general websites. If you are selling products online, try and look at other sites that also sell products. You can take notes about what you like and what you don’t like. This will help you to narrow down what kind of theme you most want for your website. Never copy a companies website, but this can shed light on your specific style, especially if you have absolutely no idea where to start. This process will start your creativity flowing.
Once you have your domain and theme set up you will need to make decisions on how you want your website set up. Although your theme will allow it to be laid out, you still want to make decisions. Even small decisions like what picture should go there or what should we talk about in that box. You can start on a page that is fairly minimal like the contact page. This will start giving you more confidence when you work your way to other pages.
The number of pages on your website will depend on what kind of business you have. There is no set amount. Make sure to have a home page, an about us, a blog and at least one page about what you are selling.
More is not always better, but it’s important for people to understand what kind of business you are and what your goals are.
The writing on the website is very important. This allows people to know who you are, what you do and everything in between. Most websites have a professional voice but are easy to follow. Having an easy voice while writing will allow customers not to get confused while on your website, and it will also help your search engine optimization (SEO). A strong and professional voice will catch readers attention and will also allow them to stay on the website longer and read more. This will make them more likely to contact you, purchase something or come to your store.
When you are first setting up your website it’s important to ensure it is mobile friendly. Over half of all sales are now made using the mobile. If your website is not mobile friendly you are missing out on a lot of potential business. If people don’t like the set up of your website when they are on their mobile, they will simply click back quickly and head over to a competitors website that is set up for cell phones.
We mentioned earlier that you will want to have SEO incorporated into your website. This is very important because it is how companies will find you online. The stronger your SEO is the more people will click on your website and convert into customers. SEO is how high you are ranked on sites like Google and Bing. Can you imagine how many more people are going to click on your website if you are at the top of page one? Can you imagine how few people are going to click on your website if you are on the bottom of page 6? It will be a huge difference. That is why an SEO strategy is important when launching your website. Some small things you can do is to find out what people are typing into Google to find your site. Once you learn this you can strategically place those keywords in the copy of your website. You can have a blog set up and posting on regularly which will give you fresh content. Also, make sure that any links you have going anywhere else on the web are correct and trustworthy. There are so many things you can do to ensure your website is ranked as high as possible, but these quick things will make a big difference.
As you can see there are quite a few small steps in launching your first website. It’s an important part of not only your online presence but of your overall business. If you are having trouble getting started or are stuck on a specific step, we will be happy to help! Contact us today for any of your website questions.