Website Basics for Business Owners
Whether you are going to try to create your website yourself, or if you’re going to have a web company do it for you, these basic steps apply.
Step 1: Domain Name – The name of your website.
This is the first step in creating a website and is the name for your web address. This is how you let a browser know that you want it to look for a URL on the World Wide Web and you can purchase domains at domain registrars.
Things to consider when purchasing a domain name include checking for domain availability before settling on your company name. It’s also smart to purchase more than one domain name for your website.
Step 2: Web Hosting – Where your website lives.
If you’re going to try to build your website yourself, I recommend you go to a company that specializes in web hosting. If you are going to hire a web company to design and build your site for you, they should be able to recommend which web host is the best choice for you.
Just be certain to choose a web host that is reliable.
Step 3: Web Design – What your website looks like.
The design should be professional, clean, and easy to read.
There are many companies that offer a wide variety of website templates that are easy to modify. But if you are looking for a way to stand out from the crowd and you want your website to have its own unique look and feel, a web builder might be a good choice for you.
Step 4: Web Programming – What holds your website together.
Behind every web design is a web program holding it all together. The language of the web is HTML (Hypertext Markup Language).
Within the HTML is where your metatags and title tags are found. These are the tags that search engines use to index your site. This is what helps match what users are searching for with what your business offers.
Step 5: Content/Copy – What your website says.
This is the text, the words that you have on your website pages. You should have your text be keyword rich, meaning you should have important keywords and phrases that will help web visitors find your site.
An important thing that can help you rank better in the search engines is to keep your content fresh, and keep it updated in an ongoing basis.
Step 6: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – How search engines see you.
Optimizing your web pages to be search engine friendly helps them match you with potential visitors. When someone goes to Google or Yahoo and searches for your Pet Grooming, for example – the search engines will search through the keywords and phrases from all the websites that they have indexed and display the search results that are the closest matches to what the user searched for.
Step 7: Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – How web visitors find you.
Other ways to place higher in search engine rankings, or to get your website listed in the search engines sooner are, Pay for Placement and Indirect placement through social media.
Pay for placement is where you can pay-per-click by keywords to place within the search engine.
And indirect placement can be accomplished through social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and others.
Your website can play a major role in your marketing and business success.