It's nearly 2023 and most of us are aware of the need of establishing a business online. No matter what profession you belong to, online presence and a business website are as important as your offline business. You may be a bakery owner, photographer, or technician, providing any kind of service or product to people, and there will be always the need for an online presence to expand your business.
If you are thinking of starting a new business online or placing your offline business on a website then here are 10 key steps to make it more effective in the online marketplace.
1. Buy a good domain name
The domain name, also your web address, will be the very first thing that a user and Google will recognize. So, it is very important to choose a name that is easy to remember and can connect your content and website visitors. For example, if you are a bakery owner, the website name could be Rising Dough, Baker's Puff. This will let visitors and Google AI understand what you are selling or talking about. Also, it will help in search engine optimization (SEO).
Tips for choosing a good domain name
Domain extension: Use proper domain extensions such as yourdomain.com, unless it makes sense to use extensions like .gov, .edu, .org, etc.
Use simple words: make it easy for the user to spell and remember.
Short & Crisp: keep it short, so people can remember it.
Avoid numbers and special characters: numbers and hyphens are difficult to understand and remember. Try not to use websites like saveoon1@#.com. You may get them cheaper, but working with domains like this takes work.
It should be different: With so many websites in the online space, it is important that people remember your website so they can visit you again.
Domain research: It is very important to research the domain online to check the availability and price of the domain. You can easily check it on.
- Godaddy
- Namecheap
Price: Check if the price of your desired domain fits your budget, because most good domain names are either taken or are costly. So, by checking it, you can decide on your domain name and start the work accordingly.
2. Next, very important is web hosting.
You must have definitely heard about web hosting on social media and blogs. Web hosting refers to a website hosting provider that provides technology and necessary services to run your website smoothly on the internet. Once you are registered with a hosting provider, your website data is stored with them, which stays safe and secure.
Hosting services cost much less, like $1-2 for a beginner website, and go up to multiple hundreds of $100, depending on what kind of services you want from the company. In the beginning, people can opt for the beginner's pack, which costs very little. The monthly plan will cost you a bit more than compared to a yearly plan. There are some discounts if you take services for more than a month at once. Monthly hosting payments cost a bit more, and yearly hosting payments cost you the least.
How to choose a good hosting plan:
Shared hosting is cheap but not the best, as here you will be sharing servers and resources with others, due to which the performance of your site may suffer. Here is one server that has technical issues, so many sites will suffer due to this.
Dedicated server
Hosting is one of the most important things for an online business it affects a lot of website ranking aspects as well. If you have a good plan with you, then always prefer to go for a dedicated server, it will help you boost your website's working efficiently because this means a physical machine (server) is continuously working only for your website. Here, all of your resources are used for only your website, and it will be more secure. At the start, you can use shared hosting, once the website and business scale up, then you can upgrade your plan and use a dedicated server. Most starting businesses do not have that must of capital to spend on a dedicated server. Read more about Top Hosting Providers for the Best Web Hosting
Technical support
Make sure the company you are getting hosting from has technical call & chat support, so you have someone to talk to and fix your problem immediately when there are some unresolved issues. These days, most of the hosting providers have a chat or call support system, where the problems are responded to and resolved as soon as possible. Avoid companies with only email support. Call and chat support work best.
Clean user interface
Not everyone belongs to a tech background and has a website, so always check if the user interface is easy to use, so there is no continued need for chat support. The UI should be as easy as using your mobile phone. Everything should be clearly mentioned.
A few top hosting providers are :
3. Clear display of your work
It is very important to convey to people what the website is all about and what exactly you want to provide to the user. The customer should not get confused, and they should not need to go through your content more than once to understand it. Visual representation of your work is equally important as other aspects of a website. These days, visual content holds great value to the work you represent in front of the internet user. Introduce yourself in such a way that people will think a thought of not missing out on the content, product, or service.
About us
This page lets the users know deeply about your website and products/services. Make sure you have legitimate information about yourself and your websites on the internet.
Content Quality
Make sure you have the best content placed on your website. A good CMS (content management system) allows you to create and manage good-quality content very easily with little or no technical knowledge. You can hire professionals to create your digital content, which will definitely increase the chances of your website ranking better than your competitors. Every CMS has its own qualities, like an easy user interface, budget-friendly, easy setup, and more.
4. Top Content Management System
WordPress:
WordPress is the world's most well-known and used CMS. It has a vast active user base. The CMS offers a wide range of themes, layouts, and a number of useful plugins that help to create an unmatchable website without coding and technical knowledge. The content management system can be customized according to your self by yourself. Also, if you want to add a plugin that is not available, so you can easily hire a WordPress developer and make it for your website. With so many plugins comes a point that the website has to be maintained regularly, as there are so many third-party plugins that it can be hacked.
Wix:
Wix is a very user-friendly CMS with an easy-to-use interface. Wix is popularly known as and drop website builder. Now, drag and drop the elements offered to you on the website. If someone wants to use one of the easiest CMS, they can go for WIX.
Square Space :
Square Space is an easy-to-use CMS where you can make your blog or website easily by the drag and drop method. It offers website designs, a domain name annually, an SSL certificate, 24/7 tech support, unlimited bandwidth, and more such services all in one package. If you focus more on the designs of the template and layouts, then this could be your next content management system. Here, you become your own designer by simply making a beautiful website very easily and saving a chunk of money on design work.
5. E-commerce Platforms
Websites and blogs are for several purposes, but if you are planning to sell a product or service on your website, then you need to choose a good eCommerce service that has maximum uptime with ease of customization. You will need the right technology when it comes to selling online, as there will be financial transactions involved on e-commerce platforms.
The right way to choose your e-commerce platform is to know your business model. The top eCommerce platforms from which you can choose are.
1. Shopify
A very popular cloud-based eCommerce service provider that allows you to manage your products/services, inventory, payment methods, and shipping, all in one place.
2. WooCommerce
WooCommerce can turn your existing WordPress website into an online shopping store in no time. It is one of the most famous eCommerce platforms.
3. Wix
Wix comes with a Shopify extension, which is very easy to enable by upgrading your plan on Wix.com.
6. Creating an Easy-to-Use Interface
Design a website in such a way that any user landing on your online business should feel the difference between your website and others. Users should feel the ease of navigating to your website with an impressive design.
Use easy-to-read fonts
Make the site more beautiful with graphical representations
The graphics that are used should be compressed, so the loading time of your website is less; otherwise, Google will drop your ranking.
If you want to use more graphics and videos, then use a dedicated hosting server.
Keep on tracking your audience and their behavior; that is a must to retarget them again.
Branding your own website is very important. There should be more focus on your brand throughout your website.
Create all the standard pages needed for a business:
- Home
- About us
- Contact us
- Sitemap
- Terms & conditions
- privacy policy
- A blog or something which is relevant to your site
7. Regularity Of Creating Quality Content
Regularly publishing quality content is very useful for ranking your website on Google. Create a plan to publish content on your website. You can also publish blog posts to other good-quality websites and get your links placed on their websites. You can hire a professional content writer who can write for your website on a regular basis. Content has to be of good quality, fresh, and on a consistent basis. This will help your website to rank higher.
8. Search Engine Optimization
SEO has a lot of things that are done to index your website on search engines. SEO helps your site to rank faster and have more quality leads or buyers. When your website is being crawled by the search engine then it starts to show to people who search for the topics or keywords your content has.
Main things to do when doing SEO:
- Keyword research
- Mobile-friendly user interface and indexing
- Fast loading
- Positive reviews
- Use internal and external links so users can visit more content you have published
- Using Social media handles, so visitors can visit and start following you.
9. Google Analytics
Use Google Analytics, it is a free service available to all and carries a lot of importance to know your audience well. You should know:
10. Checking
- Daily, weekly, and monthly users on your website
- Pages visited by users
- Bounce rate - The lower the bounce rate higher the ranking. Bounce rate means how much time people are spending on the website.
- Broken links(keep checking for the broken links and remove them)
- Backlinks
- Website loading time
- Webpage loading time
- Time spent by users
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