How to Make Small Business Website in 2022: A Beginner’s Guide

As a small business owner, you need to build a strong online presence if you want your customers to find and reach you. Understandably, you might have budget constraints and won’t be able to hire any website development services.

However, creating a website for your business isn’t that complicated. In fact, it only takes 9 steps and this article will guide you through each and every step. So without further ado, let’s get right into it.

Choose Your Platform

If you’re creating your first website and you’re not sure how to do it, you need a user-friendly website builder that doesn’t require any coding. You can go with:

1. WordPress(.org)
2. Wix 
3. Squarespace

The difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com is that the first one allows you to host your own site with more control while the second takes care of that for you, resulting in an easier start but with less control. Since WordPress is an open project, you can use it for free but you’ll have to find a hosting service.

Wix and Squarespace are both hosted website builders, which means you don’t have to look for a hosting provider when creating your site. The cost would depend on the plan you choose. For Squarespace, it comes to $23 per month for the business plan and can cost $49 to unlock all the features.

It’s advised to choose WordPress as you don’t need to be a developer to create the website. You can also easily customize how your site looks and add new features. Did we mention that it’s free? That fits the budget of every small business owner.

Domain Name

This is pretty straightforward but you need a good domain name that aligns with your business. It should be short, easy to spell, and has keywords related to your business. You can even find domain name generators online to help you with your search.

You don’t have to worry about buying a domain name just yet. When you sign up for hosting, you can register your domain name. You could buy your domain name within Squarespace or Wix if you’re using those tools.

Find Your Domain Hosting Provider

If you’ve chosen Squarespace or Wix, you can skip this step. This is for WordPress users.

You can find quite a few beginner-friendly hosting providers to get you started. Bluehost and DreamHost are two of the top hosting options recommended by WordPress. It can be as cheap as $2 per month and is enough for small businesses but you can choose to upgrade as your business starts seeing growth.

Install WordPress

This is another step you can skip if you’ve chosen an all-in-one website builder. However, to use the content management system, you need to install the WordPress software. If you’ve chosen Bluehost as your hosting provider, you can use the intuitive dashboard and install WordPress easily and quickly. 

Depending on your hosting provider, the process might be different but it’s advisable to refer to the hosting service’s official documentation just to be sure.

Choose a Theme

On both Squarespace and WordPress, there are loads of themes and templates available at your disposal. Many are free and you can customize most of them too. In WordPress, you have to Activate and Install the theme first before you can customize it. You can customize the Squarespace template once you select one that you like.

Install Plugins

Called extensions in Squarespace, plugins help you add new features to your website to make it more functional and user-friendly. There are quite a few plugins to choose from but don’t worry. 

You only need a few of them initially. Look for plugins that help you with:

1. Security – to protect you from spam, malicious attacks and hackers.
2. Performance – to boost loading times.
3. Backups – in case something goes wrong.
4. SEO – to make your site more visible and attract new customers.
5. E-Commerce – to handle sales.

Choose tools that have high ratings from users. You can also check the feedback to see if it’s the right plugin for you.

Add Content

Before you add content, you’ll need some structure for your site.

Most business websites have – 

1. Homepage
2. Product/Service page
3. About page
4. Contact page
5. Blog

Once you have these, you can start filling it up with your content. WordPress enables you to create and add blog posts easily, giving you the ability to create content whenever you want.

Optimize Your Website

As mentioned earlier, SEO will make your site more visible and can help attract new customers. So once you’ve made your content, you need to refine it with appropriate keywords if you want to rank high on search engines. You also need to make sure the loading times are quick, use internal and external links throughout your site, and ensure you have a responsive design so your content works on all devices.

Publish the Website

That’s about it. All you have to do now is publish and promote your website. But there are some checks you should make before you start promotions.

1. Check how the website looks on mobile devices. It should be nice and readable.
2. Remove any filler content from your theme.
3. Proofread your content, ensuring all the information is accurate.

Every business needs an online presence. Otherwise, you could lose out on so many potential customers. If you don’t have the budget to outsource it to website development services, you can always follow these steps and create the website yourself.

Dileep Thekkethil, a Journalism Postgraduate, was formerly with a US-based online magazine and is the Associate Director, Digital Content at Stan Ventures. He is a frequent blogger who keeps a tab on the latest updates in the SEO and technology arena.