These days it is difficult to imagine a business without a website and social media presence. Irrespective of the area of operation – manufacture, supply, selling – every business has its own website. Businesses also have pages and accounts on various social media sites.
While the website is the proper place to find information about the business, social sites are the platform to connect with the consumers. Having a website becomes even more important for businesses that primarily operate online. By online business what we mean is a business that sells online.
4 Steps to Launch Your Website in Less Than 10 Minutes
You can get websites in two ways, one you buy a ready-made website from website market place, two, you build your own website or hire someone to build for you.
If you want to build a website yourself, here are some easy to follow steps to build your own website in less than 10 minutes.
Domain Registration
Building a website starts with buying a domain name. If you are building a website on a free blogging platform or free website builders, you don’t have to buy a domain name, however, for a self-hosted website, you need a custom domain name.
Just like your home has an address, your website also needs an address and the domain name is the address of your website in the World Wide Web. You can buy a domain name from a domain registrar or domain marketplace.
When you are buying a domain, remember to buy a short and easy to remember. You can choose any extension you want, there are over 1000 options, however, dot COM is the king.
Get a domain in minutes for only a few dollars through GoDaddy.
Web Hosting
If you are using free blogging platforms or website builders, you don’t have to spend a dime for hosting your website, however, since we are talking about a self-hosted website, you have to purchase a web hosting service.
Hosting a website means you are making your website live for public viewing. A lot of domain registrars are also most of the time web hosts. You can buy hosting for your website from the domain registrar where you registered your domain, or choose another hosting company.
When you are just starting out, choose a company that offers cheap prices while giving the best service.
By the way, you can also map your domain on blogger or wordpress and launch your website without paying for hosting. Domain mapping means hosting your custom domain on free blogging platforms like blogger and wordpress.
Get the easiest website hosting through Hostgator.
Web Designing
Web designing is the most important part of building your website. Design of your website makes or breaks your website. If you hire a web designer, you can get the kind of website you want.
However, if you are designing yourself, you have to think about a lot of things, from the theme colors to graphics, layout etc. The website design should match with the niche of your website, whether it is an online shop, affiliate store, company website, or a blog, your website should be designed accordingly.
If you are doing yourself, using a Content Management System can ease your work. WordPress, Joomla, Drupal are some of the popular Content Management Systems. However, if you want something simple, yet powerful, go with WordPress. About 32 percent of all websites on the internet are built on WordPress.
You can hire a web designer from freelance marketplaces like Upwork or Fiverr. Look for fees and the reputation of the designer before hiring.
Content Development
Your website needs content, without content, your website is just like a book with no printed words. Website content can be articles, images, videos, graphics, product listing, or a combination of all.
Content you publish on your website should match with the niche of your website. You can write your own contents, or hire a content writer.
Conclusion
The most important factor for the sustainability of a website is the content. You get traffic only when you have great content. If you don’t get traffic, you don’t earn from your website. Therefore, the most important investment is creating content. You also need to spend time and money on digital marketing.
