How To Build a Website

How effective is your content marketing strategy? Are you worried that potential customers might not find your business when searching online? As a business owner you can invest time and money into learning how to build a website, so that customers will find you and buy your products or services. You want to be found in the search results for your keywords. You want the content that people find to be engaging and motivate them to follow your calls to action.

How To Build a Website

Content Before Design

The best time to plan the content marketing strategy for a new business website is before beginning the design and development process. When planning the structure of your website, think carefully about navigation and hierarchy. Have a clear idea of what you want the website to achieve and understand your target audience. Having established the content strategy for your website, you can continue to follow this approach post launch, confident it can be adapted to meet future needs.

How To Launch a Business Online

You could decide to employ the services of an experienced professional who knows how to design a website for small businesses. Alternatively you might prefer to learn how to launch a business online and manage the site yourself. This will require a wide range of skills, but these tools and resources could help you to begin the process. From knowing how to choose website hosting for WordPress or another CMS of your choice, or using a platform such as Squarespace or Wix, there are many factors to consider.

Sourcing content at an early stage of a planning your online presence can influence key decisions regarding page layout, navigation, functionality and hosting. Identifying content issues early allows alternatives to be found if needed and will inform scheduling, launch plans and promotional efforts, such as the use of advertising and social media. Whether sourcing content for B2B websites or B2C websites, doing so well before the launch date will reduce the risk of delays.

Having gathered together your content, you should design the web page so that it will attract your target audience and be understood by Google. For example, use a good title and page description. This could encourage people to click on the link to your page, when they see it in the search results. Within the webpage, use heading tags to organise and prioritise content and make use of short paragraphs, so that text is easy to read on mobile devices.

The URL (uniform resource locator) of each web pages should be search engine friendly and describe the page content. After launching your website, monitor the performance of content in terms of visitor traffic and engagement. Software such as Google Analytics enables you to find information such as the geographic location of site visitors, the page they land on, their onsite activity and where they exit your site.

Website Project Planning

Effective project planning ensures that people involved in the content delivery, design, development and marketing of a website are aware of and can plan their work based upon the schedule. Planning ensures necessary personnel, tools and resources are available and reduces the risk of delays by providing a timeline for when targets need to be met. Contingency planning allows for delays that might arise, so that schedules can be managed. Effective communication and co-ordination ensures those impacted by changes are notified in good time. Learning how to plan content project steps can help to ensure your website remains on schedule for launch date and will be easier to manage post launch. Customer personas can be used to represent visitors to the website and a content marketing funnel to represent the stages of a customer moving through the site.

SEO and Keyword Research

During the planning stage of your website, keyword research is an important part of the digital marketing strategy. Using online tools, such as the Google Keyword Planner, could help you to find the search volume of relevant keywords and phrases. Ask yourself what your target audience might type into a search engine when looking for the information they will find on your web pages. Creating personas for site visitors can assist this process. You should also be aware of the impact on SEO of increasing use of AI search.

Define a different main keyword for each webpage and ensure these occur naturally within the content that you write. Keywords could also be used in pages titles, descriptions, headings, sub-heading and image alt text. You might be inspired to write articles or blog posts on a particular topic, if you find that your target audience frequently searches for answers to particular questions. Schema markup, semantic html and domain authority are also important factors in determining where your website pages will appear in SERPs.

The web page title and description appear in search results and should therefore be given due consideration. They tell people and search engines what a page is about and should accurately reflect the content they will find. You should use titles which are attention grabbing, descriptive and include the main keyword or phrase. Do not overuse keywords. They should be included naturally within a web page and increase how well the page delivers what people want.

Writing Engaging Content

Content should be written in a clear natural style that is easy for people to follow. You can make content more digestible, by breaking information into short blocks of text with relevant headings and by highlighting important information. People often use short phrases when searching for something online. Text including them as an organic part of the content can also add value and clarity. Content that is evergreen and answers questions of relevance to your target audience could attract traffic that grows over time.

Web page content, titles, descriptions and URLs (uniform resource locators) should be SEO friendly. When searching online using text people expect to receive results ranked according to relevance to their search terms and the quality of the landing pages. People often prefer to have alternatives to choose from, though most will visit pages listed on the first page of search results. They might visit several websites and compare products and services, until they find what they are looking for.

Some people enjoy exploring the Internet, to find original content, special offers and information that they might not otherwise have found. They might follow hyperlinks to content that attracts their attention and you should therefore ensure that you use good headline and descriptive text. Ask yourself what people who land on one of your web pages is hoping to achieve and give them what they want.

Domain Name History

A suitable domain name and extension, such as co.uk, com, org or net, can increase credibility of a website. Short keyword rich names are often already registered and either unavailable or expensive to purchase from their current owners. Many businesses opt for a made up brand able domain name or something which combines their business name and a descriptive key word. You could create a list of possible domain names and ask other people for their opinions.

If the domain name that you use for your website has not previously been registered, then you are starting with a clean slate. The Google algorithm will have no negative or positive opinion, until you establish the reputation through you’re your own new website. Be patient, as it can take several months for the pages of a new website to begin ranking for keywords in the search results.

Before registering a domain name, or if you are considering purchasing one that someone else has already registered, you should carry out some research into its history. You could begin by using a website such as archive.org, where you could find out how a domain name was used in the past. If a domain was previously used for a website that Google ranked highly this might be beneficial. However, if a domain name was previously penalised for some reason this could cause you problems.

Creating Website Wireframes

Before building a website it is important to have clear business objectives, an understanding of site user preferences and measurable success metrics. Creating wireframes of a website will provide a visual representation of proposed content layout for each page, interactive elements, navigation and usability requirements. Using dummy text, boxes as placeholders for content such as images and simplified representations of navigation menus provides a convenient way for users to evaluate and provide feedback on the proposed site design. This well help to ensure best practice is followed regarding usability and user experience design.

Hosting For Small Business Websites

Even the best designed website with wonderful content will suffer if it is slow and unreliable. The server on which you host your website can affect the speed and reliability of your site. Performance and security of a website can affect user experience and how well web pages rank in search results. Factors such as cost and learning curve will influence the choice of hosting. For example, whether to use a content management system (CMS), such as WordPress, or a platform such as SquareSpace or Shopify.

Whether you decide to use a shared hosting platform, VPS (virtual private server) or dedicated server might be influenced by your budget. However, you should consider the nature of your website and expected traffic levels. Shared hosting might be sufficient for a simple brochure website. Busy eCommerce websites will require hosting suitable for their traffic levels, such as a virtual private server (VPS), dedicated or cloud based solutions.

Find a host offering good value for money and one recommended by sources whose opinion you trust. Consider factors such as SLAs (service level agreements) for speed, uptime and customer support. Be aware of the length of any contract before you sign, along with termination rights and any additional costs that might arise in the future. Be prepared to move your website to a new host if necessary. You might also prefer to have your domain name registration and website hosting with different companies.

Domain Knowledge and Website Authority

Before you begin creating a webpage, you should have a clear idea of the subject matter and target audience of the page. Gather together relevant content, such as text, images and video, along with references to relevant supporting data. The reputation of the page author can also be a ranking factor. You should therefore include relevant social media links and information in the about page, such as experience in an industry related to the subject matter.

People will often look for and value information provided by someone with experience in what they are writing about. Therefore, when you write on a topic that you have or can acquire knowledge and experience, you are more likely to find a receptive audience. As your reputation is established other people might begin to refer to you as an expert or thought leader in your particular field. Your domain knowledge can increase the perceived authority of your website content, both to people and search engines.

When planning your content marketing strategy, consider where your main audience is located. Post fresh content, such as blog posts, at a time when they are likely to be receptive. Doing so each week or month on the same day and at the same time, could encourage your audience to look forward to the next post. Content which includes information that changes over time, such as news, sports and travel advice, should be regularly updated.

When planning your content marketing strategy, attracting backlinks might be among your key objectives. Knowing how to build high quality backlinks from authority websites can benefit your site. However, you would be advised to avoid link sharing schemes. Focus on providing good quality content that attracts relevant traffic. This could lead to people naturally sharing and linking to your content. You could also engage constructively with relevant websites, by for example offering to write guest blog posts on topics of interest to their readers.

Content Management Systems

Many websites are built using a content management system (CMS), such as WordPress or Drupal. This can enable even someone with little experience in web design and development to get a website up and running relatively quickly. However, it is worth investing time and resources into receiving some training, which you could find online. You might also benefit from the assistance of someone with experience in website design and development.

Plugins will give a CMS additional functionality and a theme will determine the appearance of your website. Look for plugins and themes that are well maintained, with many downloads and positive user comments. Mobile responsiveness is important both for usability and search engine ranking. The theme that you choose should also reflect the tone and brand of your business.

Building a Secure Website

Be aware that there will be malicious people online who look websites with weaknesses that they could use to damage your online presence. Although no website can ever be one hundred percent secure, you should take steps to do what you can to protect your website. For example, do not carry out day to day work on your website using the default admin login account.

Any CMS that you use, along with plugins and theme should be kept updated. This is an important part of your website security. The process can be automated and if you use a hosting company that manages your WordPress website they should take care of this. Your website should also be backed up on a regular basis. If your website is damaged in some way, you should ensure that it can be quickly and easily restored, with minimal loss of content and business data.

If other people will be editing content on your website, create roles for them to limit what they are allowed to do. Ensure that login passwords are strong and if necessary put two step authentication in place. You should also get an SSL (secure socket layers) certificate for your website. When SSL is installed, visitors to your website should see the familiar green padlock in the address bar before your site URL.

The installation of a valid SSL certificate is something that your web host should be able to help you with. The use of SSL adds a layer of security to your website, by encrypting data communicated between the site and users. Google recommends the use of SSL and websites without SSL could be negatively effected in their search engine ranking.

Launching a Small Business Website

When planning your content marketing strategy, remember the famous quote; Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance. When this approach is also applied to the design and development of your website, you will be less likely to run into problems during or after launch. If issues arise before launch, you should have time to allocate the people and resources needed to resolve them.

The pre-launch marketing plan for your website might have been put in place during the weeks and months prior to launch. This could include a mix of social media, email marketing and advertising, in publications popular with your target audience. You might have planned a launch event, to which you have invited other members of your team, investors, clients and members of the media.

When project planning your content marketing strategy and website design and development, put in place a realistic schedule. You should resist the temptation to launch before you are ready, hoping for the best. Doing so might mean that content is missing, the user experience is lacking or functionality does not work correctly. Investing the necessary time and effort into good planning, should provide you with a foundation upon which to build your future success.

Building For Long Term Growth

There are many companies trying to sell their secure hosting for small business websites, so it is worth carrying out some research to find a suitable host. Learning how to find low competition keywords, using a long-tail keyword research strategy and learning on-page SEO writing techniques could help you during the process of building a topic cluster content strategy. However, when developing the digital strategy roadmap for your business, you should prioritise delivery of content that will provide genuine value to your target audience. Knowing how to plan content project steps and how to write wireframe documentation can help you to remain aligned with your business goals.

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