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How to Build a Business WebsiteToday all businesses, both large and small, local, national or international see the need to have a website. Businesses like bed and breakfast, guest Houses, hotels, restaurants, tradesmen e.g. plumbers, real estate agents, lawyers, dentists, consultants etc, can all benefit by having an Internet presence in the form of a website. Sites can range from simple one page sites (1-5 most common) to large sites with hundreds of pages, depending on business type, and what the site is designed to do for your business. There are two types of Business website :
Steps RequiredYou will need to:
Your Site RequirementsThe first stage in building your site is deciding What do you want the Website to Do Both now and in the future? So before you begin make sure you ask yourself these questions.
The answers to these questions will form the basis of your site requirements. Choosing The Site Technology to Build the siteThe blog vs website question. Blogs have become very popular and as they are very similar, and can use the same platform (WordPress), there is a a lot of confusion among many new site owners about whether or not they need a website or a blog. In general an existing offline business will need a traditional website and maybe a blog as an add-on (not common for small sites/businesses). An online business can use either, but in my experience a traditional website is much better as it lays out the information in a manner that is better for the search engines and hence for your site traffic. By a traditional website I mean a site that structure information based on theme/subject (like a book), while a blog is structure by date/time i.e. chronologically. See websites vs blogs for more detail if needed For small business sites then the main two site options are WordPress or an html/php template. For those who are building the site themselves I recommend building the website with WordPress. However I also cover the alternative html/php option which is ideal for starter sites-see one page websites for small businesses. Business Domain Name and HostingAll businesses require their own domain name and Hosting provider. Please don't try to use a free host or a shared domain name for your business site. Getting Traffic and CustomersIt doesn't matter how good your website looks it is of absolutely no use unless you get visitors, some will, in turn, become customers. In addition to the traditional off line methods like newspaper advertisements etc you now have online promotional/marketing methods available for getting traffic to your website. Website promotion (using SEO, PPC and Email Marketing) is critical to the success of business websites. Running the Site - Monitoring and MaintainingThere are several monitoring mechanisms that you can and should use that will give you information on the visitors to your site. This information you can use to gauge the effectiveness of the site and to improve the site performance. You can get an overview in the monitor and maintenance section Creating/Building A Business Website -Example Case StudyAs there are several steps involved in building your site, and so I've created a small case study that illustrates these steps and takes you through the process from initial research to uploading the site. See Starting a Business website. A Guide to CostsA professional designer will charge anywhere from £100 to several thousand pounds, depending on your requirements. A self built site can cost less than £100 ($200). Online Website BusinessThere are any increasing number of people looking to build a business on the Internet using websites using:
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