A Business Website in 2022?
It’s unbelievable but true that nearly half of all small businesses don’t have websites. Yet 97% of customers search online for products and services.
People don’t usually wander around outside to find the service or product they want. They search it through their computers or phones. If you don’t already have some sort of online presence, you need to act quickly. You are losing out to the competition. Consider your website your online storefront. Even a simple storefront is better than no storefront. At least this way people will be able to find you.
So the first rule for every startup in 2022 is “never sacrifice quality”. Quality is everything in the internet marketing game. And your website is just that – a part of your marketing strategy but also, a business asset. You have literally millions of competition in the internet market, don’t compete in the quantity game.
It can be easy to find yourself frozen before you get started if you don’t have a clear list of steps to guide you. To help you out, here’s a step-by-step guide to what you need to start a website.
Basics
Let’s start with the basics of building a website.
Find Your Website Goal
This is important for the general design of your website. And you need to be specific with this. Here’s a general idea:
Service-based business
The website should accurately communicate what you offer and why people should hire you.
Product-based business
Your goal is to get people to add those items to their shopping cart and check out.
Starting a blog
Whether you just want to share your deep abiding love of photography, the goal could be as simple as finding a few like-minded people who enjoy reading your posts.
Whatever your particular goal, all the other steps laid out here can play a role in helping you achieve it, which makes it important that you figure this step out before going any further.
- A Good Domain Name
This may be silly but it can be one of the hardest parts for many people. When buying a domain name for your website, you have to think about more than just what sounds good, you also have to consider the available domain names as you go.
- Web Hosting
You can usually register your domain name and buy web hosting in one package, since most hosting plans include at least one domain in their package plans (and sometimes more). If you’re just starting out and your website will be on the smaller side without a devoted following, an affordable plan will probably work just fine and you can get one for just a little cash a month.
- Simple, Honest Design
It’s 2022, the trend is a clean and honest website design. People can smell insincerity in the digital space. The best startup websites are not only user-friendly and visually exciting, but connect with site visitors by speaking to what makes your brand stand apart from businesses that have come before.
- Content
Professional website copywriters know how to develop positioning for businesses and figure out the language most likely to drive visitors to action. And if writing’s not your forte, you’ll probably spend lots of time and mental energy on worse results than if you hired someone who really knows what they’re doing.
- Digital Marketing Plan
To achieve the goal you established in step one, you’ll need to commit to ongoing marketing efforts that bring your audience to you.
Today, your company can’t survive without an online presence. It may sound like a tough task, but it’s really not that difficult. Once your website is up and running, you need to expand your digital presence. Utilize social media platforms like:
Your prospective customers are using these platforms, so you need to be on them, as well.
- Google Analytics
One of the most valuable tools every website owner needs is conveniently entirely free. Setting up Google Analytics is easy and one of the first things you should do once your website is ready to launch. The tool provides rich insights into how many people are coming to your website, how they found you, whether they came back again, and who they are (demographically speaking).
Startup Website Pro-tips
Contact Info and Social Media
Don’t restrict visitors to only one way to reach you.
Be sure to include several ways for them to contact you — phone, e-mail, and a standard contact form are all good options. Include your street address, and even a link to your location in Google maps. The point is to make it very easy for users to communicate with you on their terms.
With social media, you can just add links inside the footer of your website. Don’t let them stop finding more things about you.
SEO and SEM
The main difference is that SEM drives traffic through paid advertising, while SEO drives, monitors, and analyzes organic (unpaid) traffic. SEO is the best marketing strategy for long-term results. Websites can receive 24/7 free traffic and take full advantage of search engine optimization.
Be Mobile-friendly
Do note that most of your website’s traffic is likely from people on mobile devices. Because of this, it’s absolutely critical that your website looks good and functions well on mobile devices.
Despite this, 93.3% of small business websites are still not mobile compatible. Being mobile-friendly often means using a “responsive” design – a design that adjusts itself to fit different screen sizes. It also means using a typeface that’s large enough for senior viewers to read and text that has good contrast against the background. In other words, no white type on a black background
Customer testimonials
This is perhaps the single best way to get better results from your site. Customer reviews are extremely important, as they build trust, especially if you are new. And they help shoppers to confirm whether the product or services meet their needs. If you’ve got enough customers saying great things about you and your business, create a whole page of testimonials.
Badges, logos and certifications
Swap your old myname@*mail.com with your own domain to create professional email address, like this: myname@mybusiness.com
Get your FREE professional email ID with any of our web hosting plans at spireMinds.
Without it, something will seem missing to your business.
A professional email address using your domain name makes it easy for customers to look up your company and your website for more information. It’s a great marketing asset too – any email you send, or any time you leave your contact details with someone, you’re also giving them an easy link to your website.
Call to action
Include one call to action on every page on your site. This is often a button that urges action such as “Read more” or “By now.”
A call to action button tells the online visitors literally what you want them to do. For instance, you may want them to call you now “for free” quote, or sign up to your exclusively online coupons, or add products to the online shopping cart, etc.
Do call attention to your suggestion — by using special buttons or highlighting the text.
Why does my startup business need a website?
Getting more customers to engage with your business and the products or services you sell is vital for a new startup, and a website is perhaps the most important tool you can use for finding customers in your early days. Building up a reliable customer base and attracting attention can be the difference between surviving your first year as a business and sinking without trace.
Almost the first thing a potential customer will do when they come across your startup business name or the goods and services you sell will be to search for you online. With instant internet access at their fingertips, savvy customers will swipe or click away and do their research on you before they part with any money – and a lack of internet presence or a poorly designed website is guaranteed to turn them away.
Why websites are a must-have
In the era of fast digital content, every new business needs a website – and a good one at that. A well-designed website not only enables you to get more customers and allow future customers to learn more about what you can do for them or let them place orders from you, it can also build up a much-needed brand identity and generate the customer loyalty all start-ups rely on.
A website which is slow to run, difficult to navigate and unappealing to look at will immediately turn people away, and with so much choice out there on the big wide web, they’re unlikely to ever return.
