Introduction

According to the small business website, more than 19.1 million small businesses in the United States have a website. It represents less than 64% of small businesses, which means that more than 10 million SMEs do not yet have a website.

Some business owners may be unwilling to create a website because they do well without it or think the process would be time-consuming and complicated. Others may consider hiring a digital creative agency to run their website, but long-term maintenance can weigh heavily on the budget.

However, creating websites is not necessarily tricky, expensive or time-consuming. Whatever the activity of your business, adding a website to your marketing strategy can offer you many opportunities. It is within your reach with a bit of organization.

The Basics of Creating Your Small Business Website

Creating websites for small businesses requires only a few key elements:

A domain name

A host

A website template tailored to your business

A payment service if you make an e-commerce site

A Domain Name

Your domain name is what people type into their address bar when they try to visit your site. For example, “mailchimp.com” and “wikipedia.org” are domain names. Ideally, the domain name should include some or all of the professional names so that customers can easily remember them.

A great way to work around the problem is to change the suffix at the end of your domain name, such as “.com”, “.net”, and “.org”. For example, if “fleursdejulie.fr”

A Host

A hosting provider is a company that you use to get your website online. It “hosts” your site by providing it with a location on the Internet.

A hosting site vends you the space you need for your site on a web server. A web server mentions to the software and hardware that stores your content and transmits it to your browser when you enter a web address.

Your site’s pages, images, videos, features, and apps require storage space. Keeping the amount of storage that each page needs is relatively small so that users whose Internet connections may be slow do not have to experience too long load times.

Choosing a Web Host

If you check out different hosting earners, you may discover that their rates are close or even the same, especially for their essential services. Therefore, choosing a hosting provider will depend on the features you need. Some of the factors to consider include:

  • Maximum storage space
  • Bandwidth
  • Included options such as SEO tools
  • The number of domains and subdomains you are allowed to have
  • The number of email accounts
  • Technical assistance

Suppose all you need is a relatively simple site to showcase your products or services, give customers a chance to engage with the business, and strengthen your brand image.

In that case, you’ll find that the basic features of many hosting providers are more than satisfactory. In this case, the ease of the site design process could be your determining factor.

The Template of a Small Business Website

A website template is all they need to design their site for most people. A website template is provided turnkey to set up your site, except for the content.

Many templates also give you the choice of images that can work with your business. So all you have to do is arrive at the text. Designing a site using a template is simple. Each template has fields in which you enter text. For example, you can enter your company’s location:

  • Name
  • Slogan
  • Mission Statement
  • History and information “About us.”
  • Description of services
  • Skills
  • People and organizations you’ve worked with.

Thanks to the many models available, it is very likely that you will find the one that allows you to enter all this information and more. If not, most hosts make it easy to create your sections to meet the specific needs of your business.

Payment Service in Small Business Website

When creating a business site, you can, like many business owners, consider making an e-commerce site. E-commerce allows you to sell products and services online, allowing customers to pay using a bank card, bank account info, or a payment service like PayPal or Stripe.

Many website templates include infrastructure for e-commerce. In this case, you can create your site using a template with e-commerce capabilities and connect your payment solution. You necessity to enter your login credentials and confirm that PayPal accepts payments from your target customer base for a service like PayPal. (Not all payment services are available in all countries.)