Creating a professional website for your business is essential these days. No matter what your business is, you need an online presence. Even if you are a little neighborhood shop, or a very small company. Think about it. How many times have you looked up something along the lines of “flower shop + your neighborhood” or “dry cleaner + your holiday destination”? A website is the key for people who don’t know you to stumble upon your info and get to you. And don’t worry, creating a professional website doesn’t have to break the bank. As a matter of fact, you can do it yourself.
Here are a few tips on how to make a website:
First, you should think about the message you want to send to the world. Your customers are just as busy as you are, and they need to find the information they are looking for in a few seconds, or they will bounce back and get it from another website. Say you run the local bakery. What people want to know is how to get to you, how to contact you if they have a query, and your opening hours, to make sure they are not coming for nothing. So all that information should be on your landing page. Making a blog about all the different kinds of delicious pastries you offer is great, but the essential information is location and opening hours. So give that a prominent space.
If you are active on social media, your website can also feature a box on the sidebar with your latest tweets or Facebook activity. That will show your customers you are online often, and responsive in case they want to send an inquiry. Furthermore, remember to keep your website current, with seasonal promotions or even just a date stamp that shows the content is up to date. Nothing worse than landing on a website that talks about their Christmas promotion in June.
Having a look at your competitors can help a lot. Visit their website and see how easy or hard getting the information you need is. What frustrates you? How do you feel about their design, navigation, colors, the overall look of the website? What would you add on yours? Creating a website is not about reinventing the wheel, it is about offering your users the easiest, friendliest experience possible.
Now that you have your must have list for your professional website, go online and look for a template that has most of the features you need. Some templates are already geared towards certain trades, such as real estate, restaurant or hotel. Picking that particular template will save you a lot of time, instead of having to find a plug in for every extra feature you need. It will be much easier for you to change the colors or layout of the theme than try to implement things that aren’t there.
Sites like Wix.com have tons of templates you can choose from, and they are really intuitive in helping you build your website. You can create an account on Wix, or log in via Facebook or Google, and then pick your template. Wix then asks you edit it to your taste. You can choose from a selection of backgrounds, or upload your own image. You can add text or edit the one that is already there. All the templates on Wix have nice aesthetics and you can simply make them your own. Click on any item on the menu and it will take you to that specific page so you can edit it as well.
Furthermore, you can drag and drop extra features, or create an online shop. Wix will ask you to enter every product, its description, price, even your inventory if you so wish, so it can keep track of your sales and tell you when you are low on one item. Then all the products will be neatly organized onto a sales page, that you can link to a payment platform to offer secure transactions to your customers.
Making your own website with Wix can be done in a just a few hours for most basic websites. It requires no design skills. You just create and customize as you go.
As your business grows you may find that you need more features, but by then you should have the means to recruit a professional web designer. If you are just getting started however, don’t fall into the common myth that you need to drop thousands of dollars on a new flashy website. As we discussed previously, other websites in your niche have already cleared the path before you, and you can find templates on Wix, ready to use, for most kinds of businesses.
What you should do however, once your website is finished, is ask other people to use it, before you put it live. Have a few friends or family members have a look, and ask for their feedback. A fresh pair of eyes is always helpful. The less information you give them, the better. Ask them to click around and see what they think. Once everyone is happy with their experience, you are ready to launch!
You can check this Youtube video to make sure you have everything covered when it comes to strategic thinking and launching your new website.