Small businesses would also require websites so that the people in the locality would check out the products or services provided by the business. It could help the business if they have plans to expand their reach to more areas.  

You could get the website designed by companies after you shortlist the best ones. Blurn , Sydney, Australia is a company that provides web design related services based on the needs of the brand, at an affordable rate. Try out their services by contacting them now!

Take a look at the guide that can help you in creating a successful business website

• Determine the primary purpose of your website

A business website would serve as a base to provide general information regarding the company could serve as a direct platform for E-Commerce purposes. If you create a simple website that tells little about the company or a more complex e-commerce site, the most important thing you should do is to say what the company does on the homepage of your website. You should not meet your customers to discover if the company could do what they need.

• Decide on the domain name

Your domain name could be one of the most important features of your website. It is the URL you share with current and potential clients and promote on social media. Hence, you want it to be easy to remember, type in and be descriptive. Keep it short and away from acronyms, abbreviations and numbers. This would help in avoiding confusion among customers. Once you select the domain name, you should confirm the availability and purchase with the help of a domain registrar. Some of the popular domain registrars are GoDaddy, Domain.com, Squarespace and Wix. Once you select the new domain name, you should check for copyrights to make sure that you are not infringing on anyone else's protected name. If your preferred URL is taken already, you could call the company and ask to buy from them or make use of a domain buying service and reach out to the owners of your desired domain name. However, this might involve some expenses. 

• Select a web host

Every website requires a host. It means a server where all the data is stored for the public to access whenever required. Hosting your website is an expensive affair for small businesses and you would need to select an external host.  

Based on the budget, you could choose from two different routes. A shared web hoar could be a less expensive option. It would mean that the server would be shared with other sites. Dedicated hosting would cost significantly. It means that you get your private server and won't have to compete with other websites that could drag down the speed.

• Build your pages

A good website could be more than a static homepage. You would want to create multiple pages that are dedicated to different aspects of your business like a detailed catalogue of the services or products or a blog section for company updates. For the overall website, make sure that each page supports the site's primary goal that has a clear purpose and includes a call to action. If the business doesn't already have a logo, hire a graphic designer or create a logo by yourself to use on business cards, websites and social media profiles. It would help the clients identify the company quickly and easily on the web. 

• Set up the payment system (if applicable)

While this step would not apply to all business websites, companies that want to offer the option for customers to pay online. You will have to set up electronic payment systems with their websites.  The easy method to do so is with the help of e-commerce software solutions.

• Publish and test the website

Before announcing that the website is live on the web, make sure that it works on all major browsers such as Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Chrome. Click through each page and feature on every browser to make sure that images show up, the format looks smooth and the links are correct. This would take some time but the effort you put in would save you from future complaints from visitors if they are unable to access some features.  

Make sure that the website displays properly on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. The step should be overlooked as various search engines have migrated to mobile indexing that prioritises the performance of the mobile version of your website when it comes to search engine rankings. 

• Market the website on social media

Social media could be the best way to increase your audience reach and alert the customers to what is going on with your company. Whenever you update the website, post about it on social media outlets but balance it out with non-promotional and genuine engagement.  

You could include links to your social media on your website. The most commonplace to do this could be the footer of the website. It is the extra menu in the top right that holds contact links. 

• Invest in search engine optimisation (SEO)

Submitting the website to major search engines would help you direct potential leads to your page as you would be deploying a strong SEO strategy across your website. Defining title tags, meta descriptions and uniform resource identifiers (URIs) that are relevant to your company and aspects of your industry could help in boosting your rankings in search engines for the products or services you are trying to market.

Building relevant keywords into the content from the very first phases of the website and having a strong focus on SEO from the website launch would help you generate traffic at the earliest. 

• Maintain your website

Staying relevant is very important. Hence, you should update your website frequently with blog posts on current industry events, company news and new products and offers to keep the visitors coming back to the site. You should check every month to make sure that the software and all add-ons are up to date. If the software is not up to date, it's in danger of being hacked, even if the website hosting security is strong. If you do not have time to do this yourself, delegate the task to a trusted employee or a freelance website manager.