Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog! In this post, I will share my knowledge on one of my all-time favorite topics – creating a website for your business for free. I have been designing websites since I was about 13 years old, and 13 years ago, I started my own web design business. It was one of the best decisions I ever made in my life.
In this post, I’ll cover everything you need to know about creating your own website for your business. First, we’ll discuss the importance of a website for your business and why I recommend it to anyone trying to get new, higher-quality customers. Next, we’ll go over the process of creating your website, including how to obtain a domain and which platforms to use. Finally, we’ll explore the benefits of having a website for your business and how you can make it work to get new customers.
So, let’s dive into the world of website creation and get started!
Why you should have a website for your business
Let’s start by discussing why you should have a website for your business. Overall, there are six benefits of having a personal website:
1. Online presence: A website serves as a virtual storefront where potential customers can learn about your business, products, or services and contact you.
2. Professional image: A website gives your business a professional image and enhances its credibility. A website shows that your business is legitimate and trustworthy. It also allows you to showcase your products or services and provide testimonials from satisfied customers. A professional-looking website can set your business apart from the competition and give it a competitive edge.
3. Increased visibility: With most people using the internet to search for products or services, having a website makes it easier for them to find your business. You can also optimize your website for search engines, improving your search engine rankings and driving more traffic to your website.
4. 24/7 availability: A website allows customers to learn about your business and make purchases anytime or night. This can increase your sales and revenue without requiring additional work from you.
5. Cost-effective marketing: With a website, you can reach a broader audience at a lower cost than traditional marketing. You can also use various online marketing strategies, such as social media and email marketing, to promote your business further.
6. Improved customer service: A website can improve customer service by providing a platform for customers to contact you and ask questions. You can also offer helpful information, such as frequently asked questions and troubleshooting guides, to help customers resolve issues independently. This can save you time and resources while improving customer satisfaction.
In conclusion, having a website is crucial for any business. It enhances your credibility and professionalism, increases visibility, provides 24/7 availability, offers cost-effective marketing, and improves customer service. If you don’t have a website, consider creating one for your business.
How to create a website
This is much more straightforward than people make it out to be. There are two things that you need to create a website. Number one, you need a platform; number two, you need a domain. Let’s start by talking about the platform. And the platform is the thing that hosts your website. So, you might have heard of Squarespace or WordPress or seen an ad for Wix.com. There are basically hundreds of website platforms out there. Some are free, most are paid, and they all let you create a website in some capacity. And because I value your time, I’m gonna give you a list of three options to choose from that I would personally recommend. The first option I recommend is Wix; it’s free and allows you to edit your website. It gives you the choices of how your website looks according to your marketing goals. You can set up a contact form, landing page for your marketing campaign, etc. There’s also Squarespace; it’s easy, only $13 a month, and for that price, you get all the things you need. If you pay for a year upfront, which is good because it forces you to take the website seriously, you also get a free .com domain name, which you can use. There’s also WordPress, which I highly recommend everyone use. You can easily choose any hosting provider, such as Godaddy or Bluehost, purchase WordPress web hosting for $10.99 monthly, and get a domain for free. There, you can install one of the many themes available for free or paid themes on themeforest.net. Then, make the necessary changes you’d like. Still, you prefer to let someone else take care of this. In that case, you can always hire our agency to design and develop a professional custom website for your business. Secondly, a domain might be needed. The domain is like lerws.com, google.com, or facebook.com, which links to your website platform. When you make an account on Wix, you might start with lerws.wix.com, which would be your URL. But that’s not very pretty; it’s not lovely saying to someone, “Hey, check out my website, lerws.wix.com.” It’s amateur. You can buy a domain like lerws.com, which costs around $10 annually. This is very cheap, less than a dollar a month. It is less than the price of coffee. It’s like buying a coffee every four months from Starbucks. That’s how much it costs to get a domain name, like $10 a year. Then you link that domain to Squarespace or Wix, and now you can say, “Check out my website, lerws.com.” And that sounds cool. If you are down for paying for .com or a .io or a .co or dot whatever domain name, the service I use these days is namesilo Domains. It’s easy to use and very friendly. If you want a domain for free, you’re out of luck because you can’t get one for free. Again, it doesn’t really matter what domain registrar you use. The two that I recommend are namesilo and Google Domains. And then when you’re done, you’ve got your platform, i.e., Wix or WordPress, and then you have your domain, which you connect to your thing, and now you have a website, and it’s taken five or 10 minutes to set up. This is all very nice and straightforward. Making a website is one of those things that feels really hard, especially if this is your first time doing it. You’re like, “Oh my God, I need to code. I need to do this and that, HTML, CSS, Javascript.” It’s so easy these days. Back in the day, in 2005, when I was making my first websites, yes, it was hard. It’s now 2021, and it’s super easy to make a website. You go on Squarespace or Wix, click the signup button, enter your email and password, and you’re done; it’s so easy. If you have yet to try it, I would 100% recommend you give it a go.
What to do with it
Finally, let’s talk about now that you have a website because you’ve seen how easy it is to make a website; what the hell do you do with your website? How do you actually make your website suitable? Again, this is much more straightforward than people make it out to be. Firstly, your website only needs four pages. It requires an About page, a Contact page, a services page, and a Home page. Literally, that is all you need. Your home page has something lovely that’ll connect with your audience. This can be something they’re looking for, like your services or a way to contact you. Your about page is straightforward; add a paragraph or two about you and your business, maybe some photos with your customers or workplace. On the services page, you can list your services; you can go in-depth or keep it short. I always advise making a page for each service to explain the process, but that’s just me. Then, a contact page with a form where people can fill out their information and send you a message. Then, once you’ve got those set up, it only takes about 20 minutes. That’s it. You’re all done; I recommend you focus on gathering your content for your About and Services page. Gather some images to make your website look nice. But if you’re serious about your business presence online, you need to hire a professional web designer. Once you start getting more customers, you can focus on adding more content to your website; you can start focusing on SEO, which is Search Engine optimization, and go from there. I’ve had clients crying, literally crying tears, telling me how happy they are with their website and the type of deals they can close, thanks to their new website. So, if you’re getting started and you’re scared at how much it costs, don’t worry; you can always make a website for free, and it’s super simple. Thank you so much for your time. I hope you found this helpful article and I’ll see you in the next one, bye-bye.