Whether it is a large corporate company or a small hardware store, building a website and going online helps grow your business. A website development company has the right knowledge of how to build an engaging website to attract people.
If you have your website you can make certain changes to it to make it more effective. In case you don’t have one, now is the best time to take your business online.
Given below are some ways of developing a great app:
Using an effective name – A domain name is nothing but a web address of your site. You can think of it as the address to your home. For example- www.google.com. Whatever you use after www is your domain name. We know, there are tens and thousands of websites, each having its own unique domain name. Hence, put a little thought into yours while making a choice.
The domain name you choose should be short and speak of your business. Say, you have a bakery business. Your domain name can be – www.bensbakery.org.
While selecting a domain name, use common words that people can spell easily.
Keep it short so that it is easy to remember.
It is not necessary to use .com at the end. You can use others like .org, .gov, or .edu.
Keep a domain name that consists of words only. Try not to use hyphens or numbers as people are likely to miss it out and it seems a little unprofessional too.
Use an umbrella term while choosing your web address. Like, ShellyStores.com rather than ShellyCosmetics.com. Keeping a business-specific name limits the chances of expanding your business in the future.
Research before you select and keep a domain name. Choose something that is easily memorable.
Usually, good domain names are taken. When you come up with yours, make sure you get to buy it at a reasonable price.
Try and use an SEO-friendly URL. Using keywords and geo-locations can help your customers reach you faster.
Hiring a good website host: A website host or website hosting provider is a company that provides the technology and services required to make your website visible on the internet. You can connect your web address to the hosting provider. This way your website viewers see the website you store on the hosting account. You have to pay a monthly charge for availing of the hosting services. The amount of this can vary depending on the services and technology you use.
How to choose a good website hosting plan:
If you opt for a shared server hosting plan it will cost you a very less amount. But this means sharing the same server and its resources with others. In case, any of the websites on this particular server is hacked, your website is also at risk of a privacy breach.
A virtual private server is highly recommended as it is safer than a shared server and not as expensive as a “dedicated server”. It is cost-effective given the services and technology you receive. A VPS is a machine that is segmented to act like multiple machines. It is well-protected, unlike a shared server, at lower rates.
A dedicated server hosting plan is having a whole server for your website only. All the resources are meant for you. Naturally, it is well-protected. But it all comes at a cost. It is the most expensive server among these three. If you are a small business owner or you have a start-up company then this is probably too expensive for you.
Having an easy server interface is very helpful as a complex server can be difficult to work with unless you are a professional yourself or hiring a server administrator.
It is necessary to have chat support or a phone number for the customers so that they can reach you quickly. Email support can also be an option as long as incoming emails are responded to quickly. Putting a phone number on your site is the best option. Chat support is for people who are not comfortable calling.
A website hosting company has its own security protocols. Make sure to take a look at the server security. The company you choose is responsible for maintaining your server security and daily backups. You should keep a check on the company’s workings too.
Giving a clear idea about your business: Your website homepage should be highly related to your business content. Whenever a person visits your page for the first time, s/he should get a clear idea about your business. Hence, you should have highly relevant content.
Let’s say you own a bakery. Your website homepage should contain a quote, stating what you provide to your customers, services you offer, and your business aims. Then maybe a few pictures of your bakery, desserts, the food in the making, and so on. Finally leading to a more relevant page, where your customers may find a menu or a map to your bakery.
The ‘About Us’ page on your website should be well descriptive. People should get an in-depth idea about your business, about who you are, and what you do.
Efficient content management system – Content management is easy and does not require a lot of technical knowledge. When done properly, content management can boost your website and attract potential customers. The system you choose should be flexible to meet your unique business demands. You should select a CMS on the basis of the business you own.
Here are some systems, their advantages, and drawbacks:
WordPress – WordPress is the most simple and popular CMS in the world. It is quite easy to install and use. It has large, active community support and allows add-on software components or plugins to increase the functionality of your website. Most developers have knowledge about WordPress, hence it is not difficult to work with it. It is highly recommended for small business owners and start-up companies due to its flexibility.
However, WordPress has its own drawbacks. It has weak security support. Since it is popular and highly used, it is targeted by hackers most of the time. If you’re using WordPress, then the security system has to be kept in check and maintained on a regular basis. It is all the more necessary when you’re using plugins. It is difficult to secure them individually, hence timely maintenance is required.
Drupal – Another widely known CMS system is Drupal. It offers similar benefits as WordPress, It is easy to use, flexible with huge community support. It has a better security system and is comparatively safer than WordPress.
The only drawback of Drupal is its extensibility. It does not give you the option for a large number of plugins, unlike WordPress. For this reason, many do not use Drupal.
Joomla! – Joomla! is another popular but unusual CMS. It has a great SEO, with multilingual capabilities. It even has good security. However, Joomla! has limited plugins which are where WordPress wins again.
Squarespace – This is a drag and drop builder and a very easy system to work with. If you don’t have the money to hire a professional & you can join your top laravel web application development company. It gives a lot of template design options to the user. It helps in website development and designing, software maintenance, good security, storage hosting, all-time support, metrics, and so on. You can have a monthly or yearly subscription to this.
You probably wouldn’t learn a lot with Squarespace. And it doesn’t offer much extensibility. But if you are a beginner at work then this is suitable for you.
Wix – This is also a drag and drop builder. It has a lot in common with Squarespace. It is user-friendly and allows a monthly subscription only. Wix allows the user to drag and drop elements anywhere on the page, unlike Squarespace, which is more structured.
If you need to build a website fast then Wix would be a good option, as you do not have to spend a lot of time learning to work with it.
Selecting the e-commerce podium: An e-commerce podium is nothing but a software application where a buyer and a seller come together to play their part. Having a website isn’t the end story. You can sell products from your website itself, but that is good technology. Otherwise, you just need a good software application where you can sell your products. A good e-commerce platform can make your transactions real smooth.
Listed below are some renowned e-commerce platforms for small businesses:
WooCommerce – WooCommerce is a very popular platform and needs no introduction. It is a free WordPress plugin that makes your website appear like an online store. It has vast extensibility similar to WordPress.
WooCommerce also gives us many free themes to use, as well as premium ones. Using a premium theme is better as it will provide you with better security and support. If you do not know much about it, ask a developer to help set it up for you. WooCommerce is a great option as it has a lot of capabilities and is flexible to use.
Shopify – Shopify is another popular e-commerce solution. It is an unaided platform, which means it is not an extension of WordPress. So using this application would separate your website from the e-commerce platform. However, you can connect your website made of WordPress, Wix, or any other system with Shopify.
Shopify has unlimited products and is an easy-to-use app. Online transactions take place smoothly here. It also helps in fraud analysis, reports, and any tech support that you might need. It is easy to use and you can set it up without anyone’s help.
Magento – Magento is one of the best e-commerce platforms for multi-vendors. It is open-source e-commerce with a shopping cart system. It is mostly for comparatively bigger brands, who can invest in IT and development teams.
Its key features are customer segmentation and personalization, design themes, powerful admin experience, integrated B2B functionality, etc. Magento gives you total control over your business on the e-commerce platform. It is good for businesses that have already established a place in the market. But the costs are high and something to keep in mind.
Your website along with your e-commerce platform should have an engaging interface. For this, you can put well-clicked pictures, fun graphics, and easy to read fonts on your website. All of this should be compressed to a smaller size to ensure fast loading. Slow websites can be annoying for the viewers and your ranking drops.
Using the right color combination can make your website attractive, encouraging your viewers to explore more.
Set a target audience and research who are your competitors before making your business online. Your customers may have certain expectations from your products and you must fulfill their needs to keep them satisfied. Researching about your competitors can help you get an idea about the market. Accordingly, you can improvise your business to stand out from the crowd.
Make sure there is contact information on the website so that customers can reach you directly and easily in case they have any queries. Also, include ‘buy now’ options on the products you choose to display on your website.
Incorporate standard business pages on your website, like Home, About Us, Map, Products & Services, Contact Us, Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and any other page relevant to your business.
Properly optimize your website for search engines. Search engines help attract viewers and customers to your website. When optimized well, your website can compete with similar websites.
Keep in mind that you have to provide your customers with A-class products and services. Otherwise, you lose the essence. You must create products regularly and upload quality content on your site. Always have a review or feedback option on your page. Good reviews can help grow your business and bad ones can help you improve.
About The AuthorHermit Chawla is a Marketing Manager at AIS Technolabs Pvt Ltd which is Web design and Development Company, helping global businesses to grow by top responsive web design services. He loves to share his thoughts on Social Media Marketing Services and Game Design Development
