Jenny Holt, Negosentro | For many, the internet is the first stop for finding the products or services that they require. Google alone processes over 40,000 search queries every second. As an entrepreneur, what does this mean for your business? Your website could be the first contact that a potential customer has with your business. You may already have a full sales catalog ready to publish or have done lots of research on how to optimize your website for search engines, but what if you don’t have a website yet? How do you get started?
Do I need to be able to code?
Setting up a website doesn’t mean learning how to code. Gone are the days where you have to sit studying books on getting started with HTML in order to setup a basic website. Many hosting providers offer a package that includes a website builder that allows you to create a professional looking website in just a few hours. If you want to have a greater control over the layout and features, you may look to a popular service such as WordPress – it is used by nearly 75 million websites to host websites and blogs around the world.
Where does it go?
When you have decided on the software you are going to use, you need to find a company to host the website. As WordPress is such a widely used tool, there is a wealth of information online to help you with your setup. Before you can get started with design, you need to decide where you will host your WordPress site. There are lots of options available and sometimes price shouldn’t be the deciding factor. You want a site that will load quickly otherwise people won’t stick around. You also need to look at any other limitations that a hosting provider package may apply – such as maximum traffic or size of images. This is an important decision as the website can be the first impression of your business and you want to make sure it is a good one.
What’s in a name?
Once you have signed up for a service, getting the website setup can be a quick process. You will need to make sure that you have a domain name – something easy to remember and relevant to your business. The name should link to your business branding and can be used to standardize email addresses as well – making sure your business looks professional and consistent. The domain name can be registered within a few minutes then a few final configuration steps are required to point to your new website. The hosting provider will give you instructions for this.
Some providers will have installed the WordPress software for you so you just need to log in then start designing your website. Once you have chosen a theme for your website, it is simply just a case of setting up your shop or blog site then publishing exciting business content for your potential customers to enjoy.