How To Develop A Website For Your Business In 2021?

Have you ever thought of building a website for your business but didn’t because you thought it would be too difficult and expensive? If yes, please stop what you are doing and listen carefully. I will tell you something that will blow your mind.

Contrary to what you might be thinking, developing a website is much easier and affordable. You don’t even need to learn to code. All you need is the right guidance and support. Let’s dive in:

Five Simple Steps To Develop A Website For Your Business:

Step 1: Plan Your Website Design, Structure & Content

Lack of planning is the recipe for failure. Without it, you will lose track and deflect from your goal. So, planning the design, structure, and content is crucial before building a website for your business.

Here’s how you can plan the structure, content, and design of your website:

• Take a pen and paper to note down everything you want on your website. You can also create a mind map to better organize your ideas.
• Check out the websites you find interesting in terms of content and design. Note down what you like and what you don’t.
• Once you have a rough list of what you want, gather feedback from people around you.
• Finally, prepare an excel sheet listing all the web pages along with the type of content you want on them, keywords, and their importance in your website.

In the end, you will have a clear overview of what you want on your website and how you will achieve it.

Step 2: Choose The Right Domain & Register

A website without a domain is like a home without an address. Doesn’t make sense because even if it is a beautiful home, people will not be able to find it. Hence, it is essential to pick the right domain for your business website.

Now, you have two options for choosing domain names. Either go with free domain names or purchase a custom domain (which is a good idea as it is more secure and will give you a credibility boost).

As far as the extensions are concerned, we advise going with .com if you are a business. However, these days companies are even coming with domain names like .me, .agency, etc.

Also, there are many websites on which you can register a domain like NameCheap and Godaddy. Even Google offers a domain name registrar called Google Domains.

One approach that always helps is to compare the pricing on all the platforms and then choose the one that you find the most affordable.

Step 3: Choose How You Want To Develop Your Website

You can build your website in three ways, and each has its own set of pros and cons. Let’s have a look:

1.) Coding The Website From Scratch (Or Hire Someone For It)

Pros:

• Maximum flexibility
• Cost-friendly hosting
• The sky’s the limit to your creativity if you know how to code

Cons:

• The approach requires a higher level of coding expertise
• Building a website this way takes time
• There is no technical support. You must handle everything on your own

2.) Creating A Website With A Content Management System

This approach is suitable for you if you find it daunting to write code from scratch and have experience working with content management systems (CMS) like WordPress.

Pros:

• Technical flexibility
• You can use plugins to add more features
• You can choose from hundreds of WordPress themes
• You can optimize the loading speed of your page
• You can select the hosting provider of your choice

Cons:

• Limited creative freedom
• Additional costs (installing plugins)
• For aesthetic changes, you will need an expert

3.) Using A Website Builder (Shopify, Squarespace, Or Wix)

It is the easiest way to build a website, suitable if you are a complete beginner and have no idea of website development. The approach is also good for small businesses who are not in a position of sparing much budget on website development.

Pros:

• Easy to use
• No additional software or hosting needed
• You can start even as a complete beginner
• No worries about updates and security (everything handled by the website builder)
• You can adapt predefined design templates the way you want

Cons:

• You can’t add extra features
• No flexibility. You’ll be dependent on the provider.
• Not suitable for complex projects that need a database

Weigh all the pros and cons and then decide what works best for you.

Step 4: Create Content For Each Page

Just because you have created the website doesn’t mean it is complete. What you have created is the barebones structure. To make it relevant for visitors, you have to add content to the web pages.

While writing website content, keep a few things in mind like:

• Keep your content relevant & to the point
• Make it scannable so that people can easily read it
• Avoid lengthy paragraphs as they are difficult to read
• Choose fonts that are easy to read

Writing content can be a daunting task. If you don’t want to get involved in it, you can avail the services of a content writer.

Step 5: Launch The Website

Once your website is ready and you have uploaded content on it, you can push it live. Although it’s a no-brainer, we would suggest you test run your website before launching it so issues can be detected and fixed beforehand.

My Website Is Live. Now What?

Just because your website is live doesn’t mean your work is complete. Your real work starts after it. Now, you have to optimize and promote your website so that you can bring traffic.

Here’s what you should do once your website is live:

• Perform search engine optimization to ensure your target audience can easily find your website
• Create new content and update your website whenever you can
• Regularly analyze and audit your website to check what’s working for you and what’s not
• Promote your website across all channels (social media, emails)

Bonus: How Much Does It Cost To Develop A Website?

While the actual cost of developing a website differs depending on the way you want to create it, you can expect an upfront cost of around $200 for website development along with $50 a month for maintenance. Here’s a basic cost breakdown:

Please note that a website will cost you less if you are using a website builder. However, if you are hiring a web designer – it can cost you over $5000. Similarly, building a WordPress Website will also incur additional costs. So, you must take the decision keeping all the factors in mind.

So, you learned that the process of building web apps and websites is not daunting at all. All you need is the right approach, patience, and understanding of what works best for you and what doesn’t.

Now, it’s time to put everything you learned into action, let your creativity flow, and build a website for your business to boost your online presence. Please also don’t forget to share your experience with us.