How to Create a Business Website (for Total Beginners)

In today’s digital environment, having an online presence for your business is nothing short of essential. A website makes your business more visible to potential customers, builds trust that your business is legitimate, and helps you answer customers’ questions before they even walk in the door.

While building a website can seem daunting, the truth is that it’s easier than ever, even if you have zero web design experience. In this guide, we’ll show you how to create a business website in seven simple steps.

Key Takeaways

• Before you begin building your site, consider your goals for the website and what customers expect to find.
• Using a website builder is the best way to create a site since it requires no coding and no prior web design experience. Many website builders offer free or affordable paid plans to help you get started.
• After choosing a website builder, select a domain name and template. Then add your business content and key features. Test your site thoroughly before publishing.
• Improving your site’s SEO is key to getting found in search results. Top things you can do include adding keywords to your site, writing strong meta titles and descriptions, and adding alt text to your images.

Before You Start: Plan Your Website’s Purpose

Before we dive into the steps to build a website, it’s important to step back and think about the big picture.

First, what’s your website’s goal? For instance, you can use a website to make your business more visible, accept online bookings, generate leads, or sell products online. Deciding which of these business goals is most important to you will help you design an effective website.

Second, think about what information customers want when they arrive at your website. This could include your store’s location, hours, services, or an option to order or book online. Your website should directly address customers’ needs.

With all of this in mind, you can sketch out what pages your site requires. Common business website pages include a “Home” page, an “About” page, a “Services” page, and a “Contact” page.

Finally, gather your business’s branding materials like your logo, relevant images, and a tagline or brand message. You’ll use these on your site to ensure it fully reflects your business.

Why Website Builders Are the Best Choice for Beginners

While there are many ways to approach creating a website, we highly recommend that beginners use a website builder. Website builders make the process approachable and offer built-in tools to ensure you get a professional-looking site with good SEO and unlimited room for future growth.

Website builders don’t require any coding, instead providing you with drag-and-drop interfaces and premade templates. If you want to add an online store, top site builders like Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy, and Shopify all support ecommerce.

Website builder templates are mobile-responsive by default, and hosting is included, so you don’t have to worry about figuring out how to get your site online. Website builders also take care of security, leaving you free to focus on designing the perfect site.

To top it all off, these platforms are very affordable. You can find great free website builders if you just need a basic site, and more advanced builders are generally much cheaper than hiring a website designer.

Step-by-Step: How To Build Your Business Website

Now let’s dive into our simple seven-step process for building your business website.

Step 1: Choose a website builder

The first step is to select the website builder that best suits your needs. Some of the most popular options for beginners include Wix, GoDaddy, Squarespace, Shopify, and WordPress.com.

Wix and Squarespace offer the most customization, while GoDaddy is best for accepting online appointments, and Shopify is ideal if you plan to set up an online store. WordPress.com is a good choice if you want to focus your site around a blog.

For a more in-depth comparison, check out our full guide to the best website builders.

Step 2: Pick a domain name

Next, it’s time to choose a domain name for your website. This is the address that visitors will enter to navigate to your site.

Your domain name should be simple, recognizable, and relevant to your business. Ideally, if it’s available, choose something like mybusinessname.com. If your desired domain name isn’t available, you can modify it by adding your city or an abbreviation. Always choose a “.com” domain, since these are what most customers expect.

Domain names are often included with website builder plans for the first year. After that, they typically cost $10 to $20 per year.

Step 3: Select a template

To begin the design process, you can choose a template or theme from your website builder’s library. Most platforms organize templates by industry, so choose one that makes sense for your business and resembles the look you want your website to have. If you’re building an online store, there may also be special templates for ecommerce.

Note that some website builders are replacing templates with an AI-driven design process. If you use an AI website builder, you won’t have to choose a theme. Instead, you’ll enter basic details about your business, and the platform will select a template for you.

Step 4: Add your business content

Now your site is ready to be customized with your business’s unique content.

It’s a good idea to start with your homepage. This is the first point of call for customers, so it needs to reel them in while succinctly explaining what your business is all about. Be sure to include your logo, some positive testimonials, and images that reflect your brand.

Other pages to customize include your About, Services, and Product pages. These pages offer a chance to provide more information to customers who want to dive deeper into your business. Be sure to answer potential customers’ questions clearly, and always include your hours and address on your About page if you have a physical store.

Step 5: Set up key features

As part of the customization process, you can also add features to your website to create a more interactive experience for customers. These can include social media integrations or a booking integration if your business offers appointments for services. It’s also a good idea to add a contact form so customers can get in touch.

This is also an opportunity to take care of some basic search engine optimization (SEO) tasks, such as adding a meta title and meta description to your website. This is the title and excerpt that are displayed in search results, which state the name of your business and what it’s about. Look in the SEO tools section of your website builder to find the relevant text boxes to complete this step.

Finally, it’s important to add a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption certificate to your website. This adds a layer of security for anyone who connects to your site. Search engines also look for it, so it’s a key part of your website’s SEO. Most website builders include an SSL certificate automatically.

To check, ensure that your website URL displays as “https://” rather than “http://”. If your site doesn’t have an SSL certificate, you can download one for free from Let’s Encrypt.

Step 6: Preview and test

It’s essential to test your website thoroughly before going live. Inspect your site on multiple screens, including a mobile device, to ensure it displays properly. Be on the lookout for broken links and spelling errors, and make sure your navigation menu and all buttons on your site are functioning properly.

It’s also a good idea to ask family and friends to explore your site and highlight anything they find confusing or difficult to navigate.

Step 7: Publish

Now you’re ready to publish your site and share it with the world! Most website builders let you publish to your domain with a single click, so it only takes seconds to go live.

Keep an eye on your website builder’s analytics tools to see when visitors start discovering your site and which pages they’re viewing the most.

Beginner SEO Tips To Get Found Online

Publishing your website is the first step to allowing your target audience to find your business online. But if you really want your website to be seen, you need to spend some time improving your site’s SEO.

Here are a few things you can do to kickstart your website’s visibility:

• Use keywords: Adding relevant keywords to your website helps you rank in search engine results. Spread keywords across your pages without overusing them.
• Write strong meta titles and descriptions: Write a meta title and description for each page of your website. These should clearly describe what the page is about and encourage visitors to click.
• Add alt text: Alt text is a description you add to each of your images that explains what they show. Search engines rank sites with well-written alt text more highly.
• Join Google Search Console: Search Console is Google’s tool for business owners to manage how their site appears in Google Search results. It’s free to submit your website to Search Console.
• List your business in directories: Listing your business in Google Business Profile or online directories, like Yelp, Tripadvisor, and others, can help your site rank higher in search results. This is especially important for ranking for local searches by customers in your area.

While website builders come with some built-in SEO tools, these only cover the tip of the iceberg when it comes to ranking highly in search engines. Check out our beginner’s guide to website SEO for a full list of tips and tricks.

What About Ecommerce?

If you plan to sell products or services online—or are thinking about doing so in the future—it’s important to choose a website builder that supports ecommerce. Most of the top platforms do, including Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, and GoDaddy.

Ecommerce website builders offer built-in payment processing and tools to help you manage inventory, orders, and shipping. They also come with marketing tools to help you reach more customers and grow your revenue.

Check out our guide on how to start an ecommerce business to learn more about launching an effective online store.

You Can Build a Great Business Website, No Coding Needed

Website builders make it easy to build a professional business website quickly, even if you don’t have any experience with web design. They offer customizable templates, drag-and-drop design tools, and streamlined platforms that bundle hosting, security, and SEO.

Creating a website for your business is an effective way to increase visibility and establish trust with potential customers. Get started today by finding the best website builder to create your site.