How to Build a Great Website for Your Business in 2020?

From product research to location and product hours, consumers are turning towards the internet for almost everything. 

70-80% of people research a company online before interacting with a business. It is also estimated that there will be more than 2 billion digital buyers in 2020. 

Whether you own a brick-and-mortar store or are a real estate agent, building a website is essential for your business’s success.

Let’s have a look at how you can build a great business website to compete effectively in the online marketplace. 

1. Determine the Purpose of Your Website

Your website could be a source to provide general information about your business or a direct platform for selling your products and services. Determining the purpose of the site will help you plan its pages and elements. 

Most often, a website has the following purposes:

• Demonstrating expertise
• Building a brand
• Generating leads 
• Boosting sales

Also, let people know about you and your business right away (on the homepage, if possible). They shouldn’t have to guess when they visit your site. Hero image (homepage banner), explained videos, and an introductory text blurb can help your visitors understand about you. 

2. Choose a Good Domain Name

Your domain name is the most important part of your website. That’s how people will remember you.

Follow the best practices when choosing a domain name:

• Make it easy to remember: With so many websites on the internet, your audience might forget about your site if the name isn’t catchy enough
• Use the right domain extension: There are thousands of domain name extensions out there. Though, “.com” is the most common TLD. If your business is based on a specific location, you can go for country-specific domain names such as “.uk,” “.us,” “.au,” etc.
• Avoid numbers and hyphens: Numbers and hyphens make your domain name hard to remember

3.  Purchase a Secure and Fast Website Hosting

Website hosting is yet another important part of your website. A hosting company offers you the technology to make your website accessible to everyone on the internet. Choosing web hosting services is essential. A good hosting service will also reduce the page load time (this is a good thing for your site’s SEO). Cloud hosting is better than shared hosting as it can prevent hackers and malware from accessing your data.

Expert support is an important variable as well since you might be needing some help from time to time. There are hosting providers that offer phone/chat support 24/7. Moreover, it is better to choose a provider that performs daily backups of your server contents. 

4. Add Different Pages to Your Site

A great website has individual pages dedicated to different aspects of the business. A single page site is useful if you want to display your brick-and-mortar store information. 

When creating multiple pages, ensure that each page fulfills the primary purpose of your website and includes a clear call-to-action (such as learn more, sign up, contact us, etc.). 

Also, a contact page that allows your customers to contact you directly is necessary. Include as much information as possible such as your business’s address, phone number, and email id.  

If you don’t have the technical knowledge to create webpages, you can use a CMS (customer management system) such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, or Squarespace. 

These CMS offer drag-and-drop features and ready-made templates for you to easily create visually appealing websites. 

5. Create an Interesting and Engaging User Experience

An appealing website interface can help you keep your visitors engaged and can drive positive results. 

Here are a few things you can do to create an interesting and exciting user experience.

• Use beautiful images. You can find high-quality images for your site on Pixabay or Barnimages
• Use colors wisely and use easy-to-read fonts
• Choose the best plugins for your website (if it is on WordPress) but do not add too many plugins, as this will slow down your website. Follow the WordPress plugins’ best practices as there are certain plugins that you would need to install, and some you should avoid
• Keep the CTA above the fold and make sure to highlight your USP just beside the CTA
• Leave enough white space to avoid distraction

Make sure that the images you use are compressed for faster site loading. 

You can also visit your competitors’ websites to get an idea about the elements you should incorporate in your site. 

6. Keep the Navigation Simpler

Your website’s navigation plays a vital role in user-experience. A hard-to-use website can make your visitor bounce off to your competition’s business. 

Besides, it increases the bounce rate, which can hamper your site’s ranking in the search results. 

To make your navigation simpler:

• Divide categories
• Use accurate words for each clickable element
• Add a search bar—Amazon does a great job of keeping a big search bar at the top that always remains visible
• Allow users to reach the homepage in one click (no matter where they are on your site)
• Add a sticky navigation bar

Easy navigation also allows search engine bots to effectively crawl your website, thereby increasing your chances of ranking on the top of the SERPs. 

7. Optimize Your Website for the Search Engines

Optimizing your website for the search engines ensures that people can easily find it on the search results. Although a lot of things go into SEO, it starts with your website. 

Here are a few ways to optimize your site for search engines:

• Make your site mobile-friendly
• Create an XML sitemap
• Make your site load faster
• Make your site secure (with an SSL certificate)
• Optimize meta description for each page
• Submit your site to online directories
• Make the URL SEO-friendly

Ensuring search engines can crawl to your website without any problem is the first step towards assuring your visibility in the search results. 

Final Thoughts

With people turning towards the internet for every little thing, having a website is more important than ever. When creating a site for your business, determine its purpose. 

Choosing a good domain name and a hosting provider is a must. Create multiple pages for each aspect of your business and make the navigation simpler. Lastly, never forget to optimize your site for the search engines while designing it. Happy webbing!