Creating a website for your homestead or small business may seem like a tall task. Here I will layout a list of the 4 things you will need to start your online presence.
When Ben and I lived in Las Vegas before we were married, I worked for a website company as a receptionist. It was a random job opening I came across that became something I really enjoyed. I like to think I am a pretty creative person, or at least someone who enjoys creating. Helping create and maintain business websites is something that I found to be very rewarding. Being able to depict a business online successfully is crucial in todays world, and it can be easier than you think if you plan.
To help streamline the process I recommend getting these things together before you pull the trigger. These will help you get the site up and running with no down time. I can tell you from experience that if you are missing some of these items it will delay your site from “going live” and can sit with a “work in progress” homepage for way too long.
The first part of the process will be getting together the content you want displayed on your site.
- Think of a domain name.
- A domain name is what people will type in the search bar to pull up your website. The one you have in mind may be taken so think up a few possibilities.
- Tip: Include your service in the domain name, this will help your SEO tremendously. Is the first thing search engines see. If you have your service in your name this makes its highly searchable, thus will pull up ahead of others in your niche that do not have the service listed in the name.
- Type up the content for your pages.
- Decide what pages you want to have listed on your website and type up what will be on each page. This way when you are ready to create you pages you can copy and paste what you already have.
- A good base start for pages would be: Home | About | Services | Contact
- Start getting pictures together.
- People respond to and remember photos. These are powerful took that can help people get to know you and sell your product.
- Try to use photos that are appealing and showcase what you want your business to represent. This doesn’t mean you need professional photos (though nice) just photos that are focused and easy to look at.
- Find a website hosting service like BlueHost.
- Now that you have your content you are ready to put it on the world wide web! A hosting company is what stores your website data for you. Personally we use BlueHost and have been happy with the customer service and product. If you choose to go with them click our link and it will walk you through getting your domain name, an editing tool like WordPress and starting the creation process.
Now that you have everything you need what are you waiting for?! Get your business online now! You can do it!
I hope to help you feel empowered to do it yourself and love what you’ve made. I’ll be posting more on more specific features of building websites in the future, so look out for those!
And if you still feel like you are a little out of your element feel free to contact me for my website building rates. I’d love to help!
