Get Your Website Up and Running: Key Planning Resources for Small Business Owners
I’ve had a few conversations with people recently about websites, SEO and how to plan and execute both successfully. So, I wanted to share a few things I’ve sent to my prospective clients to help them with their websites and I hope that they will help you too.
What to consider when planning your website
Before thinking about what your website is going to look like, you need to consider how your visitors are going to be using and interacting with it. In my blog ‘7 Things You Need To Know About Your Business Website’, I guide you through the key points you need to think about when you’re at the very early stages of getting a new website (or redesigning your current one):
- Keeping it simple
- Knowing where the focal point of your website is
- How to let your personality shine through in your branding and web copy
- How to use visual elements to make your website more interesting
- Making sure it’s easy for your target audience to contact you
- Why having a blog is important
- How having a dynamic website will improve your marketing strategy
I then talked through the key elements of a website and how they all work together in my blog ‘Do you know all the ingredients required to build a website?’ This blog covers the practical elements you need to be aware of when planning for your website, such as your domain name, website hosting, website platform (e.g., WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, etc), the design, the website copy and content.
If you are thinking about using WordPress for your website, make sure you know the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org – this is really important to ensure you choose the right version. You can watch my quick summary video about WordPress versions here, or you can delve into my detailed blog wordpress.com vs wordpress.org to help you choose the right version for your business website.
How to get outsourcing your website right
Many small business owners outsource some or all of their website to freelancers or agencies, this might be the copywriting, the design, the build of the website, etc. Getting this process right is essential for making sure you get the website you want and will work best for your target audience but also to avoid costly mistakes and delays from miscommunication.
In my blog ‘5 Questions to Ask Before Getting a New WordPress Website’, I highlight the importance of understanding what you will have access to with your website, maintenance and security, ongoing support, fees and a few other things you really need to know.
Getting things right with Google
It’s really important that you get your website set up properly with Google so that you can monitor any issues that might arise such as broken links and see how your website is performing in terms of visitors, which pages are performing well and which pages you may need to improve. Google has helpful pages about Google Search Console and Google Analytics to help you set things up correctly within your website.
If you are using Wix for your website, you’ll need to manually tell Google to find your site – you can read more about this here:
It’s also important to set your business up with a Google Business Profile so you can be seen on the local map and improve your SEO rankings. You can do that here:
I hope you will find these useful and do feel free to share them with anyone you know who is looking to create their first website or rebuild what they have.