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Start Your Business Online: How to Design a Website for Your Home Based Business
In order to do any kind of business online, you will want to have a website. A website is an incredible way to find new customers and to nurture the relationships that you already have.
With 47% of people reviewing a company’s website before making a purchase (KPMG, The Truth About Online Consumers), and an estimated 95% of all purchases made will be via eCommerce by 2040, it’s more important than ever to grow your business and to design a website.
However, building your first website can feel a bit overwhelming. After all, there are so many choices. So, let’s break it down into three easy steps. on how to design your first website.
1. Determine Your Website’s Purpose
What are you going to do on the website? How are you going to make money? This is important because some website languages, templates and platforms are more effective for certain business models.
For example, if you’re building a site with a web store, you’ll need to choose a theme or platform that supports eCommerce. If you are going to focus on your own services, does the platform integrate with your scheduling tools?
Purchase Your Domain Name
Once you’ve decided what your website will be about, you’ll need to buy your domain name, which essentially is your URL or site name. You can either purchase it through your site host (more on this next), or you can purchase separately from somewhere like GoDaddy or Namecheap.
Although it may seem like a good idea to do it all in one place, if you ever have to break up with your site host, you won’t have to worry about having to redirect your domain again.
When choosing a name, here are some tips for the best success:
- Use keywords that relate to your niche when possible
- Don’t use clever spelling variations as you’ll be less likely to be found in a search
- Try to secure a .com domain
- Keep it short
2. Secure Self-Hosting, Choose Your Platform and Select a Theme
Once you know what you want to accomplish with your website, it’s time to choose your website site-host and writing platform. There are a number of options here.
Choosing Site Hosting
If you want to really have control over your blog content, design and monetization strategies, you will want to have a self-hosted site. Think of site-hosting as the landlord that hosts your content. You still own everything on the site, they just help by providing a space on the internet to share it.
RELATED CONTENT: WordPress.com vs WordPress.org: What’s Best for My Website
Some things to consider when choosing a good hosting site:
- Do they offer an introductory price (if they do, try to get as many years as you can as it’s usually only offered once)?
- What is their average downtime?
- How is their customer service? Are there several ways to contact them if you need help?
- Does their hosting come with free migration services (if you are already hosted somewhere else)?
- Do they provide free SSL certificates for security?
- Do they have good site speed?
- Do they provide back-ups and restores in their plans?
- Do they offer domain emails (these are required for creating accounts with email service providers like Mailerlite)?
The site-hosting that I prefer and recommend is Siteground. Siteground has very rare downtime, excellent customer service, great site speed, and daily backups and restores in every plan. These are things that should be most important when looking at any plan. You can get self-hosting at Siteground here for just $3.95/month
Another great option and an all-in-one service where you can get site hosting, free security certificates and access to over 35 premium themes is WP Engine.
Choose Your Platform
There are a ton of options for a writing platform. This is where you will create your content and access it in the future. Some of the platforms available are Joomla, Drupal, Magento, Blogger, and Shopify.
The most popular platform for writing content is WordPress. WordPress is opensource free software created for an maintained by users that account for over 33% of all platforms used on the internet.
There are hundreds of online courses and books to show you how to use this WordPress. It might take you some time to design a website; however, you’ll be able to create it one hundred percent on your own.
If you are a more experienced designer, you can also learn a website design format like Joomla which is a content management system written in PHP, a design language.
Choose a Theme
Creating a website that conveys your message and business can be fun, yet exhausting.
You can use all-in-one site building services that offer wizards and templates to help you customize a website for your business. You can also use website design software that has themes that work with the new WordPress updates like StudioPress or work with one of the hundreds of free themes built into WordPress.
Another option is to use your website host’s predesigned templates. These templates are often customizable and are a pretty quick and easy way to get a website up.
If you do decide to go with a premade theme, try to choose one that can grow with your business and has the option to upgrade in the future. There’s nothing worse than realizing that you can’s update something and having to change to a whole new theme.
You can buy a very good theme for less than $150 that will suit any style or niche. My favorite place to buy themes that are beautiful and responsive is BluChic or Creative Market.
And if all of this just seems like too much, you can design your website with a pencil and paper and then hire someone to create it.
3. Decide on Navigation and Format.
Before you create your website or hire someone to do it for you, you’ll want to draft your website on paper. Decide what pages you want your website to have.
How are people going to find what they need? How will they navigate your website? What categories or buttons will you have? How will you share your information and how will you promote your products or services?
Some important pages to consider are:
- About Me
- Contact Page
- Legal Pages
- Resources
- Blog
- Shop (for eCommerce stores)
Figuring all of this out before you begin creating your website will help ensure it is a success.
Conclusion: Creating Your First Website
Creating your first website is a strategic process. However, much of the work will be done on paper as you plan the purpose and layout of your website.
Once you know exactly what you’re creating, you can find the best tools to create your site and make it a reality.
Are you ready to start your own online business? I’d love to hear about your journey below!
Find more ideas on starting your own website here:
- How to Choose a Domain Name: 10 Key Considerations
- Best Debt Reduction Strategies for Entrepreneurs
- The Ultimate Guide to Content Strategy 101: Turn Your Digital Content into a Marketing Powerhouse
- Elevate Your Content Strategy with Gamma.app: Your Ultimate Guide
- Unleash Success with Learn & Earn Profits Online
Love how you have described the whole process in a concise way. Your beautiful website proves you know what you are talking about in this post :). Keep up the great work.
AWE! Thanks, Nadia! You are an amazing inspiration as well. Hope you had a great day!
I love this article! It took the process and put it into little actionable steps. I checked my website while reading the article. I never thought about a resource page. I believe that I will include one because my niche is helping women who have been abused to rebuild their lives and confidence. A resource page on where to get help I believe would be beneficial to the women. Thank you for the great idea.
Great basics about how & where to start.
Thanks, Trina! Glad that you enjoyed the post and hope you found some tips to use!
Great article Sasha
Thank you, Shelley!
Choosing a great theme is so important!!! Don’t be lured in by the free ones, you’ll definitely want to invest in one that can do everything you need it to!
Yes, Kari! I wish I had known in the beginning to find a theme that works for me instead of changing them. It’s such a time-consuming process! BTW- I LOVE your theme and your blog :). Thanks for reading 🙂 Hope you had an amazing day!
Such great info! One of the things I wish I had done in the beginning was purchase my theme! I spent a lot of time designing my free WordPress theme and about 6 months in I had to re-do everything because I wanted to purchase a paid theme.
You and I both Jess! If I had known in the beginning how difficult it was going to be to change themes, I would have made sure to get one that was a perfect fit right from the beginning. Cheers!
Great tips for anyone wanting to start a blog! Very simple easy to follow steps.
Thanks, Adriane! I know how hard it was in the beginning, to figure everything out, so any bit hopefully will be helpful. Thanks for reading!
Thanx for sharing this useful tips. This will be my guide.
You’re welcome, Fadima! So glad that you enjoyed the post! I’m glad that you found some useful tips.
Deciding what to write about definitely comes first, as it influences my favorite part of creating an online space: choosing the theme. There are so many available, it is hard not to find exactly what you are looking for.
I know with my site, it took time and few loopholes to make it look how I envisioned it but I got there happily.
It’s so great when things finally come together on your website! And what an amazing feeling to know that you’ve done it all yourself. Congrats! I know how much time and effort it takes. THanks for reading 🙂
Great information for people who are just starting out!
Thanks, Jillian! Starting a website can certainly be intimidating if you don’t know where to start. I’m so glad that you enjoyed the post 🙂
A very informative and concise guide! You always give out strong content!
Thanks, John! Thanks for reading 🙂
So wish I would have known some of these things before I started blogging. Unfortunately, I learned a lot about them the hard way. Great tips. Hopefully, others will do research first to avoid the headaches I had!
Hey Sarah! Don’t feel too bad. This is generally the way for most new bloggers. We’re always learning something we wish we had learned before lol. Cheers! Thanks for reading!
Creating a website is a great investment, the ratio can be very positive, based on experience. Internet is the present and a great opportunity to undertake. Thanks for the post.