Website Building made Easier

In today’s market, having an online presence is essential to business growth. A website is needed to help build the brand’s foundation. Having social media pages on popular platforms is one area for a small business to solidify its online presence. There is much more to an online presence and they all work better together - including messaging, website, social media, directories, ads, SEO, etc. Online presence encompasses many tactics, for this blog we are focusing on websites as part of a small business’ online presence.

1 in 4 small businesses doesn’t have a website, which is a high statistic for today’s market that could be costing them customers and growth opportunities. Especially since Google reaches more than 90% of internet users.

Customers are searching online – make sure you can be found!

A website, social media, ads and other platforms work together for your online brand presence. You can link to all your other social media pages, write blogs, have all your products and promotions in one place, and you can also use tools specific for websites to help connect you to your customers and clients more.

Automation and integration are available through APIs (application programming interface) that work seamlessly across websites and social.

As a business owner, you can hire us to create a beautiful and well-built website for you or you can make your own website for your business to act as the central hub for your online activity and marketing.

Having a website for your business complements your marketing efforts online - it helps build your brand's foundation.

Without a website, it can be hard for users or Google to gauge your credibility. Building a strong foundation online will help your marketing efforts – that foundation starts with a website. Before you start on your website, make sure you have conducted research to understand the industry, competition, and target market. Also, you need content for the website - start writing the who, what, when, where, how, and why of your business that you can use for website content.

Keep in mind that it doesn’t matter what you like – it matters what the target market(s) prefers. Many times – small businesses set up websites that don’t connect to their target markets. Make sure to eliminate cognitive bias through comprehensive, unbiased research. Messaging matters. Make sure to research and understand how your target market thinks – and build the site to match that.

Websites should provide basic information about a business, services or products, contact and/or quote form, privacy policy and website terms to start. If you are selling online, want to schedule services online, send email and newsletters, or run online ads, you can find a website or web builder that can automate or integrate those tactics to grow with you. Web builders are not like they were 10 years ago – they have integrations to help your business market in our technology driven world.

A website is a work in progress.

Build on the website consistently with new pages or blogs, page updates, change photos, etc. We work with clients to build a strategy around the website – but if you are building on your own – think about what could help clients/prospects understand your product – is that a FAQ page or maybe it is a blog based on a keyword phrase – keep building and adding value to your content.

There are 2 parts of a website – the front end – what the user sees, and the back end – what the robots see (SEO). Building well-built websites includes both sides.

On average, business websites have a 1.06% increased click-through rate compared to Google ads at 4.23% against Google ad’s 3.17%. 24% of small business owners state they don’t have a website because they don’t know how to create or run one. Building a website may seem daunting, and it can be if you don’t know anything about it.

Before, you had to learn how to use HTML, and one wrong section of code could make or break the whole functionality of the website. Today, though, there are a variety of web options including web builders, 3rd party builders (and others) that can help you finetune your website without having to deal with tedious coding. Not only that but with around 1.13 billion websites on the internet today, web builders can offer ways to help make sure your website can stand out among them and allow access to analytics to help you get a deep dive into your site.

Let's look at some of these website building options and the perks they offer to make the task much easier for small businesses.

WIX

Wix is one of the most long-standing and well-known website builders to this day. With 100s of pre-made templates, drag-and-drop functionality, 250+ apps to add to your website, and e-commerce tools, Wix has something for everyone at low costs. Another great thing about Wix is that it automatically creates a mobile-friendly version of your website, which is important when over 58% of all website traffic comes from mobile devices such as phones and tablets, and if the mobile site doesn’t work or the layout looks poor when transferred, then 57% of users won’t recommend the company to others.

On WIX, you can sell online, access SEO tools, run online ads, email and stay in touch with prospects and customers, and more.

Squarespace

Squarespace is a beginner-friendly web builder that comes equipped with beautiful modern templates that are simple and easy to implement into your website, and the web builder also offers seamless transitions from one template to another, plus the ability to work on more than one template at a time. Squarespace also offers add-ons such as Video Studio to allow for more engaging pages, which is important when 73.1% of web designers believe that a non-responsive design is one of the top reasons people leave a site.

Small businesses can also use scheduling, sell online, send emails, and more on Squarespace.

Wordpress

Wordpress is one of the most customizable website tools available to use. It has over 8,000 free themes and over 50,000 free plugins to add to your website. The downsides to the web builder are that you’ll have to find a separate web hosting source, and it may take a little more tech know-how than the other web builders.

With Wordpress - nothing in impossible with web design selling, and integration. This tool can be overwhelming for some small business owners, so would suggest using one of the easier tools to build your website to save time and your sanity. Without any web design experience - it can be cumbersome, but has infinite possibilities and integrations.

Shopify

​Shopify is a web builder specifically designed for e-commerce businesses. It offers small businesses a way to put their items online to sell. Keep in mind that setup and descriptions play a key role in finding your product online. Also, Shopify has ads and integration with ad platforms that show your product across the web (when you are reading an article, in search, looking at a map, and so on), so Shopify helps your product reach people. Shopify is a more cumbersome builder and can be stressful for beginners, but is a powerful tool for ecommerce businesses. Can find and integrate distribution (transport/shipping) to your site.

GoDaddy

​Go Daddy is a simple web builder with beginner-friendly drag-and-drop features that allow you to make a simple, modern website easily. It also uses artificial intelligence to customize your website with the information you provide, allowing for more unique aspects for your website. Go Daddy is good for beginners, but we prefer the backend abilities of some of the other builders.

Weebly

​Weebly was bought by Square back in 2018. Combining the e-commerce builder with Weebly's drag-and-drop editor allows the best of both worlds in creative liberty and fluid functionality. Weebly is one of the cheapest web builder options available. It is focused on ease and is a user friendly tool that is simple to use, but it does lack some of the design and back end options of some of the other builders. There are no other integrations to build your brand online.

Square

​Square is a simple tool to integrate selling and a website. It is known as a payment process but has made its way into a web builder as well. It offers a website for booking that integrates payment processing.

It offers a simple design for scheduling, inventory Management, selling online, payment, email and newsletters to stay in touch, and more.

Check out these articles below for more options of web builders your business can take advantage of:

• 12 of the best website builders for 2023

• Top 10 Website Builders for Small Business

• Best Website Builders for Small Businesses (2023)

Making a website that not only functions well but looks amazing is important.

Visuals and messaging matter on a website...

When it takes the average user between .03 and .05 seconds to form an opinion about your website, you don’t have much time to afford for the first impression. Keep in mind that the average human has an attention span of just 8.25 seconds according to recent studies – 4.25 seconds less than in 2000.

These, and many other web builders, can and will make the website-building experience much easier for you and your business and help you get the desired results. Having a website for your small business can help your business in many ways, and with 47% of shoppers and potential clients searching for a small business’ website before doing business with them, having a website is essential.

For help building or learning how to build a great website for your small business, contact Comprehensive Consulting Solutions for Small Businesses for help!