For many years, small businesses and sole traders were put off having an online presence because they felt that the cost of using website developers was beyond their means. That has changed though and now there are tools online to help you make your own website so that you have the online presence that is vital for a business to succeed. You may think that making your own site is difficult, but it’s getting easier all the time and most people can now create their own online presence in about an hour.
Start by Choosing a Platform
If you look at any online guide to building a website it will tell you that the first thing you need to do is to choose the platform you want your site to be built on. There are several of them to choose from, but the main contenders are WordPress, Drupal and Joomla. They all have their advantages and disadvantages so it is best to research which one you think will be best for you. More than half the current websites are run on WordPress, so that might be a good place to start.
Once your site is up and running, the platforms have plugins that enable you to do other things to your site, and these can be worth looking at as they may make managing it even easier.
Pick a Domain Name
You need to choose a domain name for your new site and this can be quite difficult. It is not allowed for there to be two sites with the same name, so it can take several tries to find one that is accepted. The domain name is how people will find your site when searching, so it is quite important to get it right. Keep it as short and sharp as you can for the best results.
Don’t use hyphens, make it catchy and easy to remember and have .com if it is available. .com looks more professional than .co.uk and is more memorable.
Making Your Site Look Professional
The first thing you need to do, after loading your platform, is to decide on a theme for your website. They usually have thousands of free appearance themes to choose from, and once chosen you can make alterations so that it fits your business. Colours, page layout, fonts and many other features of your new website will be easily adjusted to suit how you want the final site to look.
These platforms also make it very easy to add written content, images and videos that are all things that will attract viewers to your site. The content should be interesting to the audience you are targeting if you want your website to help your business succeed.
Building your own website need not be as difficult as you may think, as long as you follow the instructions and do things step by step. It can look professional and be an online presence for you to be proud of, even more so because you will know you have done it yourself.
