What are your business goals for 2020? Whether you are looking to boost sales, increase your profit margin, expand your business, or all of the above, a strong website will be a key element in making sure you achieve your goals.
Online search is one of the main methods consumers use to find products and services. This means it is essential that you have a site that ranks on Google in order to bring traffic to your door. Additionally, your website needs to be engaging and persuasive in order to convert this traffic into customers.
Let’s take a look at how you can build a site that will take your business to the next level in 2020.
How to Build a New Website for Your Business
1. Choose a Website Builder
Website builders have revolutionized the online marketing landscape in recent years. It is now possible to build your own website with zero coding experience, thanks to these handy tools. There are a number of website builders on the market, with the best website builders around arguably being Wix and Weebly for beginners, and Squarespace for creatives. Site123 can also be a great option if you’re looking to build a small website. If you don’t know which website builder to choose, you can always check the website builder comparison, take the free trial or free plan option and test it out before committing.
2. Choose a Price Plan
The website builder itself isn’t the choice you’ll need to make – you also need to decide on a price plan. Most website builders have a range of monthly subscription plans, and some include a free option. Prices can range wildly, as can the features within each plan. However, if you are looking for a fairly simple site, such as a design or writing portfolio or a small service business site, the more basic plans will likely be sufficient. There are also free plans for those on a very tight budget. However, you should be cautious with these, as many free plans are very limited in their feature and usually come with ads, which can detract greatly from your site. If you can’t decide, it’s a good idea to start with the lower option and upgrade later.
3. Choose a Domain Name
Your domain name is your website’s unique address. It is how people will find your site, so this means it’s an important thing to get right. You want to make sure your domain name is relevant to your business, short, and unique. When you sign up for your website builder, you’ll be prompted to choose a domain name from the available options. If you already have a domain name you’ll also be able to transfer it to the new platform. The cost for the domain name and hosting is often included in the website builder’s monthly plan, although some charge a few extra dollars for this.
4. Build your site!
Finally, you have these basic elements in place and you’re ready to build your site. Website builders make this process very simple by having a range of templates you can use as the basis for your site. Start by choosing the best template for your business (they are usually categorized by industry) – test out a few if you’re not sure! With your template, you can then add in the content and design elements. Builders like Wix and Weebly make this very simple: all you need to do is drag and drop. Most website builders also allow you to customize by changing elements such as fonts. The more you can customize the better, to make sure your site fits your branding and stands out from your competitors.
Essential Elements for a Successful Website
Quality and Diverse Content
Of course, content is an essential part of any website. Content plays two key roles for a site:
1) Drive traffic to your site, mostly through search engine results, but also through organic means.
2) Convert website visitors into customers by persuading them to buy your product, email for a quote, or whatever your call to action is.
As businesses become more and more savvy with their digital marketing, staying competitive means making sure your content is on point. It is no longer enough to throw any old copy onto your site: you need to have quality content, where every word is carefully crafted for both
Having a blog on your website is a great way to expand your content, improve
A Clear, Formal Strategy
If you want to avoid financial stress, you need to have a detailed financial plan and follow it closely. Likewise, if you want your website to be effective, you need to carefully plan it out. This means having a formal strategy for your website.
Some things to consider when developing your website strategy are:
- What are your goals for your website?
- Who is your target audience?
- What does your brand represent?
- What is your message?
- What are your main asks?
From there, you can develop a plan for your website which will help you to reach your goals by reaching your target audience, conveying your branding and your message in the most effective way possible and presenting your ask in the most engaging and persuasive way.
Search Engine Optimisation
One of the most important things for an effective website that will support your business to smash its 2020 goals is
Because Google is constantly changing its algorithms,
Here are some trends we can expect in
1) Google will continue to adapt more and more to voice and visual search, so the content must be optimized for these kinds of searches.
2) Snippets will be a major feature on SERPs and users are more likely to click through on these results. A business should, therefore, aim to be featured in snippets.
3) Google will prioritize mobile versions of webpages, so it is more vital than ever that your site is mobile-friendly.
4) Longer, better quality content will yield better rankings.
5) Google continues to refine searcher intent, meaning set keywords are less important, rather content which overall matches the searcher’s intent is preferred.
