How to build a business website

If you have a business, you need a website. If you sell products, you could increase sales by listing your goods online. Perhaps you’ve been putting off building a business website, but with this guide, we’ll help you get a site up and running in no time.

What do I need to build a business website?

The most important thing is the content. Then, you need what is known as a web host. You also need a domain name (also called the web address). You should also invest in a sweet-looking design and save some time and resources for marketing.

Content

Your website needs to serve a purpose. It could be a simple business-card-like site, with contact information for your company, opening times, a few details about what you do and some neat pictures of work you’ve delivered or your facilities. However, those kinds of sites, while useful, are quite common.

Content is really the key element of your website

Go a step further than building a basic website, and offer something of value to potential visitors. Have you worked in an industry for a long time? Do you have a particular skill (like freelance writing) or a unique perspective? Create a blog to share the latest industry news or post useful advice and tips. You’ll establish your business as a trustworthy, recognized source of authority and show you’re communicative. Posting also helps get your business site onto search engines like Google and bring in new customers.

If you plan on building an online store, put in some time to make the product descriptions and images as good as they can possibly be. Include lots of details, sizing information and colour variations. This will reduce the need for a customer to break off during the purchasing process to phone you and ask for more information, boosting successful conversions.

Whatever content you make, remember that it creates a lasting impression on the website visitor’s mind.

Design

Having the best content on the internet is all well and good, but if people cannot navigate your website readily, they won’t find it. Look up common design conventions and stick to them, don’t try to be a trendsetter. Simple is almost always better.

Try to limit the number of fonts you use and remember, just like cheese and wine, there are recommended typeface pairings. If you already have a logo and brand identity, use those fonts or at least complementary ones. Pick colours that match your brand, but don’t go overboard. Have a cohesive and appropriate colour palette in place throughout.

Think about goal conversions

Try not to overwhelm your visitor with too many options. Create a clear funnel for people to arrive at your conversion point, which could be ordering something from your online store or quickly finding your contact details for support.

Good design helps your customers achieve their goals when visiting your business website. It leaves a lasting impression in their minds and helps them remember your company. Bad design will get in the way, causing problems and frustration while still making an impression on a person—just not a good one.

Don’t forget smartphone and tablet users, who make up a large amount of internet traffic. The beautiful website you’ve made might look great on a laptop or desktop, but you need to make sure you’ve optimized it for smaller screens. This is called responsive design. Since 2019, Google has been prioritizing mobile-friendly websites in its listings.

It’s possible to remove pictures and scale or rearrange page things, depending on the screen and device used to view your site. Try it out on our site. Grab the edge of your browser window and make it narrower. See how the design changes?

Hosting

If you think of a website as a building, then hosting is the plot of land it sits on. Without land, you haven’t got a building, and just like real land, you need to pay for it. In reality, you pay a website host for a portion of a server (or in some cases, an entire server) that’s connected to the internet. When people type in your web address or click a link to it from Google, they are served up your website.

There are thousands of web hosts online, so shop around. Prices vary massively, depending on how much space you need (how large your website is), how much traffic or bandwidth you require (the volume of visitors you need to handle) and whether you want web hosting suited to a specific type of website.

Website address

If we’re continuing with the idea that a website is like a building, the website address is how people find your site. In the internet world, this is called a domain name. Unlike normal street addresses, you get to choose your own domain.

How to pick a domain name

For example, if your business is called Jed’s Fruit and Veg, you could go for the domain: jedsfruitandveg.ca. It’s relatively short and memorable. But you could shorten it to jedsfruitnveg.ca, stylizing it as Jed’s Fruit ‘N Veg. If that domain isn’t available, you could try fruitandvegbyjed.ca or something area specific like fruitandvegbc.ca.

Play around with what’s available and get creative. But remember, you’ll have to give your web address over the phone, so it should be simple and clear.

Domain names are always lower case and can only include numbers and dashes. Also, make sure multiple words put together in your domain name don’t accidentally spell anything naughty. One of the more famous examples is an IT recycling company called itscrap.com.

How do I actually make a website? 4 methods

There are many ways to build a website. You can do it yourself or you can employ someone. Here’s a breakdown of each method with pros and cons.

DIY coding

Medium difficulty ◆ Time: 1–2 days

If you go the DIY route, you’ll need to learn HTML/CSS, the coding languages used to build webpages. Then you’ll have to create a design from scratch. There are free courses on YouTube as well as paid ones on skill-learning sites like Udemy.

It’s possible to download free and open source apps to code with like Atom and Brackets.io, but Adobe Creative Cloud is the industry package for doing this. Included are apps like Photoshop (for editing photos and creating website layouts), Illustrator (for creating pro-looking scalable logos and graphics) and Dreamweaver (a dedicated website building program with the ability to edit code and create designs with a “What You See Is What You Get” (WYSIWYG) editor), among heaps of other professional-grade apps.

Once you’re done, it’s time to go live. You need to set up your domain name and use a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) client to upload your files, using the details provided by your website host provider.

Pros of DIY business website coding

• Your site is completely custom and unique to your brand.
• There are fewer limits on your site, so you can basically do whatever you like.
• You can edit content whenever you wish.

Cons of DIY business website coding

• It takes time to learn and get to grips with coding.
• You really need to test your site across many different devices and operating systems to ensure it remains consistent for all viewers.
• You can become obsessed with making your site pixel perfect instead of focusing on content.

Use a template

Easy difficulty ◆ Time: Several hours

If coding a site is beyond your technical proficiency, let someone else do the hard work for you. Download a template instead. A website template is a completed design filled with placeholder content. All you need to do is go in and change the text to your liking and upload files via FTP to your website host.

For example, Canva has thousands of beautiful and professional website templates for free as well as photos and graphics. A paid Canva Pro account unlocks over 100 million photos, templates, graphics and videos. Honestly, these images are some of the most polished and premium-looking designs I’ve come across in a long while.

Pros of using a business website template

• Save time and let someone else handle the design work and browser testing.
• It’s simple. Just enter your own text and photos and upload files to your web host.
• Professional designs let you see how your business site will look before it’s completed with placeholder content.
• Customize the colours and fonts to match your brand.

Cons of using a business website template

• Other companies and sites could be using the same design.
• You might still need some HTML/CSS knowledge for customization.
• You’ll need to spend time learning how the template works.
• Depending on how the template was built, there could be limits if you want to make drastic modifications.

Use a website builder

Beyond easy difficulty ◆ Time: Several hours

If setting up hosting, purchasing domain names and uploading files to servers sounds too complex for you, then there are always website builders. Some of these are online services, like WordPress, which powers more than 40% of the internet’s websites. WordPress.com supplies hosting, a wordpress.com domain (for example, traveltips.wordpress.com) and a super easy-to-use publishing interface.

WordPress.org is owned by the same company but is much less “plug and play,” letting you design a website from scratch however you want—but you’ll need to purchase third-party hosting.

You can use WordPress.com or WordPress.org to create websites, blogs and even online stores, thanks to e-commerce addons like WooCommerce. There are thousands of pre-made templates available. If you want dedicated WordPress hosting, WPEngine comes highly recommended, with fast response times, site loading speed and solid uptime reliability.

Wix deserves a shout-out, as this is a dedicated online website builder. You can create sites from scratch or choose from among hundreds of pre-made templates. Wix does all the domain registering, hosting, data reporting, security and email management for you.

Many web hosts also offer similar services. GoDaddy has a website builder. There’s a variety of customizable and professional pre-made templates available. You can create an online store with GoDaddy, and there are several membership tiers to suit all businesses. iPage, SiteGround, HostGator and Namecheap all have drag-and-drop website builders for their customers to use.

Alternatively, you could use an app like Adobe Spark, which is included with Adobe Creative Cloud. Spark makes beautiful websites and graphics quickly. I was impressed with how rapid it is—you can literally get a page set up in minutes—and how the user interface is super intuitive.

Pros of using a website builder

• Web builders handle much of the complicated work, so you can get your business site up and running quickly.
• Change content and update your business site as much as you like.
• Web builders are often very easy to use. Everything you need is in one place.
• Web builders can be very affordable.
• Anyone with a computer can use it.

Cons of using a website builder

• Your site might have a little promotional link or footnote with the web builder’s branding.
• An ongoing subscription may be required.

Hire a website designer

Easy difficulty ◆ Time: Varies

If you don’t have the time or skills for any of the above methods, then you should turn to a professional web designer. Although, you could have a web designer use a template to save time and money on customization.

Where do you find web designers? Freelance platforms like Fiverr help you connect with web designers. This is by far one of the easiest ways to commission a website. All you need to do is buy the service, send the designer your brief and sit back. The platform handles the billing side of things and sellers have feedback ratings, helping you pick someone who can get your job done on time.

Something neat about Fiverr is that you know how much your site will cost upfront. It’s very transparent and does away with the need to wait for multiple companies to get back to you with quotes.

You can, of course, do it the old-fashioned way, trawling through Google, looking for digital marketing agencies and design studios with solid reviews.

If you’re on a budget but want to see many variations, you can set a max price you’d like to pay and receive design submissions on DesignCrowd. When you pick the winning proposal, you pay and get your fresh new website in return. You can also use this site to have logos, brochures and even apps designed. Plus, DesignCrowd has a money-back guarantee.

One thing that will save you money and hassle in the long run is having the ability to edit your own website. To do that, you’ll need a content management system (CMS). WordPress is the most popular choice. You could have a designer install or create a custom theme for WordPress, then give you access to edit the content and manage the site.

Pros of using a professional web designer

• They’re easy to find using sites like Fiverr.
• Pro designers may bring years of experience and knowledge to the table. A good designer can make superb-looking sites.
• They can offer you advice and help explain things clearly.
• Your time is freed up for doing other business-related activities.
• They have the tools (including industry-standard software) needed for cross-browser testing and making mobile-friendly sites.
• They can assist in registering domains and connecting hosting.

Cons of using a professional web designer

• It could cost more than other methods, especially considering future modifications.
• You must create a detailed brief to clearly communicate what you’re after.
• There’s less opportunity to experiment with different looks unless you’re willing to pay for it.

Building an online store

Creating an online store can be as easy as building a website. All you need is a payment processor. PayPal offers business accounts, where you can generate HTML payment buttons and shopping baskets. You then have the advantage of using PayPal’s security technology and credit card systems. However, you’ll pay a fee per transaction.

If you want something that’s more dedicated and will grow with your business, try WooCommerce, a WordPress plug-in. It’s a very powerful and highly customizable e-commerce platform that handles inventory levels, supports popular credit and debit cards, allows for digital and physical products, enables customer login accounts and integrates with major shipping couriers. It even has an app (available for Android and iOS) to manage your store. There are thousands of themes available for WooComerce, or you can create one to match your WordPress website.

Shopify is another powerful, dedicated e-commerce platform. Shopify lets you build an online store in your browser. It makes setting up and designing a store a breeze. You can create logins for your staff to manage your business site and have a new logo designed for free. Check out Shopify store demos—they’re incredibly slick.

Related: Explore 20+ ways to make money online

Don’t forget marketing

Having a business website is okay, but if you don’t market it, no one will know about it. To do that, you need to learn about search engine optimization and marketing (SEO and SEM). At its most basic, ranking highly is about getting as many links to point to your site as possible, but there are many other ranking factors the search engines take into consideration.

Search engine optimization involves tweaking of your site to make it as Google-friendly as possible. The marketing part is generating and acquiring backlinks from other reputable and related websites.

You can do some marketing yourself. For example, if you sell enamel mugs, you could send samples to coffee lover blogs and photography website owners. If they take some snaps and do a write-up about your merch and point their users to your site with a link, which indicates to search engines that your site is related to coffee and mugs. The more links you have the better.

It’s wise to spend as much as you do on your site as you do on SEO/SEM. Fortunately, sites like Fiverr have hundreds of search engine optimizer and marketer listings.

Beware of SEO con merchants

Be wary of people who promise that you’ll get a guaranteed listing in search engines results. No one can make those kinds of assurances. Also, make sure the links you’re getting are good quality and not from link sharing sites, which could work against your overall marketing efforts.

You should install Google Analytics on your site. It’s free and helps you collect detailed website visitor information. Using these stats, you can make changes to your site and content to improve user-friendliness and interaction.

SEO automation software

SheerSEO is a good-value SEO software service with various paid plans. It offers features like SEO Audits (detailing errors and problems with your site), a keyword explorer (so you can decide which search terms your customers are using to find you), a listing of links to your site and the ability to submit your site to web directories and track your rankings. Premium plans let you monitor your competitor’s rankings and automatically request product reviews from blogs.

Frequently asked questions

• Does my business need a website?

  Yes, every company needs at least a basic website. It offers new and existing customers ways to contact you and gives you an outlet to keep them up to date with the goings-on at your company. An online store can boost your sales significantly, even overtaking in-person sales. Websites help you attract new customers and leads.

• How much does a business website cost?

  Making a business website could cost very little—less than $50 if you purchase affordable hosting and a .ca domain.

• What can my business website do?

  It's probably easier to ask, "What can't a business website do?" Websites can bring in new business, establish your company as an industry authority, help you break into new sectors, sell products, receive digital quotes and contact requests, inform customers and shareholders of your growth, distribute industry news and press releases, offer live support, publish videos and let customers leave reviews. The list goes on.

• Once I've made a website, is that it?

  No, you should update your business site to keep it from becoming stagnant. Add content, update features and check for quality and grammar issues. SEO and SEM are ongoing ventures and from time to time, you may need to change your site to keep it fresh and ranking well in search engine results.

• Should I start a social media account for my business?

  If it's appropriate for your line of business, yes! Social accounts are free, give your customers convenient ways to contact you (and review your services) and enable you to reach out to complementary businesses and suppliers. Social media can increase traffic and sales directed to your site.

  YouTube is a great way to reach scores of new clients and consumers. Learn more about starting a YouTube channel for you business.

• Help! I don't know if I should buy a .ca domain.

  At its simplest, if you're providing a service in Canada, a .ca domain makes a lot of sense. If you are currently supplying global markets (or plan to in the future), a .com address might be the way to go.

• My domain isn't available. What should I do?

  Don't worry too much. Many businesses are unable to secure their first or second choice domain names. Try to get creative and think outside the box. For example, if your business sells metal sheets online and your actual business domain name is already taken, you could go for something more descriptive like metalsheetsonline, metalsheetsales, buymetalsheets, qualitymetalsheets or thebestmetal.