If you still haven’t taken time to build a website for your business, I have one question for you: Why not?

Maybe you think you don’t have the time, money, or skills to create a stunning website that represents your business.

Whatever is holding you back, it’s time to put your hesitations to rest.

Before you start, take a few minutes to consider which platform you want to use (I recommend checking sites like Website Advisor for in-depth info and reviews) and whether or not you plan to use a self-hosting service.

Choose your partners wisely

There are dozens of platforms out there, each offering different themes, design elements, functionality, and stats to drive your marketing strategy.

But there’s a reason I recommend WordPress as the best platform: WordPress users create roughly 73.9 million new posts every month that generate a whopping 49.0 million unique comments.

Impressive numbers like that can only come from a platform that is easy to use, includes all the back-end data you need to service your site visitors better, and allows you to publish engaging content that gets your followers coming back for more.

While finding a best-fit website builder is essential, choosing a web hosting service is just as important if you want to ensure that your site is available 24/7. Because there are dozens of vendors begging for your attention, be sure to read online reviews and make sure the vendor guarantees 99.99% up-time before making a commitment.

Once you have those two steps out of the way — and you’ve chosen your domain name — you’re ready to start the countdown clock.

Step one: Install the platform software

Your first step is to install the platform software on your computer so that you can start building customer relationships with stellar content, audio, and video clips that encourage social shares.

And one-click WP installation is a breeze with Bluehost. Even if you don’t have an account already, it will only take a few minutes to enter your business contact and billing information.

To get started, navigate to the “Hosting” menu and select “WordPress Hosting” from the drop-down. Then, either enter your current domain name or select the option to create a new one.

Build a website step 1

Fill in your business information and select a plan. That’s it — now you can take advantage of the one-click method to finalize installation. Depending on the speed of your computer, this will take a few minutes.

Step two: Choose a theme that represents your brand

Next, choose a theme that resonates with your site visitors. You’ll find themes that appeal to millennials, stay-at-home moms, and even no-nonsense professionals.

Since there are literally hundreds of free and paid options out there, don’t spend more than five minutes choosing a theme. Keep in mind that changing the theme later will only take a few clicks should you decide that you prefer a different look.

Right now you just want to get your website built and running as efficiently as possible.

Step three: Customize your digital spaces with brand content

The final step is to add your brand logo and contact information. We also suggest that you build a separate About Page and Contact Page during this step. If you’re using WordPress, it will only take you a couple of minutes to upload your logo following the steps in this video tutorial:

Congratulations! You just learned how to build a website in minutes.

Easy, right? You’ll notice that you don’t need any high-tech skills — or a ton of money and time — to get your business site built and ready to launch. And you can change the theme, design elements, and page layout as often as you want as you get more comfortable with the customization process.

Keep in mind these three steps are just the foundation of your site.  

Before you go live, take some time to create engaging content — informative blog posts, share-worthy images, or video clips — about your products and services. High-quality content will be key in taking your next step to online success: driving traffic to your website.

You’ll also want to set up an email sign-up form to capture contact information from your visitors. That way you’ll be able to stay in touch with them and bring them back to your site again and again.

A free plugin like Constant Contact forms for WordPress helps you create a professional, mobile-responsive sign-up form to match the theme and style of your site.

At this point, it’s obvious that every small business needs a website.

People make so many of their shopping decisions online, that having a web presence is a business requirement nowadays.

But simply having a website isn’t enough — you need to build a small business website that’s designed well enough to do its job.

No matter what products or services your small business offers, your website must include a few key things to be functional and beneficial to you.

Here are five things all successful websites must have:  

1. Clear positioning

Your website can’t just say what you do; it has to tell people what makes you different. Carefully consider what makes your business unique. Why should a customer consider you instead of the other similar options available?

Developing strong positioning requires identifying which customers you want to reach and what they care about.

For example, if you run a pest control business in a city where a lot of residents care about environmentalism, then you might position yourself as the city’s most green pest control company that only uses the safest ingredients (but only if true, of course).

If you run an Italian restaurant that puts a lot of care into making recipes just like your family made them in the old country, your positioning could be that you the serve the most authentic Italian food in the city.

Figuring out your brand positioning is an important first step because it will shape a lot of the rest of your website. Your web copy and supporting copy will grow out of the positioning you decide on.

2. On-page SEO

What’s the first thing you do when you’re trying to decide where to go buy new shoes or see what movies are playing in town?

For most people, you start with a Google search. People make over 3.5 billion searches on Google every day.  Some of those searches are people looking for what you sell.

That’s why small businesses have to care about SEO. You want people to be able to find your website when they go looking on Google.

Small business SEO starts with keyword research to see what words people use when they search for what you sell.

Use what you learn to choose a keyword to optimize each page on your website for, then look for opportunities to use that keyword naturally in every field that matters for SEO:

  • The title tag
  • The page URL
  • The page headings
  • The webpage copy
  • The meta description
  • The image alt tags

If you have a WordPress website, you can find a number of SEO plugins that will save you the trouble of learning HTML in order to update each of these fields.

Pro tip: Don’t force keywords onto the page where they don’t make sense. It’s important that you use them naturally. Keyword stuffing won’t help you much with SEO or visitors and could put you at risk of a Google penalty. 

3. A clear goal for every page

Every small business website should have clear goals not just for the website as a whole, but for every page on it.

As you’re working on the design and copy for each individual page, consider what action you want people to take while there.

Possible actions include:

Your page goals should be very clear and easy to act on. Then, set up conversion tracking in Google Analytics to measure how successfully your web pages meet their goal.

4. Customer testimonials

You can talk about how great your business is all day long, but it will never mean as much to your potential customers coming from you as it does hearing it from another customer.

Customer testimonials let your prospects know they don’t just have to take your word for it other people who have chosen your business are happy they did.

Pro tip: Businesses sometimes put all the testimonials on one page, which people won’t always click through to. Instead, use a plugin like Testimonial Rotator to show the testimonials on every page of your website so all your visitors have the chance to see them.

5. A mobile-friendly version

Almost a third of all online shopping is done on a mobile device. If your website isn’t mobile-responsive, you’re driving away a huge audience of potential customers.

Every website now needs to be intuitive and easy to use on mobile.  If you’ve been dragging your feet on updating your small business website so that it’s mobile-optimized, then 2017 is the year to get moving on that.

Many of your customers are browsing and searching on their phones; you need to be where they are.

Create a website you love as much as your small business.

Life as a small business owner is busy and often overwhelming. It can be easy to get a website for your business out in a rush without thinking through everything it needs to truly do the job you need it to.

If your website is missing any of these five things, it’s time to sit down and correct that.