Knowing how to build a small business website with WordPress starts with understanding the importance of having a website for your business. With the recent daily ever-increasing advancements in technology, it has become vital for every small business to have a website, regardless of the industry or field of expertise. As a small business owner, the profitability of your business largely depends on how visible and accessible your brand is to potential customers.
According to this search engine marketing statistics, 93% of customers’ buying decisions start with an inquiry on the internet. This means that if you don’t have an online presence, you are left to compete with just about 7% of the market share. Your small business website is your brand’s window to the world. It serves as a low-cost marketing vehicle for your business. With your website, you can attract new prospects, generate leads, build credibility, promote your business and increase sales.
Most small businesses operate on a lean budget. Thus, they tend to underestimate the importance of having a website. However, to thrive as a small business, having your own website must be considered a necessity and not a luxury. Believe it or not, a website is a fundamental tool you need to create an online presence for your business. Having an amazing social media page/ presence is cool, but that doesn’t cut it. The good thing is building a small business website does not cost much.
Building a small business website is quite easy and affordable, and you can do it all by yourself. Yes, you don’t need to be tech-savvy or know how to code before you can create your website. You can use simple content management systems like WordPress.
We guess now you’re wondering how to create a small business website with WordPress. We’ve got you!
In this article, we will show you how to build a small business website with WordPress.
Why Use WordPress to Build Your Small Business Website?
One of the biggest mistakes small business owners make is choosing the wrong platform to build their website. That is why we are here to guide you, so you won’t make that mistake. There are tons of content management systems available on the web. Thus, you may be spoilt for choice. However, WordPress has proven to be an ideal platform for building fast, responsive, and affordable small business websites. This is why you should use WordPress to build your website.
WordPress is the most popular website builder and blogging platform in the world. Its data capacity enables it to power over 40% of all websites you can find on the internet. You can use WordPress to build any kind of website, from a large high-traffic publication to a small business website.
What we love most about WordPress is that it is easy to use and navigate. With WordPress’s assorted variety of templates, extensions, and addons, you can create a small business website that suits your taste.
If you are still not convinced, you can check out these WordPress business website examples; The New York Times, Sony Music, Evernote Blog, Star Wars News, The Ted Blog, Microsoft News, Toyota, The Walt Disney Company, Tribune Media, and Vogue. The list is inexhaustible. From these WordPress business website examples, you can even get inspiration for your small business website.
If you’re looking to build a small business website on a budget, then WordPress is your best shot. Now we’ve got that out of the way. Let’s discuss how to build a small business website with WordPress.
What do I Need to Build a Small Business Website with WordPress?
Now you know why it’s absolutely necessary to build a small business website with WordPress. Let’s talk about the essentials you need before figuring out how to build a small business website with WordPress. If you want to build a small business website like a pro, here are some things you need to make your website pop.
1. Brand Identity
Your small business website should be a true reflection of your brand identity. You can’t even talk about how to build a small business website with WordPress if you don’t understand your brand identity. So, before you build your website, take some time to develop your business identity. Ask yourself these questions,
- What are your core brand offering and unique value proposition?
- What makes your business stand out from other brands in your industry?
This will help you think of ways to bridge the gap in your industry by magnifying your strengths. With this, you can create your service catalog, pricing model, and marketing strategy.
- What is the primary purpose of your website?
The purpose could be to create brand awareness, grow your audience, display your products, increase brand credibility, or advertise your services. Having a good understanding of this will help you optimize your site for that purpose. It will also help you determine what you want potential customers to do when they get to your website. This way you can create conversation points to drive them to either buy a product, schedule an appointment, call your business line or sign up for your mailing list.
2. Brand Aesthetics
When you have developed your brand identity, then you must create visuals that represent your brand identity. They include your brand logo, color palette, tagline, typography, font style, font size, and product image. These details will help you design how your website will look.
3. High-Quality Content
You can’t build a small business website without creating content for your site. Content is a piece of information that tells your potential customers what your business is all about. You can create such information in visual, audio, and written formats on your website. Not enough time to write content for your page and still run your business? Simply reach out to Iconic Digital World today as we offer the best content services at affordable prices. For your small business website, you will need to create content for your home page, about page, product or service page, and blog/resource page.
4. Website Domain and Hosting
Last but not least on our list is your domain name and web hosting plan. Once you decide to build a small business website, you must choose a domain name and purchase a hosting plan that works for your brand. A domain name is your website’s official name, like https://iconicdigitalworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Best-kid-business-ideas-2021-4.jpgdigitalworld.com. A website hosting plan is a storehouse. That is where you store all your small website data and files.
When choosing a domain name for a small business website, follow these simple rules. Keep it short and memorable, use industry keywords, avoid numbers and hyphens, and make sure it is easy to type. Don’t forget to do your research to make sure the name is not already taken. Even if you are not ready to build your small business website, you can register and secure your domain name so that no one will take it.
With these, you are ready to build a small business website from scratch. It’s time to find out how to create a small business website with WordPress.
Are you ready?
Let’s begin.
Step-By-Step Approach on How to Build a Small Business Website with WordPress
Now, let’s get to the heart of the matter. How to build a small business website with WordPress. Creating a small website on WordPress is much easier than you think. All it takes is just a few navigations and clicking of buttons.
Follow this step-by-step on how to build a small business website with WordPress.
Step 1: Install WordPress
The first step on how to create a small business website with WordPress is to install WordPress and create your account. WordPress will ask you to provide some details about your brand like your preferred username, email address, and password.
Step 2: Set-up Your Website
The next step is to give your website an identity by choosing your domain name and hosting plan. Then, choose a tagline and add your brand icon. You can also connect your website to your social media handle so that your site visitors can access them with ease. It doesn’t matter what platform you are active on. You can connect your site to your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and even YouTube channel.
Step 3: Customize Your Website
What you have now is just a skeletal image of your small business website. Once you are done setting up, the next step is to give your site more visual appeal. This is where you can express your creativity and design your website to your taste. We are talking colors, images, font style, font size, designs, and every other visual aesthetic that comes to mind. WordPress has a variety of themes, so feel free to explore. You can check out these WordPress business website examples to get ideas for your small business website.
Step 4: Add Content to Your Site
Remember what we said about creating content for your website? This is the time to fit that content into the right web pages. You can follow the standard website layout; homepage, about us, products/services, and contact us.
The homepage is the first page visitors see on your site. It’s like the front desk of your office. This is where you write brief details about your business; what you do, working hours, customer testimonials, and contact details.
About us is where you give us all the details of who you are, what you do, and how you work. The product/Service page is where you display and describe your brand offering. Don’t forget to add your pricing or call-to-action asking customers to contact you for a quote.
On your contact page, you can add a contact form that your website visitors can use to contact you. Or you can add your phone number, official email address, and online booking calendar. Make sure that your contact information is consistent across the web.
You can also consider starting a blog on your website. It is an effective way of promoting your site and brand offerings. With a blog page, you can educate site visitors on topics related to your industry. It also allows you to earn through affiliate marketing and Google AdSense.
Step 5: Install Plugins
WordPress plugins are like apps you can use to add more features and functionality to your website. According to this research by wpbeginner, there are over 58,000 plugins on WordPress. So, no matter the type of feature you are looking for, you will most likely find it. All you need is to figure out how many plugins you want to add to your website.
With these plugins, you can create contact forms on your website, improve your Google Analytics and site SEO, add attractive sidebars, and enable online payments. You can also add coupon tools, site security, inventory management, CRM integration, and lead generation opt-in.
Step 6: Launch Your Website
Having gone through these steps on how to create a small business website with WordPress, you are finally ready to launch your small business website. Go to your browser, type your small website address, and give your site one last look.
All set? Does it look good?
Now, your website is ready for the world to see. The best part is that with WordPress, you can always go back to edit your site features or revamp your website completely.
It doesn’t end here. Once your website is up and running, you must promote your website to attract site visitors. You can create a Google-My-Business page so that your website can appear on local listings when customers search for businesses within their location. You can also add your website to business directories.
Bottomline
There you go! That’s all you need to know about how to build a small business website with WordPress. We know you can’t wait to build your small business website. Go ahead, give it a try.
If you still have questions on how to create a small business website with WordPress, do not hesitate to reach out to us at Iconic Digital World today! We would be glad to guide you or better still, leave it to us to build the best website tailored to your business needs from start to finish.