The Importance of Partnering with a Good Web Hosting Service
When starting a business and beginning to create an online presence, there will be multiple steps in the process. Some of these steps are fairly easy and intuitive, while others are more confusing and harder to understand.
In this article, we will provide an overview of the web design process, including one of the most important considerations when starting a website for your business: web hosting.
How to Start a Website
While there are many different steps that can be included in the process of building a website, the following 4 are absolutely essential.
1. Select Your Preferred Platform
To start, there are multiple website platforms from which you can choose. Perhaps the most popular platform available is WordPress. WordPress is easy to use, simple to maintain, and can be tailored for the specific needs of any business or industry.
However, if for one reason or another, you do not want to use WordPress for your internet presence, there are many other good platform options available to you. For example, Wix and Squarespace are two website building platforms that have become hugely popular in the past few years.
Whichever platform you decide to use for your website, just be sure to do your research. You need to be aware of the limitations and capabilities of the different options.
2. Obtain a Domain Name
After selecting your preferred platform, you’ll want to purchase a domain name. This is the website address that visitors to your website will type into the search bar in order to find you.
As with all of the items on this list, you have options when it comes to your domain name. You can choose to use a free domain name; however, this can sometimes look odd for a professional business. Using such a domain name would mean that your business name is tied with another, unrelated company.
For example, you may elect to use a free domain name through a service such as companiesRus.com. Thus, your web address would have to be something along the lines of mygreatbusiness.companiesRus.com.
Contrast this with a domain name which you’ve purchased, such as simply mygreatbusiness.com, and it’s easy to see how much more professional and official you will seem to the average site visitor. This will also enable you to have personalized email addresses through your domain name, further strengthening your professional image.
3. Create Meaningful Content
Before you go live and start directing customers to your website, you’ll want to ensure that you have quality content which will be meaningful to your audience. There are probably many other services like yours out on the market, what sets yours apart from the crowd?
Furthermore, you’ll want your blog to provide content that will enrich your customer’s experience, not just fill up space and hit some keywords for SEO purposes.
Of course, every business needs to incorporate marketing strategies and find ways to reach more customers. But if your business website doesn’t fill the needs of clients, you’ll want to rethink your approach.
Components of effective websites include content such as:
- About us page. Your “about us” page should show the potential customer that your company consists of real people who care about what they do. Further, this page should feature information about the company that gives some insight into your values. Most customers want to feel like they are working with real people, not just a business.
- Calls to action. At the end of the day, you want visitors to your site to decide to purchase your product or service. For this reason, you need to incorporate calls to action throughout your site. If you want someone to be able to get in touch with you or directly purchase your service, make sure that there are easy-to-find links that will lead them in the right direction.
- Blog posts. A good deal of content can be incorporated into your website blog. While the written word has been largely replaced by video and audio mediums, there is no substitute for a quality blog featuring excellent writing. Within your blog, you can incorporate keywords and various other SEO strategies which will help improve your standing on Google’s search results. If you don’t have the time, inclination, or skill to write quality content yourself, be sure to outsource this to a blogger. Many of these writers can be found through different methods online. It’s well worth the investment to have a well-written blog on your website.
- Services/products page. Throughout your site, you’ll want to make it clear what it is that you can do for your customers. Using concise and accurate language, make sure that your target audience will understand what purpose your company is serving and how your products and services will benefit your customers. While some products and services “sell themselves,” this is not the norm. Most of the time you will have to do some explaining and demonstrate as to why customers should choose you over one of your competitors.
- Customer reviews. If you’re customers have had great experiences working with you, encourage them to leave a review which can be posted on your site. Even better, see if they’d be willing to let you post their name and picture with their review. This lends a sense of authenticity to the review that an anonymous one containing only text just can’t convey. There is nothing more helpful in swaying a potential customer than hearing about the positive experience of another customer.
4. Select a Web Host
Last but not least, you need a host for your website. As far as web hosting in Vancouver is concerned, Ancell Marketing is one of the best options available. We provide secure WordPress hosting in addition to hosting for other platforms.
Because we utilize shared web hosting, our service is extremely affordable, while still offering excellent quality. Our service promises fast website speed, as well as consistent uptime. We know how important it is for your website to function optimally, and we want to limit the hurdles often experienced by businesses attempting to create an online presence.
If you’re looking for a service to host your website, contact us today!