All of us need a website for our small business, anyway, a website is an integral part of being successful. With this in mind, let’s talk about how to build a website for a small business.
According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a small business is one that has less than 50 employees, so that certainly means you and I as solo entrepreneurs.
Maybe think of us as micro-businesses 🙂
What Is Your Business Model?
There are so many ways to make money online today that you need to focus on your business model first before starting to build your website.
By a business model, I mean things such as eCommerce, affiliate marketing, selling services, information business, network marketing, freelancing, and so on.
The great thing about building a website today is all of the templates available for different kinds of business models.
Click here right now for our review, my personal help, and instant access to our free training videos where we'll show you exactly how we did it ourselves starting out as complete beginners without ANY prior knowledge or experience in marketing online whatsoever!
Choosing A Content Management System
Unless you have a fairly static business you are probably going to be adding new content to your website. This makes choosing a content management system critical.
Some of the top content management systems for building a small business website include:
- – Joomla
- – Wix
- – HubSpot
- – Drupal
- – Squarespace
- – Weebly
- – WordPress
I would suggest using WordPress as the content management system to build your small business website. 75 million users online do and the reasons we will see when we get more in detail below.
Related Video:
Choose A Web Hosting Company
With your web hosting company, you can buy a domain name and start setting up your website in a matter of minutes. Seriously this is not hard and takes no technical knowledge.
What hosting company should you go with?
1. Bluehost. I see this recommended more than any other hosting company.
2. HostGator. The same company owns Bluehost as well.
3. GoDaddy. You have seen their ads on the Super Bowl.
I could go on and on. Personally, I do not see a lot of difference in hosting today. All of them make it easy to buy a domain name and install a WordPress theme with a few quick clicks.
Install WordPress
1. Buy your domain name. If possible, go with a 2-word domain name with one word relating to the theme of your business.
2. Pay for hosting. Some companies such as BlueHost will give you a free domain name if you pay for 3 years of hosting upfront.
3. Follow the steps to setting up WordPress. This is as easy as clicking.
4. Choose a WordPress theme. This may take a little more time, but do not get hung up on it right now.
You can always change WordPress themes. The main things choose a responsive theme. Find one that relates to the business model you are in.
It’s ok to start with a free theme. You can upgrade to a paid theme later. If you want, go with the twenty-nineteen theme WordPress offers.
As you build your website you will be logging into your WordPress members area. This is great for you and your small business!
Click here right now for our review, my personal help, and instant access to our free training videos where we'll show you exactly how we did it ourselves starting out as complete beginners without ANY prior knowledge or experience in marketing online whatsoever!
5. Plugins. People go crazy for plugins. These are various software you download to make running your website easier. You will see a tab for plugins on the left-hand side of your dashboard.
What plugins do you need?
A. SEO by Yoast. This is going to help you optimize your pages and post for search engine optimization without knowing all of the technical aspects of SEO.
B. Contact form 7. This is a simple piece of code placed on a new page that allows people to contact you directly at any email address you choose.
C. Akismet. Protect your site from spam comments. This is easy to set up so every comment made on your website is archived for you to approve before it goes live.
6. Widgets. You find these under the appearance tab because these alter the way your website looks.
I am not going to go into every widget available. You will want to learn how to use these and then you can improve the appearance of your site quickly and very nicely.
Adding Content
On your new small business website using WordPress, you will now add content either in the form of new pages, new posts, videos, graphics, and so on. Depending on the theme you use you will have a blog that’s great for adding new content as a post.
The main pages you will need are an about me page, a privacy page, a contact me page with the contact form on it, possibly terms of use page, and earning disclaimer page depending on the nature of your business. You don’t have to go overboard on pages as most of the content you’ll be adding will be in the form of new blog posts.
Here is the thing that is going to make building your small business website so easy. Become an Internet spy. Do a Google search. Type in the main keyword for your business.
Go look at the big players in your niche. These are the ones on pages 1 and 2 of Google and where you can get all kinds of great ideas for building your own website going forward.
final thoughts
If all of this seems a bit too much, consider hiring a freelance worker to set up your website for you. Sources for that include Fiverr.com and Upwork.
You can also hire a freelance writer to add content for you. Let them write your blog posts and publish them online. Be certain that they know all about keyword research, or you can give them your keywords.
Always remember to do what you like best and outsource the rest. You probably are very good at something in your business, so focus on that.
Otherwise, pick a good hosting company from the ones we listed, buy your domain name, set up WordPress, choose a theme, and jump in with both feet. It is a fun and necessary part of having a successful small business.
If you need help on how to get started with affiliate marketing, check out my #1 recommendation on building a successful business online. You can get access to hundreds of training videos, 24/7 support, professional consultations, private access to training guides, tools, personal private assistance, my personal help, and much more.
PS: Click here to review my #1 recommendation in detail.
See the 4 steps to working online from home & earn residual income
Hello, I really appreciate your time and effort on teaching people how to build a website for a small business.
The way you laid it out is perfect. From your article, it’s obvious that having a website is a critical component because it drives people to you. By writing content you are targeting people with specific intent so that people who land on your website already something they want in mind.
Is there a particular keyword research tool that you would recommend? Thanks for the article.
Son, thank you for leaving a comment and kind words. in today’s day and age you would be surprised that there are so many businesses do not have a website. Although I build and manage a few for some business, I am still getting people approaching me to do the same for them. I continue to let them they know that they can do it on their own through Wealthy Affiliate.
Keyword research is the beginning of building a website, and if you can get this right, it can really explode your business above the rest. My major tool for keyword research is Jaaxy. And you can get to use that tool within Wealthy Affiliate.
Hello, I commend you for giving information on how to build a website and have an online business. I have always believed that if you build it, that would be all, but then you went on to talk about writing content on a regular basis. I think it will take a lot of effort and time to build a website and an online business.
Although it may look like hard work, in the end, it will pay off. In reading your article, something came up and I’ve been thinking about creating a website for myself and will follow your guidelines and maybe reach out to you if I need help.
Thanks for this post, I will take a closer look at Wealthy affiliate and reach out to you if I have questions or need assistance. Thanks and I wish you all the best!
Today everyone feels that they have to hire someone to build a website when the truth is, that they can do it for themselves by signing up with Wealthy Affiliate and going through the training.
As you go through the training you will see how easy it is to follow the step by step videos as you build your website and business from scratch.
I will be there to help you along the way, and you will find that the community will always be there to answer your questions and show you in which path to follow base on their experience. will speak to you inside WA. all the best and will see you inside.
I think the WordPress is the most user friendly CMS to build website, though choosing a right theme needs to take quite some time, the good news is it is very easy to change one theme to another.
You mentioned twenty nineteen theme, I am not very familiar with it, why you think it is good and do you have few more themes to suggest to me so I can try it out myself too?
Thanks.
Carmen, yes I agree with you, that WordPress is indeed the best user-friendly CMS for building your website and choosing a theme make the process very easy. Thanks for that.
Choosing a theme must coincide with your niche to give your audience easy navigation on your site. I have seen lots of websites that get low rankings because of that. Below is an article that would give you a better understanding.
Choosing The right Theme for your Blog.
Hope that helps!
Thank you for the time and effort it must have taken to write this informative post. I agree that we are in a time when almost everyone needs a site, definitely if in business. I did not know that a two-word Domain is best. Word Press is best for making sites, I have heard that before.
How many plugins would you consider too many? Do you find the Yoast SEO better than the All in One? I am using the All in One and not ranking very well, of course, could be other reasons.
James, thank you for your input here and why building a business is much easier today than in the past. Lots of it had to do with WordPress and how far we have come with the Internet. Anything more than two words for your domain would narrow down on your niche idea, so that bit is not too broad.
Some people say using too many plugins can slow your site down which would decrease your rankings. I think that is true, but to help with site speed and loading time, read this article below.
How To Increase Website Loading Speed.
I use Yoast, and one of the main reason is because of the 310 redirects and 404 that can hurt your site. There are a few things that I do not agree with Yoast, for example, readability and the use of density % of your keywords throughout the articles and in sub-headings. They sort of lead to keyword stuffing that was not a Google-friendly approach.
I would try Yoast and see if it helps in my rankings. Be safe!
Hi David:
You have written an excellent and easy-to-follow guide to set up an online business!
I have never used anything but WordPress for content management. And I use Yoast as a plug-in to help manage my posts. Some people don’t seem to like Yoast, but for a non-techie like me, it’s a godsend.
It sounds like you struggled for quite a long time before seeing results. I’m in that boat right now. My site has generated no traffic or money, but I keep going, and I listen to the advice of pros like yourself.
Thanks for your great post!
Christopher, thank you for that tip. It is easy to start a business online today as before, and using Yoast to help with your SEO is the right choice. I use it as well, but do not follow all their recommendations.
My primary use is of their 301 redirects, and the ability to create your social media posts within Yoast.
Building a business online is not easy, and it can be nerve-wracking at times, but ask yourself what else? And what you do not want to do is to look back 5 – 10n years and wondered if you had stayed with it where you would be today.
If you stay focus and follow the necessary tools to get you to the next level, you will achieve success. Consistency is key. Thank you for the comment.