In this modern life, online shopping has been becoming a popular activity. The more people shop online, the more websites are created. You shouldn’t sell only in a brick-and-mortar store. So many promising customers are on the Internet. Why don’t you catch the chance and access them? The quickest way to meet them is to build a website.

You can do many things with a website such as Brand awareness, lead generation, customer retention, loyalty, sales, etc. It’s supposed to help you increase the number of orders and revenue. Is building a website hard? Well, it’s not a piece of cake, but you can always create one website by yourself because there are several platforms and tools helping you.

Some tips below will show you how to build a good website.

1. Understand your goal

Before you build a website, you need to know your goals. Goals will define the features and appearance of the website. All things you do is to achieve your goals. It’s good to have more than one goal for your business website. Just remember to create a strategy for reaching each one. 

Establish clear goals for your business website, such as:

• Selling physical or digital products
• Providing services
• Directing visitors to a place to learn more information about your business
• Expressing your brand identity 
• Announcing updates and changes
• Highlighting customer reviews. If you have a Shopify store, you should try Product Reviews Autoketing app. It shows reviews in beautiful layouts.
• Turning website visitors into leads
• Developing your online presence

Detailed goals will help you make a plan more efficiently.

2. Select a good website builder

If you’re not a developer, you still can create a website through a website builder. You will own a gorgeous website without any effort in coding. You should choose a website builder. It can

• Provide templates to speed up your website creation
• Let you customize website templates
• Save you time and money versus hiring a web designer or web developer
• Offer a library of stock images and videos
• Have a drag-and-drop design tool to make changes easily
• Make it easy to optimize your website for search engines 

There are many website builder platforms. Which one do you choose?

3. Select a web host

Each website is hosted on the server. Web hosting is making space on a server for your website, usually offered by a provider. Web hosting makes the files on your website (images, code, audio, etc.) visible on the web.

Choosing a hosting provider can be challenging. Each web hosting company offers different amounts of monthly data transfers, email accounts, storage, and other services. How you pay can differ from provider to provider too (for example, monthly payments versus yearly payments). So taking the time to know exactly what you need from a web host is essential for your website’s success.

4. Pick a custom domain name

A domain name is like a digital address where people find you online. It gives your business credibility and helps you rank higher in search for industry-related keywords. You can customize a domain name so it’s easier for customers to remember you and find your business later on.

When choosing a domain name, be sure to:

• Keep it short, brandable, and memorable
• Avoid hyphens and numbers
• Try to secure a top-level domain, like .com
• Check for other TLDs, like a specified country or .shop
• Include search engine optimization (SEO) keywords, if possible
• Use a domain name generator for inspiration

5. Decide on a layout

Now that you’ve got a domain name and web hosting set up, it’s time to choose your site’s layout. Your website builder will likely offer themes, or templates, you can install in your store. Use these templates as the starting point to design a basic website.

Themes are typically broken down into categories. Some may be best for large product catalogs. Others are made for service businesses and certain industries, like restaurants or health and beauty.

6. Add relevant pages

A relevant page on your website means different things depending on your business type. If you’re running an eCommerce site, product pages and collection pages are necessary. If you’re a restaurant owner, you’ll want landing pages for your menu and specials.

Real estate professionals will likely add a page to showcase their lists and a form to collect the lead’s contact information.

But your business website needs to do more than promote your business. It needs to build trust with visitors and help them understand your business.

The standard pages you want to include on your website are the homepage, product page, contact page, FAQ page, policy page, and about page.

7. Connect a payment system

The ultimate goal of building your website from scratch is to make sales. You want to make it easy for visitors to buy through your website. A seamless payment system is not negotiable.

Shopify lets business owners accept credit cards and other popular payment methods easily. You can offer express pay options like Shop Pay, G Pay, or PayPal, or let customers pay over time with Afterpay.

When you set up Shopify Payments, you don’t have to deal with third-party activations. You’ll just need to enter your employer identification number and banking information to start selling online fast. Shopify Payments comes with any Shopify plan.

8. Add business tools

As a small business owner, you’re used to doing things independently. But sometimes, you could use a little extra help to build a website. Your business website can easily be turned into a digital salesperson.

In addition to your template’s visual assets and features, Shopify provides more than 3,200 add-ons and plug-ins to simplify managing certain parts of your online business.

• Build an email marketing list
• Find trending products to sell online
• Run Facebook ads
• Create lead-generation pop-ups
• Offer live chat support
• Create loyalty programs
• Integrate with online selling sites
• Add more payment gateways to your shopping cart
• Understand Google Analytics data

9. Preview, test, and publish your website

Building a website for your business is the beginning, not the end. Test your website. Run a quick user experience check and make sure your products and services are presented nicely. Double-check that there are no broken links or images. Send your website to colleagues, friends, and family to make sure it loads fast and correctly and that it’s mobile-friendly.

If you’ve followed this step-by-step guide, your new business website should be ready to go live! Give it one last look to make sure everything looks good—then click Publish.

For more tips on improving your store, check out our other articles here on Autoketing.

In case you’re looking for trustable applications for your Shopify Store, check for the reference resource Shopify App Store

Please keep in mind that the Autoketing Team is always ready to support you. We are a Shopify trustworthy partner.

Autoketing is constantly looking for new updates and the best solution for online business on Shopify Store.

If you need any assistance or have questions, please do not hesitate to reach out. We’re always there to help.

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