Whether you’re a small business owner in San Antonio or elsewhere, it’s likely, you’re seeing a shift in the way marketing is done.  Consumers are spending more time engaging with the technology devices and using their input to make buying decisions.  As a result, it’s in every business owners best interest to at least consider digital marketing as a part of their marketing strategies, and knowing how to make a small business website could be largely beneficial.

 

Statistics tell us there are approximately 4 billion internet users and the number of people who own a personal computer or smartphone is rising by the tens of thousands daily!  The growth of the internet doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.

 

I’d bet your local population would decrease before the internet would stop growing.

 

The internet is a viable market with the average income of more than $70,000, the average age of 33, and 81% of users conduct research online before making a buying decision.  The e-commerce sector made 322.17 billion online in 2016, and 46% of searches led to patronage at a local business–those are some very probable stats.

 

Having a website can be good for the digital nomad or the local business owner alike.

 

It’s Not That Hard Anymore

 

Creating a website used to be quite a bit more complicated than it is now.  It used to require learning special coding languages like Javascript or HTML, but now, there are content management systems like WordPress and Sitebuilders like Siterubix that can enable you to have a website live in less than 30 seconds!  Here are the simple steps to get your website live in less than 30 minutes…

 

1. Create Your Account

 

The very first step is to CREATE YOUR WEALTHY AFFILIATE ACCOUNT.  Everyone has to pay for website hosting and there are a variety of hosting providers, however, none of them provide the full suite of tools provided by Wealthy Affiliate.  A hosting account enables you storage space online.  You’ll be able to load images, blog posts, and other website content so you’ll rank on Google and drive search users to your business.

 

Added onto hosting, you’ll be able to ask me any questions you might have about online marketing because I’ll be your one-on-one coach when you CREATE YOUR ACCOUNT HERE.

 

2. Log onto Wealthy Affiliate and Go To “SiteBuilder”

 

After you’ve created your account and logged on, you’ll see “Websites” along the left side.  When you hover your mouse over “Websites”, you see a menu populate to the right that says “SiteManager, SiteBuilder, SiteDomains” and so on.  You’ll want to select “SiteBuilder”.

 

3. Register Your Domain

 

You’ll have one option if you’re a free member.  You’ll only be able to create a free website on a subdomain of Siterubix.  Your domain would be something like “buildmywebsite.siterubix.com”.

 

As a small business, you’ll want to purchase your domain, so it can be consistent with your brand.  For example: Walmart has Walmart.com.  Target has Target.com, and you’d want “yourbusinessname”.com if you that domain is available.  However, if you have a very tight budget and branding is not a big concern for you, you can create your free website instantly here:

 

 

If you want to create seamless branding and purchase digittal property consistent with your brand name, you’ll need a premium Wealthy Affiliate hosting account.  If you haven’t chosen the premium option already, you should take advantage of the limited time offer to get your first month of membership at $19.00.

 

After securing premium membership, you’ll have 3 options for building your website: “on a free domain”, “on a domain I own”, or “register a domain”.  You’ll want to choose “register a domain”.

 

 

You’ll be able to see if the domain you want is available by simply typing in the name.  Siterubix will show you which variations are available and which are already taken.

 

For example, I tried “buymywebsite”, and these are the results I had…

As you can see, buildmywebsite.com wasn’t available, but .org., .net, and other variations were available.  From here, you’d add the option you like into your shopping cart by clicking “Add to Cart”, then you’d checkout…

 

 

4. Install Your Theme and WordPress onto Your Domain

 

Now, your digital property is yours, and you simply have to install WordPress to display a visually appealing layout to your site visitors.  This step is point-and-click.

 

After checkout, you’ll go back to Sitebuilder again, and you’ll be presented with the same question, “What kind of website do you want to build?”.  The options will be “on a free domain”, “on a domain I own”, or “register a domain”.  Since, you’ve already purchased your domain, you’ll want to select “on a domain I own”…

 

Then, you’ll select the website you just purchased from the dropdown where it says “choose a domain name for your website”.

 

The title for your website will be entirely up to you, but I recommend you use keywords that search users would use to find a business like yours.

 

If you want to play around with a few keyword variations to see which idea of yours has the highest search volume, you can do that with this Jaaxy keyword tool here:

 

 

After entering your site title, you’ll be required to choose a theme or a design for your website.  There’s many options, so I know it can be hard.  I usually select “Total” theme out of the free themes because it looks nice and has nice aesthetic options.

 

then, you’ll select “Click Here to Build This Site”.

 

Disclaimer: I recommend Thrive Themes, a premium theme because of how customizable it is, and because of all of the conversion options they offer.  You should check them out if you’re looking to increase the conversions on your website.

 

Within seconds of clicking “Build this site!”, your site will be live!  Congratulations you’re now a website owner!  The next steps to make your live site a valuable asset to your business is…

 

5. Begin Adding Content

 

Now, your website will be live, but it won’t have any content or menus on it.  It’ll have some filler text, but nothing you’ll want to stay there.  You’ll have to go and add the basic pages and content onto your website.  I usually recommend these basic pages be added onto the website:

 

Basic Pages: Home, About, Blog, Contact, Services, Products, and Recommendations

 

These basic pages tell customers and potential customers about your business and brand.  The copy is important on these pages because your website can work when your business is closed.  Remember the trends of people buying online?  Often times, these online shoppers simply go to a website, read the content there, and if the content is good, they will convert into buyers.

 

Some companies take the website copy serious enough that they pay copywriters thousands of dollars to create copy suited for conversions into sales.  Good copy can be like a money machine because people read it and want to buy.  Take time on your copy to ensure it represents your brand well, it’s clear, and it gives details for the customers about the benefits of buying from you.

 

6. Create an Easy-to-Navigate Layout

 

With the pages added onto your site, you’ll want to create a menu that makes your site easy to get around.  Here’s a great video training that explains how to make a menu on your site:

 

 

7. Keep Adding Content and Engaging Readers

 

With your site live and your navigation in place, now it’s time to continue adding content onto your site.  In the offline world, people find businesses by addresses, phone numbers, and phone books.  In the digital world, content is the primary way users find businesses.

 

You’ll want to do keyword research, find content ideas that exemplify your expertise with high search volume and low competition.  You’ll learn all about content creation and optimal content strategies in your Internet Marketing training at Wealthy Affiliate.

 

Recommended Alternative to Creating and Maintaining Your Own Website

 

If this all sounds too complicated for you and you’d simply like to pay a web designer, SEO specialist, and copywriter for the combination of a nice small business website suited for search engine traffic, then call us at (210)564-7749 to schedule a free consultation or SUBMIT YOUR INFORMATION TO US NOW, and we’ll make your small business website for you!

 

Final Words on How To Build a Small Business Website

 

The goal of this article was to show how to build a small business website. The directions are laid out and the training at Wealthy Affiliate will build onto this tutorial and teach you monetization options, traffic generation techniques, and give you ongoing live training keep you familiar with the most up-to-date internet marketing practices.

 

If you have questions or concerns about this, don’t hesitate to leave them in the comments section.  I’d love to help you out!

 

 

Now, it’s Your Turn…

 

What’s your experience with creating small business websites? What would you add for someone whose creating one for the first time?  Leave your comments below.