Episode 30: What Should You Include On Your About Page for Your Business Website?
In this episode of the Business Website Blueprint podcast, I’m sharing what you should include on your website about page.
Episode 25: Want to DIY Your Website for Your Business? 5 Things You Need to Know
Are you planning on DIYing your website for your business, but you’re not really sure where to start?
In this episode of the Business Website Blueprint Podcast, I want to share with you five things that you need to know if you’re planning to build your own website for your business.
Quick Disclosure: This blog post contains affiliate links, which means when you click the link to purchase something on this page, it won’t cost you more but I may receive a commission for sharing it with you. Which is great, because I was going to share it with you anyway!
The First Thing to Know About Building Your Business Website: You Need a Website Host
When it comes to all the different things you need to build your business website, I like to use the analogy of a house. Your website host is like the foundation of your house. You can’t build the frame of your house, you can’t build the walls, and you can’t decorate the rooms unless you have that foundation. Your website host is going to house all of the code for your website.
A website host will also usually have customer service that will help you if your website ever goes down for some unknown reason. They can help you if you have any questions, and their customer service should be there to help you.
The two website hosts that I most frequently recommend are Bluehost and Hostgator. They both have great customer service and their pricing is fantastic. I’ve designed many websites on both of these platforms, and I’ve never had an issue with either of them.
The Second Thing to Know About Building Your Business Website: You Need a website domain
Going back to the analogy of a house, your website domain is like the address of your house. It’s what people are going to type in the search bar to actually find your website. For example, if you’re going to Facebook.com, that link you just typed in is the website domain.
When you’re setting up your website, you need to purchase a domain for your site. Typically when you purchase a plan with your website host, they will offer your domain for free for the first year. After that, it’s typically around $20 a year for your website domain. If for some reason your domain is hundreds or thousands of dollars, that probably means it’s a premium domain. If this is the case, you may want to rethink your business name because you shouldn’t have to pay for a premium domain name.
The Third Thing to Know About Building Your Business Website: You Need a website domain
Once you’ve got your website host figured out and your website domain identified, you need to figure out what website platform you’re actually going to build your website on. I recommend using WordPress for your website platform. In episode 6, I share exactly why WordPress is the best fit for your website platform, so go check that out if you’re wondering why I recommend WordPress.
Back to the house analogy again. Your website platform is like the walls of your house. It’s the structure, it’s what’s going to allow you to start to decorate your house. It allows you to start figuring out the sizing of the rooms (aka your website pages), and to start getting all the settings in place.
WordPress integrates with your website host, and it’s where you’re actually going to be able to start to set up those walls. Then, once those walls are up, you get to start designing them.
The Fourth Thing to Know About Building Your Business Website: You Need a Website Page Builder
If you’re using WordPress for your website platform, you can install a plugin, called Elementor. Elementor allows you to design the rooms of your house, to paint your walls, hang your pictures on the wall, put up photos of your products or services, and just make your website stand out for any website visitor who comes to your site. Elementor allows you to fully customize pages, to upload a website template and then customize it to your business needs, or to design a website completely from scratch.
There are different page builders out there, but as a website designer I highly recommend Elementor. They do have a free version, but the paid version will allow you to get the most customization tools. At $99 a year, that comes out to less than $10 a month. The Elementor team is always improving the plugin, always making it better, and it is just an incredible tool for your website.
The Fifth Thing to Know About Building Your Business Website: you need your website to have the options that you need for your business
If you’re wanting to sell products on your website, then your website needs to be able to have the option for you to do so. If you want allow people to book calls with you, your website needs to have that capability.
Your WordPress website can do anything you need it to do for you with what they call “plugins.” Plugins allow your website to have different capabilities based on your different website needs. Some plugins are free, while others do have an annual or monthly fee. I have a list of the top 8 free plugins that I recommend for every business website, which you can check out here.
Again, WordPress is fully customizable, it has every plugin you could ever need for your business, and it will allow you to DIY the business website of your dreams.
If you’re still intimidated by designing a website for your business, I encourage you to go check out the website templates that I offer. Each website template can be fully customized to your business. You can change the colors, the branding, pretty much everything, and I walk you through how to do that.
When you purchase a website template from me, you also get my “Wow, What a Website” training and tutorial series that walks you through getting your website host set up, getting your domain figured out, installing WordPress, getting Elementor set up, how to actually customize the template to what you need for your business, and everything else you could need. So if you’re overwhelmed with the idea of DIYing your website, but you don’t want to invest in having somebody do it for you, my website templates and the “Wow What a Website” training and tutorial series are going to help you so much.
Arianna
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