Have you suddenly found yourself in need of an online presence? With everyone working from home, this is now a common scenario. If you are running your own business, or if you are now unemployed, a website will help you make money from home. Everyone can benefit from having a website even in normal circumstances, but at this point in time, it is more important than ever.
If you have not built a website in recent years, you may not know where to start. Unless you are a web developer or designer you will need some excellent tools to get you going. Here are 3 steps you will need to follow.
1. Get reliable web hosting
This is a step that many people gloss over. It is easy to think of web hosting as something you just need for your website to run. It may not matter to you which web hosting provider you go with. But it should.
Web hosting providers are not all the same. Some are nightmares to deal with, due to unreliability and terrible customer support. During these times when everyone is online all the time, you need web hosting that can manage huge volumes of traffic. Every hosting provider is struggling at the moment, but the good ones are ensuring that this is never the customer’s problem.
For a good idea of what to look for in web hosting, see this InterServer review. There you’ll see the most important aspects of a good hosting provider and what you should be wary of.
2. Brainstorm a domain name
Businesses with a recognizable name should have no problem when it comes to choosing a domain name. But if you are building a website for your home business or personal brand, finding the right domain name can be difficult. Should you go with your own name? Should you choose a domain name that reflects what you do?
There are no right answers here. However, there are some guidelines. Your domain name should always be relatively simple. If your name is unusual and complex, don’t use it. It shouldn’t be too wordy and should roll off the tongue.
It is important to get input from friends and colleagues before settling on a domain name. What sounds right to you may sound terrible to others. You are looking at it from an internal perspective and know exactly what your domain name is referring to. Others do not, and this is why only they can tell you whether the idea really comes across.
3. Learn SEO basics
Coming up on the first page of a Google search is incredibly important if you are to bring in organic traffic. This may seem like an imposing task but it is actually not that hard if you understand basic SEO rules.
However, do not get tricked into thinking that the strategies that worked years ago still apply today. Stuffing your content with keywords will not help all that much. Furthermore, Google is better able to understand ideas communicated in search terms – people do not need to search for the exact words to find what they want. You need to make sure that you have some keywords that are intuitive and some that are exact.
If you want to really get into the nitty-gritty of SEO, there are some excellent blogs that are dedicated to following the changing reality of SEO.
Building a website now could help you earn income in these difficult times. Make sure you know what you are doing, and follow the above steps to get started.