Launching a Website for Your Small Business

There are over 60 million Internet users in the UK alone, each of which are potential customers for your business. Thus, it is more crucial than ever to have an online presence that makes the right impression.

In this article, the process of launching a website is explained, with key considerations outlined.

Before You Start

Prior to building your website, it is essential to determine the primary objective(s) that you intend it to serve. For example, such a target could be to draw attention to a pertinent campaign, drive traffic to a fundraiser, or simply sell products.

Whatever they may be, your primary objective(s) will provide your site with purpose, informing the content and prominence of calls-to-action, and determining core functionality, including whether you will need a content management system (CMS). 

What is a CMS?

A content management system (CMS) is used to manage the creation and modification of digital content. Within the context of the web, CMSs allow website owners to manage pages, blog content, and more, all without touching any code. A CMS is not, however, a website builder — it allows you to manage a website, but not create one from scratch.

Do I need a CMS?

Whilst a CMS can be useful, you may not need one.

For websites which will seldom require updates to content, a CMS may be unnecessary. However, for sites which require dynamic content/features — e.g., blogs, press releases, or e-commerce functionality — a CMS is essential.

There are many CMS options available, all with various plug-ins and extensions to enable fine-tuning to niche business cases. 

If you are unsure as to whether you require a CMS, or desire advice on selecting one, you can request a free consultation.

Registering a domain name

When planning to launch a website, you must purchase a domain name via a domain registrar.

It is advisable to keep your domain name concise and memorable — e.g., doe.co.uk would be preferred over doeconsultancyservices.co.uk.

To protect your business from cybersquatters, you may also wish to purchase various domain names with different top-level domains — for example, John Doe may wish to register both doe.co.uk and doe.com.

Getting off the Ground

Once you have determined your new website’s primary objective(s) and technical requirements —e.g., whether it will have a CMS — and have registered your domain name, you can begin building it.

It is at this stage that many people make the common mistake of opting to use one of the countless website builders available online. Providing a basis with pre-existing templates, such platforms will deprive your website of any originality, and prevent you from making the right impression on visitors.

When launching a website, the only way to ensure originality and make the greatest possible impression on stakeholders is to design and code the site from scratch, allowing you to have its design conform to the visual style of your existing brand assets.

As this can be a daunting task — especially if you lack formal experience and/or education in this area – you may wish to engage a professional web developer.  To explore options and pricing, request a free consultation with no strings attached.

Hosting your website

Once your website is ready to be published, you will need web hosting.

It is important to select a web hosting service which will provide you with an SSL certificate — without one of these, your customers’ data is at risk from cybercriminals, as the connection between their device and the web server will be unencrypted. Additionally, your website will be flagged as unsecure by modern web browsers, lacking the signature ‘padlock’ icon.

Get in touch to find out about a web hosting package which includes unlimited free SSL certificates and state-of-the-art DDoS protection to keep your website secure.

Next Steps

After reading this article, you should now understand many of the key considerations involved in launching a website for your small business.

However, your business’s online journey does not end with the launch of your website; there are further considerations relating to content management and using your website to complement your social media strategy.

To find out more about how you could turbocharge your online presence, request a free consultation with no strings attached.