Marketing For Startups: How To Make Your First Website

Back in the day, when you asked marketers if firms needed websites, they might have said that it depended on the sector. For instance, whereas oil drilling businesses can concentrate more on traditional marketing, shops clearly gain from having a website.

But this is no longer the case. In the previous few years, there has been a significant rise in internet usage. As a result, creating a company website is now equally necessary as choosing a perfect location for a physical store.

Data Reports found that 4.88 billion people, or 62 percent of the world’s population, used the Internet in just one month in October 2021. Additionally, more and more individuals are using the internet, with over 600,000 new users joining the web every day. These statistics indicate that, irrespective of your industry, there’s a good chance that your target audience is already online.

In this article, we will talk about:

The importance of web design and development and hiring a web design agency for startups
• If you need to choose web design vs web development
• What the components of responsive web design include
• How to build your very first website

Build A Strong Online Presence – Start With A Website

There are various methods to create an online presence, but a business website is the first step to your business. The website you create should be responsive and SEO-ready once it is up. Otherwise, you’ll be squandering the potential of your website and robbing your company of hits, engagement, and conversions.

Searching for a responsive web design business with years of experience in the field can be beneficial. You’ll get a staff with experience building lead-generating websites, affordable web design packages, and expert advice on web design from creative web designers.

Like any investment, websites can produce pleasing returns with careful management. Startups that invest in excellent web design and development will stand out from businesses who don’t bother to understand how to generate leads.

The Benefits Of Building A Business Website

A website offers the following benefits to startups:

Credibility

Your reputation and trustworthiness grow when your website seems well-developed. This reflects your dedication to presentation, which customers often link with big businesses and renowned brands. Still, your website’s quality affects its credibility. Visitors are more likely to trust you if your website boasts a modern design, great content, smooth user experience (UX), and ample company information.

24/7 Operations for Business

Your website serves as your online shop front. It is available around-the-clock and can handle transactions outside of your normal business hours. For instance, your consumers can make last-minute purchases or reservations while already curled up in bed wearing pajamas. There will be no need for them to wait for your store to open the next day or drop by to purchase products.

There are no geographic restrictions or barriers.

A website has the potential to connect with a larger customer base compared to an LED sign outside your business. While traditional advertising (print, radio, and television) can promote your company beyond your local area, it tends to be costly. Over time, a website with effective SEO proves to be a more cost-effective option.

Proficiency in E-Commerce

When you design products or services available for online purchase, you can effortlessly establish eCommerce pages and sell them through your website. Simplifying eCommerce for your customers through web development projects can directly enhance your bottom line.

These benefits align with two key business goals: heightened sales and enduring success. In today’s profoundly digital landscape, small businesses require web design not only as a necessity but also as a strategic marketing approach.

More reasons for supporting small business websites and web development project ideas are provided below:

You aren't limited by the established themes, formats, recommendations and algorithms of online forums, social media platforms, and yellow pages.
Your website can be designed however you choose. If you like, you can even use wacky web design advice.
Websites can grow. As your company gets bigger, you can begin with a basic WordPress site and later upgrade to one with a more intricate structure and customized designs.
When networking, you can make a strong initial impression by simply sharing your website's URL; individuals can learn more about your business when they're interested.

Web Design Vs Web Development: Which Service Do I Need?

Which Service Do I Require: Web Design or Web Development?

A website will profit from the services of a web designer and a web developer. A web design agency may have someone who can do both, but large corporations often provide web design services in addition to web development. This permits specialists to concentrate on a single subject and deliver better, higher-quality work.

Web designers are in charge of the aesthetics of a website’s visual aspects. Web developers, on the other hand, manage the more technical aspects of the job and ensure that the web designers’ products function properly.

So, which service do you require? It all depends on what you want to achieve.

If you currently have a website but are unhappy with how it appears on the screen, you will need web designers to create fresh layouts and designs for you.
If you currently have a website and enjoy how it looks on the screen, but want to improve its usability and other technical aspects (for example, cut page loading time or publish shoppable content), you'll require web development project ideas tailored to those objectives.
If you do not yet have a website, you will require the services of both web designers and web developers.

If you are the third, don’t consider web design vs web development as if you have only one option.

What Exactly Is A Responsive Website?

A website is responsive if it automatically adjusts to provide users with the greatest view available. It is mobile-friendly, and all visual elements (headers, menus, photos, videos, and text) properly upload on small displays.

Branding and UX elements are components of responsive web design. It is the responsibility of web developers to guarantee that on-page content adjusts to the proportions of a screen without compromising ease of navigation.

The following are responsive web design components:

Fluid and flexible grids: Instead of moving every visual element on the page, only the grids that contain them are moved.
Media queries: A piece of HTML code that specifies how material should be shown when a screen’s width falls within a certain range.
Negative space: On a desktop screen, blank spaces decrease clutter and allow grids to align without overlapping.
Resizeable media: Images and movies automatically resize to fit the width of the screen.
Adaptable menu: When viewed on a small screen, the navigation bar will float or cascade.
Single column: Websites with multiple columns display content grids in a single scrollable column in order of priority.

With these features in mind, we can now move on to the procedures for creating a lead generation website.

How to Create a Company Website

Agencies that offer responsive web design services do everything, from registering a domain to launching a website. But in the interest of knowing the process, here are the steps for building a business website:

1. Decide on a Domain Name

Ideally, your business name should be your domain or parent URL. Prepare a couple of alternatives in case your first choice is no longer available. This makes the process a lot faster, especially if you have an entire team waiting on your decision.

2. Choose a Web Hosting Service

For your website to go live, it needs a robust and reliable web hosting service. Web hosting companies provide secure storage for all page content like images, videos, graphics, code and text. Third-party web hosting saves you the cost and space necessary for maintaining servers and storage hardware on-site.

Web hosting services are also in charge of keeping your website up and running at all times. So, while selecting a provider, ensure that they can give the following:

Uptime Stability: Select a web server that does not have a history of frequent website outages. This information on your prospective service provider can be obtained by visiting forums where people are frank and more inclined to express their dissatisfaction with a provider.

Speed: Web hosting companies often boast about their amazing hosting speeds on their websites. They do this to sell, thus a better reference would be website owners in your area. Geography is important since, in addition to the host’s infrastructure, their distance from your geographical location can effect their web hosting speed. According to IBM, “the longer the distance the data must travel, the longer it will take to reach its destination.”

Consistent client service: Consistent uptime and fast website performance are meaningless if your service provider is unavailable when you have a hosting problem that stops your website from running properly. Choose a service provider who responds to your emails and addresses your complaints as soon as feasible.

Create Your Website

This is the time to dump all of your web design concepts! There are two approaches to this:

Select a ready-made theme: These WordPress creative site design themes might be free or paid.
Create your website from scratch: Create completely unique web design concepts based on your brand bible.

Here are some more web design suggestions and best practices for small businesses:

Change the permalinkformat to Post Name (for example, https://yoursite.com/blog/2022/01/01/blogtitle).
Add SEO pluginssuch as Yoast, All In One SEO, WPForms, Constant Contact, and OptinMonster to your site. Plugins can aid with SEO, allow you to build contact forms, or help you recapture visitors by displaying a pop-up page.
Create well-written, useful, and optimized content for your primary pages. De-index any blank or duplicate pages (for example, product pages for different variants of the same item) until you have new original material to post.
Sort internal pagesinto appropriate groups. These groups should not be overly broad or too narrow.
Create a website designthat reflects your brand or the environment of your industry.
Include widgetsin the footer with your NAP information (name, address, phone number). Check that they match the NAP information on your social media and directory pages.
Avoid overloading web pages with high-resolution graphics and videos. Too many can make your website feel slow and cumbersome.
Start SEO as early as possible. Even better, design your websitewith SEO in mind.