Having a website is essential for any small business to succeed in the online marketplace. As a webmaster who has worked on creating or marketing more than 100 websites, I know what it takes to create great and attractive business websites. If you're looking to create a new website for startups or make your current site more effective, here are 10 key steps to get started and help your small business website compete effectively in the online marketplace.1.Identify Your Goal: Before you start designing your website, it's important to identify your goal. What do you want your website to achieve? Do you want to increase sales, generate leads, or provide information? Once you have identified your goal, you can choose the right website builder to achieve it.2.Choose a Template: There are 510 professionally designed templates available that come with a bunch of incredible features and a huge app store where you can install any extras you need.
Most brands have one dominant color and then two or three secondary colors. Blue is the most popular color, and a third of the top 100 brands use it in their logo.3.Create Wireframes: Wireframes can be created with pen and paper, or digitally with website design tools or a website builder that can help you visually communicate the structure of your site. There are 3 types of wireframes and, as you develop your website, you'll iterate from one to the other, gaining more “fidelity” or detail as you go.4.Optimize for Speed: The size of web design elements can have a significant impact on site load time. For example, if an image exceeds 1 MB, the speed is likely to be affected.
Google recommends that each page of the website does not exceed 500 KB.5.Make It Accessible: Research shows that when a website is inaccessible, 71% of people with disabilities abandon it. The United States alone has more than 61 million people with disabilities, so not serving this demographic group can significantly affect your web traffic.6.Optimize for SEO: SEO is an extremely important ongoing process that can make the difference between appearing on the first page of search engine results pages (which generates large amounts of free traffic to your website) or on page 300 (which doesn't generate traffic).7.Find a Web Designer: If you're looking for a web designer, there are many options available such as freelancers, agencies, and online platforms.8.Test Your Site: Once your website is designed and launched, it's important to test it regularly to ensure it's working properly and all links are working correctly.9.Monitor Performance: It's also important to monitor the performance of your website regularly to ensure it's performing well and meeting your goals.10. Update Regularly: Finally, it's important to update your website regularly with fresh content and new features to keep visitors engaged.