Entrepreneurs and employers had to adapt to the new frontier, which shifted the business scene even more to the digital world. This predicament opened many opportunities, and many business owners started developing their online brands to remain competitive and battle these unfortunate turns of events that befell the entire globe.
To prepare you to move your work online and avoid common mistakes, we have prepared this article which should give you a good idea of where to start.
How to bring your business online
Typically, bringing your business online is straightforward. You need to think about what your work involves and then picture how you want people to see it.
When you get an idea, it’s time to register your domain name. What is a domain name, you may ask? It is the “online sign” people will see and search for in search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo) to find you. Make sure this business relates to your line of work – for example, if you have a tea shop, think of a name that best describes your brand. There are many sources from which you can purchase the domain name but more about that later.
After you think of a perfect name for your online brand, it’s time to look for a web hosting provider which will bring it online and keep it up and running 24/7 so that people visit it at any time. A web hosting provider is essentially a service provider that offers a “hosting” ground for your website. Typically, hosting providers also sell domains, so you can purchase them while buying the web hosting service – two birds with one stone!
What should you look for in a hosting provider?
Picking a hosting provider can be a crucial decision. Thus you need to ensure they check the following boxes before you select them:
- They need to provide a hosting service near your business. For example, if you operate in the US, you need to make sure they offer hosting solutions in America to make the website faster for your audience.
- As you are just getting started – you will need a helping hand at least until you get settled. Ensure the provider you chose has 24/7/365 support available via as many support lines as possible (phone, ticket/email, live chat)
- Ensure they have a high uptime guarantee. 99.9% is an industry standard, and you should not compromise for anything less than that.
- Make sure they offer the latest available software and hardware on their servers. This will ensure that your website will be fast and secure.
- Do your research! Sites like Trustpilot are an excellent starting point where you can look for a great web hosting provider as you can take the word of other people that have previously used them!
Now that you have all the vitals picking an Amazing Web Hosting provider should be more manageable.
This is excellent information, but I have no idea how to make a website!
If you are a complete newcomer to the digital world, creating your first website could be a hassle, which may seem overwhelming. However, there are plenty of accessible online tools you can use to achieve your goals. The most famous one is called WordPress. WordPress powers over 60% of the websites on the internet, and you can imagine how vast their community is. There are many sources that you can read and learn about how to build a website, and YouTube has great content creators that give you step-by-step instructions on how to do everything by yourself literally.
Another good reason to use WordPress is that many web hosting providers offer WordPress Optimized Hosting servers to ensure the application works perfectly and their customers can enjoy a speedy, secure, and reliable experience.
Many freelancers and web agencies will do this for you if you do not have the time to build your website. We recommend looking them on Fiver or Upwork as they are known places where people offer these types of services.
Let’s summarize all the steps above.
- Figure out a catchy and unique domain name for your brand that best represents your work.
- Find a reliable, stable, and secure hosting provider who will cater to your needs when you need them and help you adjust to your new online endeavor.
- When you have purchased the hosting and get a domain name – settle on the tool, you will use to build it. We recommended WordPress as it is very easy to get into and has a ton of tutorials, guides and videos online, which you can follow to create the site. Alternatively, you can hire a developer who will create it for you, saving you time.
Final Words
We hope that this article helped help you figure out how to get started with your online journey. It may seem rough at first, especially if your work has no relation to the digital world, but you will get the hang of it quickly once you get started. The future is digital, and everyone knows it – the sooner you expand and deploy your brand on the internet, the sooner will you reap the success you deserve!