Having a home online is mandatory for businesses, brands, and organizations today. Why? Because before making a purchase, choosing a doctor, joining a church or organization – your potential customer or client is going to look for you online to see if you are legitimate. You need some type of social proof to help them to decide to continue along their journey with you.
99% of shoppers research purchases online before going to a store at least sometimes. 92% research purchases online while shopping in a brick-and-mortar store.
Power Research Consumer Reviews
Do you really need a website?
It depends! There are other online assets that can serve as social proof depending on what you’re doing. For example, if you’re a hair stylist you can use an Instagram profile or Facebook Business Page to share photos of your work to help potential clients decide whether to schedule an appointment. There are also new platforms like Vagaro and Appointy that can handle scheduling for you.
The key factor is how much information do you need to provide to help a potential customer make their decision and also how professionally do you want to present yourself to the world. Real businesses and organizations almost ALWAYS have a website in addition to any social media channels they may have.
If you’re planning to sell online you MUST have a online store website. You can learn more about this specific type of site HERE.
Business Name & Domain Names
The second you get the idea to launch a business and you start thinking about a name for it, you should also be checking to see if the domain that matches with that name is available. Ideally, the name you choose for your business should be the same or very close to the name of your domain. Before you finalize and trademark a name you need to check to see if the domain is available. You wouldn’t want to name your business Audrey’s Art Supplies and someone else is already using www.audreysartsupplies.com.
This can be a challenge today with so many domains already taken. You can use services like THIS AI Tool to check to see what’s available.
Domain = A domain name is an address on the internet where people can find your website. Domains are what we can type in the search bar to locate a website. Example – to find Global Girl Apothecary, you can type in ‘globalgirlapothecary.com’. The domain name for Google is ‘google.com’.
– The innanets
How much does a website cost?
Again, it depends. If you’re going to build your site yourself using a self-hosted website platform and builder like Wix, it will cost you around $20/month for a basic site. This requires that you have the technical and creative skills to personalize it and make it look nice. If you need a custom site that’s full of features you’re going to want to go with WordPress which is free, but you’ll need to pay for hosting or server space to store your files which will cost you a bit more depending on who you choose.
Hiring Help – What’s Not Included
Ongoing maintenance is NOT included. If you hire someone to build your website for you that’s a one-time event. Websites will need to be update as your business information changes. The best website builders will share resources to show you how to do basic things like create a new blog post or page and update existing posts or pages as needed. If you don’t plan on doing this yourself, you’ll need to hire help to do this which will be an additional cost.
Graphic Design is NOT included. If you don’t have a useable logo or brand for your business you will need to pay an additional fee for me to create one for you. The success of your site depends in large part on the quality of your images and graphics.
Copywriting and editing are NOT included. You are responsible for writing the content for your website and providing it to your developer or hiring someone to do it for you. This includes information about your business, product descriptions, and all other text that appears on the site.