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Planning a website is easy, but doing it right takes some time. If you follow these steps you'll be on the road to a successful business website!

Steps to plan a website

1. Learn how websites work
2. Set goals for your website
3. Set a website budget
4. Do website research
5. Choose a domain and host
6. Get ready to hire a web designer
7. Sign a firm contract

And once it's done...

1. Thoroughly test the website
2. Fix and improve
3. Occasionally Update your website
4. Work on traffic and conversions

There are many ways to create a good business blog. The trick is to make sure your visitors are finding a useful resource. Last time we talked about using a business blog to teach people how to solve a problem. This time we’ll talk about another very effective strategy: providing a useful resource. Going back…  » Read more »

Many people seem to think that their business blog should be a stream of product updates or advertisements. But most blog readers are reading for enjoyment or education, not because they want to read a bunch of marketing schpiel. If you’re only blogging about your business’s products, then the only people who will find your…  » Read more »

Why should you blog for business? There are a lot of benefits. Here are some of the best reasons to create a company blog. Business blogs: Increase traffic. A 2005 study found that 51% of blog readers visit product and corporate sites as a result of reading blogs. Shape opinion. The same study found that…  » Read more »

How to plan a website, step #5: choose a domain and host After you finish your research and site diagrams, it’s time to choose a domain and host. The domain is the name people will use to get to your website, and the host is where the actual files are stored. You can (and should)…  » Read more »

This is a tricky question, but you can set a budget for how much your website will cost by considering these factors: Website design – this is the most variable cost. It’s kind of like buying a car: there are Ford trucks, Geo Metros, Land Rovers, and everything in between, and there are hundreds of…  » Read more »

How to plan a website, step #3: set a website budget Setting a website budget is not as hard as you might think. Buying a website is like buying a car: you can buy your brother’s Geo Metro for $500 cash, or you can pay the Jaguar dealer a hefty sum, or you can choose…  » Read more »

How to plan a website, step #1: learn how websites work Websites have 4 basic parts. Here is how websites work: Domain name: Every website has a unique domain name, like Amazon.com. Domain names have two parts: the name (Amazon) and the extension (.com). You may have heard of GoDaddy, one of the big companies…  » Read more »

Five years ago, mobile friendly sites were reserved for companies with deep pockets. Today, it is easier (and more important) than ever to make sure that anyone viewing your site has a decent user experience, where they can find what they need quickly and easily – whether they are using a tiny old smartphone screen,…  » Read more »

What is dedicated hosting, and why would I want it? Dedicated hosting is a service where your website is stored on a server all by itself. It is more expensive than shared hosting, where your web host allows other companies to buy space on the same web server, but it usually means your website will…  » Read more »

SEO is a complex, ever-changing art, but down at its core there are principles and best practices that never change. You don’t have to be an expert to make these basic changes to your site. Here are some easy tips almost anyone can use to improve their SEO: Update your site on a regular schedule….  » Read more »

There are billions of websites on the internet, and most people find them using search engines. Here are some tips on how to make your website searchable: Make your content searchable Create lots of keyword-rich content to make your website searchable. Search engines read code and text, so you should take time to write meaningful…  » Read more »

Totally free website development resources If you’re thinking about making your own small business website, it can be overwhelming trying to figure out where to start. Here is a list of recommended resources to make it a little easier! HTML Basic Tutor – A website where you can learn almost anything about HTML, the basic…  » Read more »