A Look at Simple Websites for the Early Stage Small Business Owner

I don’t care what anybody says--if you’re a small business, you need to give your customers some way to find you on the web. It could be as simple as claiming your address on Google Maps and adding your hours. It could be an informative Facebook page or a Wordpress blog. Whatever it is, it needs to exist.

But what do you do when you’re ready to leave the free stuff behind and develop a more thorough web presence? Do you have to go all out and hire a professional web developer? Depending on your type of business and level of growth, that may be the right move. But for those of us in the early stages of business development, a simple website designed at home should get the job done.

These simple sites are often designed using the same programs available to free sites-- programs with web templates like Yola or WordPress or Tumblr. What’s the difference? You make the whole thing more official by registering a domain name (usually about $20-$30/yr.) and paying for web hosting. Because these simple sites don’t need tons of juice, you shouldn’t need to spend tons of dough on web hosting. The services provided within the $5 to $15/month price range will suffice.

So, now you’re paying an extra hundred something dollars a year for a website that’s not too different from the one you got for free. Why spend the money? Let’s take a look at some of the perks of this next class of website: the design-it-yourself, host it for money, appease your customers website.

1. A professional e-mail address. Most hosting sites allow you to establish e-mail addresses customized to your business. Instead of rootmassfarm@gmail.com, I can direct customers to lindsey@rootmassfarm.com, giving my business cards and marketing materials that professional edge.
2. Your own domain name. Granted, you don’t need to pay for web hosting to get your own domain name. You just need to pay to register it. However, web hosting sevices like Blue Host will give you step-by-step instructions for setting up your domain name--a process that could otherwise take a bit of web know-how. Once you have your domain established, you can drop the cumbersome .wordpress or .blogspot or .wix cluttering up your web address.
3. Technical support. I’ve never used the tech support that comes with my web hosting, but it’s nice to know it’s there. 24/7.
4. An ad-free appearance. By paying for web hosting, you’re pretty much assured in ad-free site. Even the more benign free hosting sites insist on sneaking their name or logo somewhere on your site. You can achieve complete control of your site’ content by moving to a fee-for-service web host.
5. All sorts of tech things. More bandwith and file storage and opportunities for search engine optimization and thousands of e-mail addresses and multiple domain names. I don’t really know much about this, but it all sounds useful. Just make sure you don’t spend too much money on upgraded or premium services that you don’t need or don’t know how to use.

Before you make any decisions, make sure you outline the goals and uses for your website. Doing so will help you decide the kind of website your business needs, whether it be a free blog, a full-blown site, or the in-between discussed in this post.

For more thoughts on creating a dependable small business website, check out these articles:

“Why Your Small Business Needs a Website in 2010” by Lisa Barone
“5 Small Biz Website Musts” by Clint Page