It should go without saying that all businesses need a website. The mere presence of a business online helps to give an air of legitimacy to the business, along with helping to attract customers who otherwise might never have heard of you. There can be little doubt that the thought of having to set up and maintain such a website is a daunting prospect for business owners, particularly when they have had little to no experience with setting up web-pages before.
By far the most popular of the content management services (CMS) on offer at the moment is WordPress. This is understandable. They offer an easy to use system which can easily be adapted to the specifics of your business’ needs, and have a wide range of plugins to help maintain and support the pages you upload. So, for those less than tech-savvy people, here’s a guide to how to get your business page off the ground.
Registering a Domain Name and Finding a Host Company
The absolute first step to setting up your business website is to register your unique domain name with a reliable hosting service. There are thousands of hosting service available. You need to be sure that the hosting company will support WordPress. In order to save you some time, here are the hosting companies which are recommended by WordPress itself:
- Bluehost – if you are looking for a wide range of options, Bluehost is a great choice. It offers unlimited disk storage, frequent updates, unlimited domain hosting, up to 2,500 email addresses, and unlimited data transfer.
- DreamHost – allows for a one-click install, unlimited hosted domains, a free domain name and, best of all, a two-week trial to allow you to ensure that it really is right for your unique business needs.
- Laughing Squid – This is a cheaper service, but it still offers a great support team who will perform a default installation for you, along with offering great customer services.
Downloading and Installing WordPress
For ease of use, it is highly recommend that you use the one-click installer which all of the above hosting services offer. It lets you get on with the important parts of building your website without getting bogged down in technical details.
For those who want to look into doing it themselves, find a link to a video explanation of the steps needed here.
Add Your Extras
Extras when it comes to WordPress are fairly thick on the ground. They include:
- Themes – it is well worth looking into the wide variety of themes which are offered by WordPress. They allow you to inject some real personality into your site without having to put in hours of time and effort into doing so.
- Plugins – WordPress currently has a directory of over 25,000 plugins, meaning that you will find the ideal ones for your site, whether you need extra security or a way to filter spam from connected email accounts.
- Forums – If you ever get lost when dealing with anything at all to do with WordPress, the forums offer a wealth of information on every possible topic.
It is also worth considering attaching a WordPress-based blog to your business website – a task made very easy by the layout of WordPress’ set-up pages. A blog will help to promote your business better than almost any other form of online advertising, attracting people who are genuinely interested in your services and building a solid base for whatever you have planned for the next stage of your business.
