Owning a small business website can seem like a big jump to business owners who have operated successful brick-and-mortar style companies for years. It can also be a bit daunting for someone who has a good idea and wants to begin a web business, but doesn’t know where to start.

The bottom line is that, if pursued correctly, a business website can be quite profitable, whether your business operates online, offline, or both. However, knowing how to go about it is important to make the investments you make in your site truly worth it.

Here are some steps for how to ensure that your business website is bringing you the most profit possible:

1. Set goals. One of the biggest mistakes that business owners make with their websites is not knowing exactly why they’re creating them. You may think “I need a website, because everyone is supposed to have a website.” But if that’s you’re main reason, you don’t have the whole picture in front of you. Browse through websites that companies similar to yours have created. What sorts of features do they offer? What kinds of information do they provide? Are these effective? What would you do differently? Then determine what your main goals are for your website: is its purpose to inform, to gain new customers at your physical store, or to gain online customers? Also set goals for your website’s growth and features that you’d like to see both immediately and long term.
2. Do your homework. Before you jump in and buy domain name registration and business web hosting from the first company you see, look around to understand what you’re looking for and what you need from a website. Do you need ecommerce capability? The ability to increase your disk space as your website grows? Dedicated customer service and technical support? Help designing the website? Know what you’re looking for so you spend your money well from the start.
3. Stay invested—literally. A successful business website is, in a way, a living thing. You don’t just create it and let it be. Spending a bit of time and a bit of money each month to keep your website fresh and growing will certainly pay off. This may mean updating your blog once or twice a month. It may mean developing more user-friendly features as you go. It may also mean investing in search engine optimization so that people can find the website you put so much effort into. As with any investment, these efforts really do pay off by making your site more accessible and more likely to drive conversions.

With these three major tips, you are ready to get started. Research and find a good domain name registration company, secure affordable business web hosting, and then begin. A good business website is helpful to your customers, and helping your customers helps your company by creating loyalty and gaining exposure to your target market.

affordable business web hosting · business website · customer service · Domain Name Registration · technical support

If you are looking into domain name registration and web hosting for your personal or business website, you may be wondering whether subdomains are necessary or appropriate for the site you are building. What is a subdomain anyway? How is this any different from a subdirectory? Which is right to use for different situations? Here’s a look at these two basic types of domain name organization, and how they each can be applied to the specific needs of your own website.

What is a subdomain?

This is our first question. A subdomain is considered a domain that is part of a larger domain. For example, on the large domain “MyExcellentBusinessWebsite.com” you could create a subdomain of “Sales.MyExcellentBusinessWebsite.com” the “sales.” comes listed in front of the domain name. This means that it is a separate entity from other subdomains within the larger URL: the files are kept separately, email addresses are located separately, and so on.

What is a subdirectory?

A subdirectory, in contrast, is an extension of a domain, such as “MyExcellentBusinessWebsite.com/sales”. All of the information for this directory and other subdirectories is located in the same place (the server owned by the web hosting provider you chose for hosting your website), and emails come from the same domain as well.

So, what is the difference?

Think of it this way: picture a 3-leafed clover. Subdomains are the cloven leaves that make up the cloverleaf shape: they are each a separate leaf, but are part of the larger whole. For a subdirectory, picture a tree with a single trunk and several branches: the subdirectories are branches that extend from the single main trunk.

In practice, there are several differences between subdomains and subdirectories.

• As mentioned, the files and email addresses are stored separately, so from a UK web hosting perspective, make sure that your potential web hosting provider offers this service if you’re considering subdomains. This will allow you to have email addresses from separate subdomains (which make it simpler for clients and customers to keep things straight). It also means that people searching within your website can search within just the subdomain they’re on, so your information is easier to find and access.
• SEO is the other major difference. Because subdomains are treated as individual domain names, search engines will rank them independently. This means you can optimize different subdomains for different terms, or you optimize for the same term and potentially have your website represented more than once within the top search results page.

The bottom line: If you need your website to address several different types of customer or perform several major functions from one site, subdomains are a good way to keep that information separate without creating separate websites. If this is something you’re interested in, then before you sign up for web hosting or pay to register your domain name, check the provider to ensure they have the capacity and support to provide this functionality to your new website.

business website · domain name organization · Domain Name Registration · register a domain name · subdirectory · subdomains · web hosting · website