Three things to consider when building a small business website

It has been repeatedly said “if you don’t have a website, your business doesn’t exist!”. While we think it’s an over emphasized statement, there’s definitely some weight to it; Websites are an integral part of marketing strategy for any kind of business. But what are the building blocks of a small business website? In this article we are going to talk about just that.

Domain

A domain name is the name you give to your business, on the Internet. You typically purchase a domain from an “Domain Registrar” such as GoDaddy, Hostgator, Namecheap, and so on. You may think that your domain (like “ellipsismarketing.net”) is your website, but that’s far from truth; Your domain is only your “address on the Internet”. So, where does website come into the picture? We’ll talk about that in a second.

So, what does “owning a domain” mean? Just like owning a physical address means you have certain rights over the land or property that belongs that physical address, owning a domain means you have certain rights over the usage of that domain name on the Internet. Just like ownership of a physical address is generally proved using a government issued document such as a “deed of trust”, ownership of a domain name is proved through your “Domain Registrar”.

Hosting Plan

After you establish your ownership of a domain, the next thing you need to do is create a website and set it up in a way that it uses your domain name. And that’s where “hosting plan” comes into the picture.

In the physical world, after you own a piece of land or property, the first few things you’d do for building a house on it are – build the foundation, a platform, get electricity and water connection, etc. In other words, set up the basic building blocks that you need for your house. Similarly, in the virtual (Internet) world, after buying a domain, the next few things you’d do for building your website are – buying a computer and Internet connection (and of course electricity), installing all the necessary software on your computer to help you build a website, and set it up properly. While you can absolutely do all that by literally buying a computer and an Internet connection, etc., an easier and more economical way is buying a “hosting plan”; it is something that an IT company would provide you as a “managed service”. The IT company will buy the computer, set it up properly with all the necessary software, connect it to the Internet, etc. and charge you a “monthly fee” for managing it. All “Domain Registrars” provide hosting plans that you can pick based on your need and budget.

WordPress

After having a hosting plan, you are now ready to build your dream website. And that’s where WordPress comes into the picture.

Just like in the physical world, you’d build the foundation, the platform, etc. and then use some sort of architectural standard, some building blocks per say, to build your house, you’d do something similar in the virtual (Internet) world too. WordPress provides those basic building blocks, that framework, that you’d use to build your website. The best part is that WordPress is “open source” and free! Which means that not only you can use it for free, you can also freely make changes to it to suit your particular needs. According to WhoisHostingThis, WordPress is the most widely used framework on the Internet. It comes with a number of prebuilt features, themes and plugins that allows website developers create beautiful, scalable websites within weeks (sometimes days!) instead of months.

To summarize it all –

• Your “domain” is your “address” on the Internet.
• Your “hosting plan” is an agreement with your IT Services company for providing you a computer and Internet connection to run your website in exchange for some fee.
• And lastly, “WordPress” is the framework your web developer would use to build your website.

Now that you know “what’s what”, it’s time to build your website! Give us a call and we’ll help you with just the right kind of website that fits your budget. Our readymade website programs include domain registration, hosting, WordPress setup, and all the skilled workers you’d need to create and maintain your beautiful website.

Tags: small business website,domain,hosting plan,wordpress