If you are just starting your business, you might be asking yourself what type of website should a business owner have? Or perhaps you are thinking about redoing your website, you might be asking yourself what type of website should you build? There are different types and platforms to choose from. But which one should be yours?
Gone are the times where we had to build websites from scratch. Luckily as a business owner you don't really need to reinvent the wheel, and you don’t need to know how to code at all. There are so many CMS (content management systems) available, even for free. We will look at the different types of websites and some of the most popular CMS available right now.
Types of Websites
When we think about the types of websites for a business owner, the first question to ask here is, what is the main objective for you to have a website? Are you selling products or services? If you are selling products, are there so many that you need a catalogue for them? Or do you sell different types of services and all you need is a way to show them online?
Let's first look at the different types of websites there are and the platforms that offer them.
Bloggers Website
This is the typical website where you write blog posts about a specific topic and you do it consistently. You might be selling something, or you might have a newsletter that you want to attract people to, or both. But your main objective might be the content creation. There are two popular platforms that offer great functionality for bloggers, and these are WordPress and Blogger by Google. Some of those functionalities are to sort blogs by category, be able to search by keyword, show the most popular blog posts or the most recent ones for example. We will discuss each platform separately on another blog post.
The main objective of a blogger website is to show your content in a way that is easy for the visitor to read and to find. And usually, the call to action we see in these types of websites is an invitation to subscribe to a newsletter.
Product or Services Website
This type of website is one where we showcase the product or service you are offering. This can be a full blown website with different pages, blogs posts, photo galleries, portfolio, etc. It can be a one page website with all the information in just one page where people can either click on the menu to go down or simply scroll down to read. Or it can be a very simple website with only the essential parts, such as contact, about us and the product or service information. We will cover the essential parts of a website on another blog post.
For these types of websites, there are many different CMS you can choose from. From free ones (such as Google Sites or WordPress.com) to paid ones. Some where you either pay for the hosting (WordPress.org) or for the platform itself.
Some of the most popular platforms are WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, Webflow, Super among others. Although there are many templates you can choose from, you might still need the help of a designer if you want to have something custom made.
You can also have a mini-website with Google My Business, but that one is really restrictive, meaning that you can’t really change the design. We will have a small tutorial for each of these websites on another post.
Usually the call to action for this type of website is to contact the company, to buy your product or service, and to sign up to your newsletter (if you have one).
Ecommerce Website
The ecommerce type of website is different from the regular website as it has the possibility to showcase a catalogue of products and the functionality of being able to put a different price on each product, add a discount, add inventory, sell the product online, etc.
For these types of websites, the most popular platforms are Shopify and WooCommerce (together with WordPress). There are many more, they all have similar functionalities, which are being able to connect a payment system and an inventory system so when the product is out of stock, the information will be automatically updated on the website.
For this type of website, the call to action, besides “buy”, can also be to sign up to your newsletter so you can send product and company updates.
Start your online presence
As you can see, there are different types of websites for a business owner, and so many platforms to choose from. But the most important thing is to know what you need your website for. When you are just starting, my suggestion would be to start with a very simple website until you are ready to have a full website.
The most important thing when you are just starting is to show yourself and/or your company, so people know what you offer and what you are about. Start interacting with your potential customers, or readers in the case of a blog, and most importantly, start listening to them!
When you create a website, make sure you have tracking in place so you can have a better understanding about what your visitors like or dislike on your website. This is also part of listening to your audience and this will allow you to know where your traffic comes from, what actions they are taking on your website and whether or not your content is engaging.
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