How to get a website for less than £100 and promote it!

Every business needs a website. That’s a fact these days. No one can find you online if you aren’t online, seems obvious doesn’t it? Getting a website doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. In fact, you can actually get a fully functional website for under £100! And that includes advertising! Sound good? Read on…

There are certain things you can’t get for free. But the majority is out there for you to find if you put in the effort. Not everyone needs to hire a website designer. Maybe in the future, when you have expanded your business to a nationwide service. But when you first want to put yourself out there, you aren’t going to need to fork out thousands. Here is all you need:

·         Domain name – For those of you who aren’t up to date with the tech lingo; this is your website address (for example www.ArunGrayPT.com). Obviously some of these website names are taken (such as Facebook.com and Google.com) but chances are, if you are going to be using your name, it is probably available. It doesn’t have to be your name however. If you have a business name, use that! Have a play around with ideas and see what you can come up with. This will cost you around £6.99 per year for a .co.uk domain, or £9.99 for a .com domain; depending on what you would like to go for. I would stick to these two rather than .org or .net… but that’s just my preference as I think they don’t look as professional to customers.

·         Website host – This is the service that will put your website on the Internet. Basically, they are the middle man between your website and your customers. There are hundreds out there to choose from and I will recommend a few below.

 

Buying a domain

As I touched on above; your domain name can be anything… within reason. If you decided (for some reason) to add expletives to your domain, it will probably get blacklisted by Google and customers won’t find it. But that would be stupid so I’m sure you thought of that! I would choose something that clearly shows what you do. So, instead of www.ArunGray.co.uk you could go for www.ArunGrayPT.co.uk which shows you’re a PT. This way, customers know what they’re getting. If they see “Joe Bloggs” on Google and then see “Arun Gray Personal Training” below it, even though it’s lower on the list, they are more likely to click on it as they can see it’s the website of a personal trainer.

GoDaddy are one of the biggest domain selling sites in the world and their website it pretty easy to navigate. As I mentioned earlier, you can pick up a domain for under £10.

 

 

Website hosting

Hosting can again be simple, as long as you do a few YouTube searches and have a look at some how-to guides. I like Yola. It starts just £27 a year to host your website under their Bronze package. This is all I use and I attract a good amount of traffic. They use a simple drag and drop style design so you don’t need to learn any html programming which is what puts most people off creating a website. You simply drag a text box or image box from their easy-to-navigate tool bar and place it where you want on your page. There are also little widgets you can add such as Facebook “like” buttons which you can link to your Facebook pages.

 

If you want to keep everything in one place, GoDaddy also offer a hosting service for just £29.88 per year.

 

What should you include?

The basics you need on your website are:

·         Home/Welcome page – Again, sounds obvious but this is the first thing your potential customers will see. It needs to be clear, professional and appealing. Images always stand out more and if people see loads of text, they probably won’t read it. Put on some pictures of past clients, yourself, your equipment.

·         Contact page – Once you’ve attracted anyone to your website, your next goal is to get them to contact you. This is how you clinch your sale. They will be interested if they have visited your site. The only way they can get hold of you is if you show them how too. Include everything. Phone, address, email, social media accounts, even a map. Yola automatically places a map on your contact page if you have entered your address. This is visually appealing and will attract your customers’ attention.

·         About page – Again, an obvious but vital page. You need to explain who you are, what you do, how you can help people. Include details such as, how experienced you are, what qualifications you have, what sort of things you offer and what you specialise in. Think about the things people will be searching for. People often want to hire a personal trainer either for weight loss or for muscle building. Think about this when writing your bio. It’s a way of selling yourself. It will be there for the rest of your career, make it impressive. It’s like a CV. You wouldn’t apply for a job with a thin, short CV.

 

 

Promote!

Once you’ve purchased your domain name and you are hosted online, you need to get people on your website. The more people that see your website, the more sales you will make. If 5% of the people that visit your website become customers, for every 100 people that see your site 5 will become clients. This figure is much more flattering if 10,000 people are seeing your website! This can be done in two forms: online and offline promotion.

Online promotion involved adverts, getting your name out there and giving your page the best chance of being found on search engines. Look into search engine optimisation. Hire a SEO consultant. Purchase ads on Facebook, Google, Twitter.

Offline promotion is much more simple. Flyers, posters, signs, banners, clothing, business cards, directly telling people about your website.

Everything you do should include your website. Even if people see it and don’t need/want your service… they might do in the future. When they do need your help, they will know where to find you! Get your website printed on everything. Your uniform, business cards, even your car! It can also help with current customers. If they are with your for weight loss and they see you run a boot camp at the weekend, they might want to find out more.

Get yourself out there!

How to Choose and Register a Domain Name

Choosing a domain name is one of the most exciting things about getting a new website. It could potentially be a nationwide-known website and the future of your business.

Buying a self-hosted domain such as www.JoeBloggs.com can have a very professional look. Customers often trust this type of website and is obviously the option of choice for all large businesses and companies. However it can be a little daunting when buying a domain for the first time from GoDaddy. Once you’ve bought it, what happens next? How do you get your website linked with your domain?

Having a managed domain sites such as Tumblr or WordPress mean your address will look something along the lines of joeblogs.wordpress.com. These addresses are the default address that you will receive when you first open your WordPress account. Although this is the free and the easier option, it doesn’t have the same kind of professional look that a standard domain name does. It looks exactly what it is, a free website address. A quick online search (I recommend YouTube tutorials) can show you step by step how to link your domain to your website. It often takes a few minutes and is easier than you would think!

Not sure about what domain name to choose? Try your business name. This is a simple but effective option. It’s all about building a brand. The best method I have ever used is to use that same business name for EVERYTHING. All social media accounts should use that name. This way more people are hearing about that new business that’s growing. Now, you have a couple options if you don’t already have a business/domain name in mind. You can either use a simple, clear name that shows what your business offers, such as “Skegness Roofing”. This shows clearly that it is a roofing service based in Skegness. Or, you could go for a quirky, memorable name that stands out. “Nuts magazine” for example. In no way does that business name say what it actually is, other than a magazine. But everyone knows exactly what it is. They have to brand their business through other ways. Just because a company is large, it does not mean you should follow their business/promotional plan. Look into businesses that started with nothing. Or that grew with a small budget. These often possess a better marketing plan that you could tailor to suit the needs of your business.

It is important to register social media accounts under the same names as your domain name. This will both prevent someone else registering that name (as it is currently illegal to purchase a username from someone), and it will also allow you to build a brand for your business. All social media accounts should use the same username to prevent any customer confusion. If your Twitter username is “@JonesWeightLoss” and your Instagram username is “@JonesFitness” clients can become confused and will not know if you specialise in Fitness or Weight loss. It is important that potential clients know exactly what you offer.

You have two options when registering a domain:

·         Your first option is to purchase a domain name from GoDaddy. There are thousands of domains to choose from and GoDaddy’s website allows you to search for your chosen web address.

·         Your second option is to register a domain name for free when you register for website hosting with online site BlueHost. This again is useful as it allows you to manage everything about your website from one dashboard. BlueHost’s hosting packages start at $3.95 per month; which includes a domain name, personalised email address, domain hosting, and an easy to use website builder with templates to follow.