DIY - Do it Yourself website for your business
So you want to go it alone and try to do it yourself? Okay! If you made it this far then I know you can do it. With the tools and resources available today, you can setup your own company website in a matter of minutes (queue the lazers).
Lets start with a few questions to see if you are ready. If you can say yes to a few of these, then you are more than capable to setup, configure and maintain your own website.
Can you...
- Update your facebook or social media page with a photo from your mobile device?
- Reply to messages or phone calls in a timely manner?
- Take photos and create media content to promote your business (just take photos of what you do)?
- Maintain a subscription? (because you have to pay $14.99 per year to register your .com name with a domain registrar like godaddy.com or google domains)
- SSH to a remote server? (if you can do this, see our other guide "Lonewolf on a Budget"
If you passed the test then you should know this These Secrets
Yup, Google has websites and its free. Yessir! Just start your business listing with google and add your address and hours of operations. If you already have social media with photos, google will automatically pull those in and create a website for you. You can optimize it further and your reviews, maps, and search results are all in one place. This is a win win for anyone with a small business that does not have any specific needs. You can connect your .com domain to this service.
Worpress.com
You can get started for FREE. But for a business, we suggest you pay them to host your website and provide support for about $8.00 a month. Remember this because most "Web Design" companies will sell you a wordpress website for thousands of dollars and then still charge you $100.00 per month for "maintenance". In all caps: YOU CAN RUN YOUR OWN WORDPRESS WEBSITE FOR EIGHT DOLLARS A MONTH FROM WORDPRESS.COM. You can connect your .com domain to this service.
also, wordpress like many other Content Management Systems are Open Source, meaning essentially "Free". So, you could also run your own server if you are semi-technical. See our other DIY blog posts.
