Creating a Website for Your Home Business

By Robert W. Bly
Published on April 4, 2014
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Proper SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is important to consider when creating a website for your home business.
Proper SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is important to consider when creating a website for your home business.
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Business guru Robert W. Bly offers expert advice in
Business guru Robert W. Bly offers expert advice in "Start Your Own Home Business After 50."

Start Your Own Home Business After 50 (Quill Driver Books, 2013) is the perfect book to help you take care of your retirement income. Robert W. Bly offers advice and proven plans for starting a home business and achieving the income you’ve always wanted. Excerpted from “Launching Your New Business,” this selection considers the factors important in creating a website, including how to properly implement SEO.

No matter what kind of home business you have, you must create a website. If you’re over 50, you may not really recognize how indispensable a web presence is to a business today, but skipping this step will limit your chances in a world where few people under 30 have ever used the Yellow Pages and believe that if a piece of information is worth knowing, a Google search will find it. In addition, a website opens your business up to the world outside your local neighborhood. With a website, many businesses can be run entirely from home, and your website will work for you 24/7. So, having a business website is indispensable, whether you sell products or provide services.

How much time you spend creating your website and how detailed it needs to be will depend largely on what kind of business you are establishing. A simple one-page site with business details and contact information might be all you need for an import/export business. If you are a freelancer specializing in writing or design, your website should be more elaborate and provide a showcase of your talents. If you are selling items online, you will need to provide photos, add a shopping cart, and indicate ways for customers to pay for their purchases.

Getting a Domain Name

To set up a website, you first need a domain name. That’s the part of a web address that comes after the www. There are many online services that will register a domain name, including the popular GoDaddy and www.UltraCheapDomains.com. This step is very easy to do, even if you have limited computer knowledge, and the fees can be as low as about $10 per year.

Just log on to one of the services and search for a particular domain name of your choice to see if it is in use. The ideal domain name should be easy to remember and easy to relate to your business name. You may want to start by entering the name of your business as a domain name. Most businesses register as a “.com.” If your first choice of domain name is not available, you may be able to make it work with only a slight revision, such as adding a word like “the” or “best” before it, or “store,” “online,” or “shop” after it.

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