3.3. Initial Website Build and First Outreach

“You Never Get a Second Chance to Make a First Impression” – Will Rogers

As soon as you get your domain name (and the hosting plan) you should start working to put your initial website online. The initial website would not be a fully functional site representing your business idea but is a good starting point from where you can build your online business, step by step. Such website would not have all the features of your business idea (or the products) but could explain the reasoning behind it to the very first visitors.

There might be several motives why you would like to establish your initial web presence fast. First of all, making a simple website is a no-brainer and can be done  even in 1 hour or less. Other thing is that, at this stage of your online business journey you may want to contact potential business partners, co-founders,  team members, employees, investors and so on. You may even want to test the reactions of the first potential customers in order to validate your business idea (with a landing page).  To earn the trust of some (or all) above-mentioned stakeholders, you should create a neat initial website, addressing their points of interest.

Communicating  your business idea, or your offering, would be much easier if you have a ready website and a business card where you will put the web address too.

Another important reason to build an initial website is to start as soon as possible with the marketing. It is never too early to start the online marketing effort. It might be too early for advertising though, especially if your site is not fully functional, but there are many other free online marketing activities you can undertake at this point. If you expect any visitors/potential clients at this stage you may also want to start building your subscribers list.

Unless you want your website to read “under construction” log into the dashboard of your site (see the image below)  and start putting together the pieces.

Below you will find a list, short descriptions and video tutorials of all elements/tasks you should put together in order to establish your initial online presence.

Initial website adjustments

Theme.

There is a wide selection of free WordPress themes (website appearances) you can use. To set a theme, while at the dashboard (see image above), go to Appearance > Themes > Ad New. You can search themes by categories, features, layout and keywords. (After you install the theme, you will need to activate it.) Since there is a huge number of themes available, to save you some precious time, we would suggest you use the Spacious theme by ThemeGrill. This theme is free, simple, easy to setup and appropriate for different uses. If you need to, you can always change the theme later. ( Watch Video how to change the Theme )

Logo.

Adding a logo to a WordPress site is a piece of cake. First you need to create a logo yourself or engage a freelancer to do it for you. (Create a logo online for free)

After you have the logo just go to Appearance > Themes > Customize > Site identity, where you can add the logo and switch on/off the textual title and the tagline of the site. (Watch Video)

Having an appealing logo is very important since it gives a visual identity of your site and your online business.

Permalinks structure

On the dashboard go to Settings > Permalinks and change common settings to Post Name. You can use another structure but remember that the URLs should be as short as possible and readable by the users. You should also now that once you choose the structure you shouldn’t change it ever. (Watch Video)

Google Search Console

If you want your site to be noticed by Google, the most important search engine, you should register it at the Google Search Console https://search.google.com/search-console/. Google Search Console tracks your website performance in Google search, but it also speeds the indexing of your pages so that they can compete in the search results. Appearing in the search results is very important since it can bring many potential customers to our website.

Plugins

The plugins can enhance the appearance and the performance of your site but they can also add new features to the basic WordPress install. You can use plugins to fight spam, improve loading speed, add sliders, integrate ads, create e-shop and so on. At this point, you would need plugins for statistics, sitemaps, home page builder, and contact form. You will install other plugins later if you need them. To install plugins go to Plugins > Ad New (Use the search form to find the plugins we suggest below). After you install you need to activate the plugins in order to use them. Some plugins would need  some setting up too.

Web statistics

Since you go online you would probably want to know if any visitors come to your website. The simplest way to track your early visitors is to install the WP Power Stats plugin. Later (in Step 7) you will learn how to use Google Analytics to track the behavior of your site visitors and the site performance in details.

Sitemaps

If you want your site to be indexed fast and properly by Google and the other search engines you should have sitemaps. A plugin like Google XML Sitemaps will help you automatically generate sitemap every time a new page or post is added to the site. Any time a new sitemaps is generated by Google XML Sitemaps it is also submitted to the Google Search Console.

Initial content

The content is king, as you may know. You will have to continuously  enrich your site with interesting and engaging content if you want to attract, retain visitors and turn them into (loyal) customers. At this phase, you should put at least come content that will make you appear as legitimate web business.

 Homepage

The homepage of your website should represent the most important aspects of your business. If your website is an informative one at your homepage should be the most appealing content (posts, news, videos etc). If you sell products you should put the bestsellers and/or the current promotions there. I you offer personal or business services you should emphasize your competences (principles of work, portfolio, references, testimonials , etc). If you offer software you should present the features and the prices with an option for a trial.

There are two basic options for your home page when you use WordPress. (To select, go to Settings > Reading > Your homepage displays.) The first option is to set your latest posts to appear at your home page. The other option is to set a specific page to be your homepage. To do the later you need to create the page first (Pages > Ad New or + New > Page). To get the best out of this option you could use plugin like Elemntor that can help you add elements and edit the homepage with ease. The elements may include but are not limited to: sliders, galleries, statements, post carousel, testimonials, features, products, videos etc.

About us/Team

While your homepage mainly presents your offering, the About page will explain who is behind the website or what is the main idea of your business. Not all visitors go to the about page but those who go there really care. By presenting your business in the best light you can earn their trust.

FAQ

The Frequently Asked Question is usually a very useful page that can help the first time visitors navigate and use your site, understand your business concept, learn about your offering and so on. FAQs work the best if they come form real visitors of your site but you can start form your guesses, what they may ask, of form the questions you got while you presented the business idea to your friends.

Contact page/ Location

Regardless of your business type you should always have contact information and a contact form on your website. This is not only for potential business partners and interested customers to contact you if they want to but to give more credibility to your online business. If you have phone number, physical address (location) and other options for a contact you will appear as a real and credible business. To add the a contact form on the contact page you will have to install a plugin as Contact Form 7

Products/Services

A website is an excellent place to present your products and services even if you have only brick and mortar business. At you homepage you may present only part of your offering and in less details. Separate page(s) for your products and services will give you more freedom to present and explain the details. If your products are not ready yet you can just announce them or even offer presales. Besides the pages for your products and services you may add pages for your portfolio, references and/or testimonials in order to increase your credibility.

Blog posts/Articles/News

Regardless of your online business model, it is highly recommended that you have a blog that will accompany the site’s main content and offering. Actually, with the informative web site your blog posts/articles will be the main offering. Creating attractive posts on a regular bases will help you bring visitors to your site and earn revenue. While the pages (described above) directly represent/explain your offering or business, the blog posts can give closely or distantly related information that might be of interest to your customers. Other difference between pages and post in the light of the WP platform is that post have time stamp, author, categories and tags what is not the case with the pages. For now, create at least 5 posts in order to create a better user experience for your initial visitors. To create post go to Posts > Ad New or + New > Post. (Watch video)

Main Menu

(Editing the main menu is a website adjustment, not content, but since you needed some initial content to link to, we placed it at the end)

The Main Menu or the Primary Menu is usually located at the very top of the site or just beneath the site’s logo and/or the header. Since the Main menu is very important for the site’s navigation and understanding of the content, you should put links at least to the following pages: Home, About, Products/Services, Blog, Contact/Location. If you site has some important specifics put them too, like we put a Start Here link. To create and edit menus go to Appearance > Menus. (Watch Video)

Initial outreach

Now that you have your initial website ready you can start with the marketing activates. It is never to early to start promotion, especially now when you have something to show off.  Before you fully develop your offering and the website you can set a solid foundations for your future marketing activities.

First thing you can do is to create a business cards that represent you online business and you as a founder. For the most of the web business models a business card wouldn’t be much of a use but is nice to have one. The business cards could be handy if you go to expos, conferences or if you approach potential customers, especially if you target businesses as customers.

Another important thing to do now is to create business profiles/pages at Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. If you find it appropriate and if you have the time, you can also create profiles at Instagram and Tumblr. Make sure you place the links of the social media profiles you have created on your website at prominent locations as header, sidebar, at the contact page and in the footer. Also, don’t forget to share your previously created pages and posts on the social media profiles too.

.

.

In-depth reading:

Exploring the WordPress Dashboard

11 Tips for Your Initial Website Build

The Magic To Writing Your Initial Website Content Exposed

How to Set Up Your Social Media Profiles