Considering that 71% of small businesses have a website, creating a professional site for your brand should be at the top of your to-do list. After all, it plays a huge role in raising brand awareness, increasing your online presence, getting leads, and much more.

If you’re going to build a website, you want to do it right, so it looks professional, reflects your brand, and creates positive first impressions.

Start with these website recommendations, which include the essentials you need.

Domain Name

The first step is to choose a domain name and register it. A domain name is what people search for and how they find you.

Domains are linked to physical IP addresses but are easier to remember and type in. The domain name comes after the www. in a web address, such as google.com.

Your domain should be memorable and make sense for your business. It should be easy to spell and as short as possible. Avoid any embarrassing mistakes, like typos.

No two websites can have the exact same domain name, so you’ll need to find and register a name that hasn’t already been used. Domain name extensions include .com, .org, .net, etc.

Domain names usually cost around $15-$25 a year.

Hosting

The next step is to find secure, scalable website hosting. You also want to go with a company that offers solid tech support.

The average website is down three hours a month, and that can cost businesses up to $10.6 million a year! Smaller operations might not lose that much, but each hour your website is down is an hour you’re not getting any traffic or sales.

You want a hosting provider on your side that sticks to its promises and works hard to correct problems when they arise.

Our recommendations for the best website hosting depend on the business needs.

Large eCommerce Sites

Shopify is a well-known and trusted company that’s a great fit for big eCommerce websites. Shopify includes hosting and security, and they also have their own merchant processor options.

Additionally, it’s easy to link your catalog to Facebook and LinkedIn.

Features include:

  • Inventory tracking
  • Clean reporting
  • Abandoned cart checkout recovery
  • Mobile commerce shopping cart
  • Store customization
  • And more

Non-eCommerce Websites

If you’re not an eCommerce business, or if you’re only selling a few items, we recommend WordPress for building a business website. For all your company needs, you can rely on our WordPress Deluxe hosting.

Here’s what our WordPress Deluxe package includes:

  • 75 GB storage
  • Backup protections
  • 1-click restore
  • Automatic daily malware scans
  • Staging site
  • And more

The package includes everything you need, including a free SSL certificate, to protect your customers and their data. Our certificates are also auto-renewed and have the encryption your business needs to keep transactions secure.

Website Design

Lastly, you need to plan the design, additions, and plugins you want.

WordPress offers the flexibility you need to create what you want without being limited to a theme. The platform features 55,000 additional plugins, making it highly customizable. Plus, it’s easy to start blogging, and the platform is also search engine friendly.

Find More Website Recommendations

These website recommendations should put you on the right path toward designing and hosting a website that reflects your brand.

Marketing Magnitude would love to be your partner for all your website and marketing needs. After building and hosting a website, you need to optimize it. Take a look at our search engine optimization services to learn more!