9 Steps To Create A Website For Your Business For Free

Creating A Website For Your Business For Free Isn’t That Hard

Do you know you can build a professional website free of charge? Do you know how you can build it in a couple of minutes?  Yes, in a couple of minutes!

I cannot but go over the top about the importance of a website to your business. Small, medium or big businesses need a website to optimize productivity.

Fortunately, creating a free website has become so easy in this era that you don’t even need a lot of technical knowledge. You don’t need to know how to code or write HTML, CSS, or JavaScript.

All you need is a computer or a mobile device!

Yes, some mobile devices are capable and can access the internet through a web browser and a website builder. Your primary concern would be finding a suitable website builder that will fit your required need. One of those requirements would be that it must be free!

For you to gain entrance into the industry you want to enter, you will always need an incredible website. You can think of a website as the home hub of your company online. Without a great website, you might struggle to make the right first impression with your customers or get the attention that your brand perhaps deserves.

Are you thinking about starting a business soon? Regardless of what business you are thinking about, setting up a free website can be a game-changer for you.

If you don’t have enough money to pay for one yet, here are some things you should first consider and do to get a free website. You are in the right place. I am going to show you how to do it.

1. Use a website builder

A website builder is a piece of software that helps you to build a website. It is quicker because it doesn’t take as much time as the traditional method. It is also very easy because you don’t need any level of coding. You will only work with templates like drag and drop features.

There are two types of website builders. Offline website builders and online website builders. You could use any of these but I strongly recommend the online website builders.

While offline builders might have some issues like hosting technical challenges, one of the selling points of offline website builders is that you can use them anywhere and without the internet.

My main aim is to show you how to create your website using free online builders. 

With online builders, you can work on a project from a different computer by logging into your account. Once you have an internet connection on your computer, you are good to go.

Everything you need to build a free website is made available to you. There is a list of website builders at the end of this post.

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2. Research

The first step in building a good website is to first study which website will fit your business. Since you are not a professional website builder, you should study the website of other people in your industry.

You might need to try out a couple of templates supplied by the web builder you want to use. I’m sure you don’t want to have a website that looks like a blog when what you do is sell stuff. You have to pick a template to match your business type.

3. Sign up with the website builder

You cannot create a free website without having an account with a website builder.

Your account is your identity on that website. You can sign up with your email, phone number, or social media account. Yes, you can sign up with just your social media account.

4. Choose and customize your template

Once you sign up, you can proceed with building your website. You now have to choose a template out of the few or tons available on the builder. This is where your research will help you.

You wouldn’t be making a wild guess or engaging in a trial and error method to make your choice. Instead, you will be making an informed decision about which template and design to use.

A template is what it is, just a template. You have to customize the template you have chosen to suit your business. This includes the background, colours, navigation, fonts, and styling. There are different customization levels and types depending on which builder you are using.

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5. Add elements

Believe me when I say this is time-consuming. It is not hard but time-consuming. The elements include website features, contents, and the design – how they all fit together to make your website both functional and aesthetic.

Design and add an amazing homepage that contains the ‘about us page’ and contact page. In essence, add everything that will make your website functional and ready for publishing.

6. Select a domain name

Once you are through, you can now own an address in a domain. This can be cool and exasperating at the same time. You might have planned a perfect domain name and realize it has been taken. 🙄

You might have to choose a branded domain name instead of a custom domain name because most free builders offer branded domain names. Not to worry though. A few builders also offer custom domain names.

If you can’t get one, don’t get your hopes down. You can still get a custom domain name for a very down-to-earth price and if you are still having issues with getting a domain name, you can use Namesco, Freenom, Whois or Dot TK for free.

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7. Host your website

A good host is a crown to all your effort in website building. Most free website builders offer a fully hosted solution.

If you don’t want to do much, you can always go with your builder’s hosting service which includes security and updates.

8. Publish your website

It is just as simple as pressing the publish button. And voila! Your website is live.

But before you publish your website, you will need to consider your site speed. These days, customers expect pages on websites to open in three seconds or less. Anything longer than this and they will lose interest or worse, begin pursuing your competitors.

There are numerous issues that can cause your website to go slow. However, the key point to remember is to use the right hosting service like the one below (paid option).

With a strong hosting solution like this vps hosting, you can guarantee that your site does respond well, even if you are using vast amounts of data. You might also want to think about compressing files and images if you do notice a significant slowdown. 

9. Publish your contents

You need to make sure that you get the content on your website perfect. It needs to target your customers and provide the value that your users expect.

You also need to add new content regularly to keep your site both fresh and interesting. Professional content writers are often the best way to handle the content. Copywriters can be hired at the minimum cost and provide the high-quality solution you need. 

Now that you’ve made it this far, let’s talk about some of the website builders you can use to create a free business website. While some of these builders have a paid premium plan, some of their basic features are free.

You can actually create and host a website completely with their free plan. I will tell you the characteristics, pros, and cons of each free website builder.

List of website builders

1. Wix

Wix.com is rated as one of the best all-round website builders by many people. In fact, I have not met anyone that used Wix that said otherwise.

You have 500mb of storage which should be enough as a starter unless you want to upload loads of media. You are stuck with a wix.com branded domain name in the free plan.

There is also a paid plan that will give you the best value for your money with all features unlocked.

• Pros: It is easy to use and you can drag and drop elements. Most of the features are available for free and there is no limit to customization. It has a wide variety of templates – more than 500. It offers full hosting and a free SSL certificate.
• Cons: there are noticeable ads which are mostly banners at the top of the website. Once your site goes live, you can’t change the template again. You cannot enable the emailing feature on the free platform. One other prominent thing is the domain name, it is not appealing! Another downside is that you cannot use Wix free website to sell anything.

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2. Weebly

This builder is specifically useful to small and medium enterprises. It currently sells for free in the United States only with a three percent transaction fee. Its drag and drop feature is similar to that of Wix.

Weebly has enough templates to work with though fewer than Wix’s. You don’t have to worry about compatibility as websites created are mobile-friendly too.

• Pros: It is ideal for small businesses. It is one of the easiest website builders you can use which is fully hosted. It is SEO friendly and best for a business that wants to be found on search engines. The free plan includes an SSL certificate. The building tools are easy to use and the support guide is very helpful. It allows a live page editor.
• Cons: More restriction in free mode, so you cannot fully unleash your creativity. The free plan limits the features available e.g. you cannot fully customize the theme colours. There is no site back up.

3. WordPress

This is very common with bloggers. WordPress has everything you need for your blog. It has in-built analytics, comment feature, archiving, search feature, and display categories.

WordPress.org is a content management system (CMS) while woldpress.com is a basic form of WordPress used as a website builder. Web hosting is included in wordpress.com which offers three gigabytes of storage. 

However, WordPress.org does not provide web hosting, you will have to sort that out yourself by getting a hosting company. 

• Pros: It is the best for blogging. It packs powerful tools with a simple user interface. It has a wide range of templates. You get the best free domain name – a domain name without the builders brand- e.g. ced.blog. It offers more storage than most of all the free builders listed here. It packs loads of plugins for your use.
• Cons: The templates are optimized for blogging so you cannot use them for anything else. Some features are not built for beginners and it may require basic coding knowledge. Though the ads are not too intrusive, you cannot but notice the word press button on the websites.

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4. GoDaddy

If you are looking for the fastest builder, GoDaddy is your website builder. It started offering a free plan not so long ago. Another thing that made GoDaddy stand out its unlimited storage. Yeah, that’s right, it offers unlimited storage for free. 😆 

• Pros: It sets up a website faster than any other website builder. It offers unlimited storage. It is very easy to add features. The interface is user-friendly.
• Cons: Its main limitation is the inadequate number of choices of industries. Because of the speed, sometimes the website may look too generic and you cannot source features of plugins from other website builders.

5. Google My Business (GMB)

It is also ideal for small businesses. GMB has limited options though it is one hundred percent free. It features ‘drag and drop’ and websites are compatible with mobile devices.

• Pros: It is 100% free with no option for payment. It has responsive templates. It is free from ads. AdWords is ready to drive traffic to your website.
• Cons: You cannot use it for an online store. It packs rudimentary designs and limited options. It is not ideal for complex websites.

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6. Site123

One feature most builders have is “drag and drop”. Well, Site123 doesn’t support this. Nonetheless, it has one of the greatest design assistance features. The adverts are not intrusive. You wouldn’t even see the ad until you scroll down.

• Pros: You get access to 24 hours help and you can chat live with the support staff that can help you choose a good template if you are indecisive.
• Cons: Limited number of website templates. It is not flexible enough to allow great creativity. It has one of the weirdest domain names –site123.me. Websites ending with “.me” are less powerful than their“.com” counterparts. Storage is low at five hundred megabytes.

7. SiteW

This is not really popular as a free website builder. Its main user base is in Europe. It is easy to use and the websites are optimized for mobile devices. The main feature I like about this builder is the multilingual feature. It supports French, Spanish, and German.

• Pros: It offers and supports multiple languages. The interface is user friendly. The websites are mobile device friendly too.
• Cons: Limited options and customization in the free plan. You are restricted to a basic and static website.

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8. Mozello

This is the smallest builder I am going to tell you about. It shares a lot of features with SiteW.

Mozello supports multilingual websites and offers features like online store, SEO options, and blog.

• Pros: It is easy to use. It supports multiple languages. The ad is not intrusive.
• Cons: It has limited options. Some features can only be added in pages optimized specifically for them. For instance, you can’t add a gallery to a non-gallery page type.

Other factors to consider

When designing your site, you always need to consider the site structure. It’s important that customers can quickly and easily find exactly what they are looking for. The golden rule here is three clicks.

You should never let your customers be more than three clicks away from finding what they need. This might sound simple but the site structure can be difficult to get right.

And if you’re new to setting up an online business, you might not be aware that there are right and wrong forms of SEO. Blackhat SEO is dangerous and will earn you a Google penalty. It will ensure that your company isn’t seen by anyone online. That’s why you need to hire professionals from this SEO in Sydney to help you out.

That’s why you need to take care to get your SEO right. There are lots of tools to explore that can help you here if you want a DIY SEO including a Google Keyword Planner. Information on this can be found online in a wide variety of different languages. 

Conclusion

Permit me to congratulate you. You are closer to building your business’s free website than you think.

As stated earlier, the choice of the builder and the website will be determined by your goals. I am without doubts that you must have found one free website builder that suits your need.

Be it easy to use, multi-language support, live assistance, blogging, or an all-round builder, there is definitely one for you. You can also speak with a website designer who is good at avoiding website design mistakes. Particularly if you already have a website running as it could need a massive overhaul. 

The processes of building your free website can take anything from a few minutes to a couple of hours. Just ensure you take your time to do it well. As I always say, “I’ll take time to do it well, it’ll surely pay me back”.

I hope this helps you understand how to set up a free website for your business the right way and enjoy key benefits of doing so. A great business website will put you in a strong position to perform well on the market from day one.