Simple Website Templates

Tips for setting up your website

1. Choose your hosting server

One of the first things you need to research and decide is what hosting server company you will work with. There are many options, but select a highly rated one that will be effective to use in your industry. Consider factors like uptime - the percentage of time that your website will be up and running - as well as security features, customer support, pricing, and hosting plans available.

2. Pick your domain name

Here are some tips and things to consider when picking your domain name. Domain names should be easy to spell. They should also be simple but not so simple that they do not say enough about your business and industry. Make your domain name easy to remember, short, and easy to spell. It should also be creative and a proper reflection of your business. That means it needs to align with your business branding.

Also, you need to know whether a domain name is available. Here is how you do that. Go to a reputable domain name finder and checker to search and verify whether the domain name or names that you are considering are in use by a current website or whether they are available.

3. Select your website builder

You also need to select your website builder. Here is how a website builder can help you design a website easily and effectively even without web design experience. It takes a lot of legwork out of the process for you, allowing you to free up your creativity and know that the end result will be an effective website. Mailchimp’s Website Builder is a resource that can assist you with building a website for your business.

4. Design with your brand in mind

Your website should be representative of your brand or company. Here are some tips that can help you align your website with your company’s branding. Stick with the look and feel you have established for your brand. That includes tone, colors, design elements, logos, and more. Think of all your communications as needing to have a consistent theme and message throughout.

5. Consider SEO

Search engine optimization, or SEO for short, is an extremely important principle for everyone building and maintaining a website. It helps search engines rank a website more highly on search engine results when a person is online and looking for website content.

Here are some examples of how SEO plays into website building and design. Using relevant keywords in strategic places in the content such as in titles can help improve search engine optimization. Also, meta descriptions, headlines, and URLs are great ways to improve website SEO.

Website speed, which we will discuss in a moment, directly affects SEO. So you should not underestimate or ignore it.

6. Look to competitors for inspiration

Competitors can help you determine what works in your niche. Their keywords, design ideas, content, and website structure can help you determine what people are going to be looking to get out of your website. Of course, it is never acceptable to copy the content, design, or concepts from any other websites, whether those are websites of a competitor or a company in a different niche or industry.

7. Check your page loading speeds

Page loading speeds - how quickly your website loads - is extremely important. If a page on your website doesn’t load rapidly enough, website visitors are more likely to hop to a different page to get similar information elsewhere on a page that loads properly. From a technical standpoint, simple websites load more quickly and are easier for visitors to navigate. So visitors have a better experience on your website. Website speed also affects SEO so it can't be underestimated or ignored.

8. Optimize for mobile visitors

With many website visitors browsing from their phones and tablets, it is essential that you have a properly working mobile version of your site. Visitors will quickly navigate away from your site if they cannot effectively view and use it on their mobile devices. Before you launch your site, make sure to test it out on all types of devices.

9. Write engaging content

High-quality content is more likely to produce leads and build website traffic for your business. Additionally, providing quality resources to your customers can help you build brand authority in your niche. But in keeping with the goal to have a simple website, make every effort to be concise and make every word count. Remember that a simple website can still be creative.

Make sure your overall content design is easy for visitors to your website to navigate. Include elements like a contact form, and prominently display your contact information.

10. Include a call to action

Calls to action are valuable assets to websites. They help to guide website visitors through your different pages and keep them on your website longer. They also have the potential to lead to more conversions and sales. That results in better profit for your business. Tell your website visitors what you want them to do, whether it is to contact you, ask a question, or something else. Asking is effective and simple - but sometimes companies forget to ask for a customer's business.

11. Provide your contact information

Providing customers with contact information or a contact form directly from your website allows customers to contact you with questions, support needs, or if they’re interested in your services. Make that form easy for visitors to find. You would not want to miss out on an ideal customer lead simply because a customer could not figure out where on your website to contact you.

12. Social media is your friend

Integrating social media with your site can improve traffic ratings, as it allows your website visitors to share your content and pages with their own followers. On your website, make sure to provide all the ways that visitors to your website can connect with you on social media. So in a prominent location on your website, you should include links to your various social media pages.

Features of great and simple website templates

Here are some examples of website templates that are great for businesses just starting to build their websites. The following are some of the features that make the templates good:

• Simple animations, or even none. Remember that popups are extremely distracting, aggravating, and can make your visitors so frustrated that they leave your website altogether.
• Clean design rather than many different themes and styles going on at the same time.
• Fewer colors, and believe it or not, sometimes even using one color, or just black, white, and gray, can be attractive, compelling, and powerful.
• Streamlined fonts rather than several, which make a website look busy and cluttered.

Websites are powerful tools for building your brand and improving brand recognition. Today, having a well-designed website is crucial to promoting your business. Along the way to creating an excellent online presence, Mailchimp is a resource for building your website.