Website for business

davholla

I want to create a website for my wife's business (teaching languages).
Is there any advice anyone has on how to do this? My main concern is how to get it picked up by google searches, any ideas on how to do this?

fragmented

Chose a site name and domain name that not only describes the business but is also what people would search for looking for those services. Take the time to think about it and don't just jump in feet first.

Have a read of
www.google.com/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf

Flyonthewall

Assuming you have no coding knowledge, you have a few options.

The first is find a site where you can drag and drop/click and select features and type in text basically as you would in a word processor (e.g. Microsoft Word). You don't need any coding knowledge, the site does it all in the background. You'll have a choice of themes but it's usually quite limited. Webs and Weebly are two examples of sites like that. You can use these completely free, but if you want to be professional then you'll need to buy a domain name.

The second option is using Wordpress (or other open source software). You download plugins that you want and you can just type your content out without needing knowledge of coding. You can download various themes and basically any features you want. If you what to code something the option is there to create your own themes or plugins but obviously it's easier to use existing ones. The software is free and so are many plugins (some have upgrade options that cost and some you can only buy but most are free). You'll need to pay for hosting and a domain name.

Otherwise it's a case of someone else building it for you.

As for search engines, read up on SEO. You basically need to use keywords and advertise your site.

Black_Dynamite

Flyonthewall wrote: »

Assuming you have no coding knowledge, you have a few options.

The first is find a site where you can drag and drop/click and select features and type in text basically as you would in a word processor (e.g. Microsoft Word). You don't need any coding knowledge, the site does it all in the background. You'll have a choice of themes but it's usually quite limited. Webs and Weebly are two examples of sites like that. You can use these completely free, but if you want to be professional then you'll need to buy a domain name.

The second option is using Wordpress (or other open source software). You download plugins that you want and you can just type your content out without needing knowledge of coding. You can download various themes and basically any features you want. If you what to code something the option is there to create your own themes or plugins but obviously it's easier to use existing ones. The software is free and so are many plugins (some have upgrade options that cost and some you can only buy but most are free). You'll need to pay for hosting and a domain name.

Otherwise it's a case of someone else building it for you.

As for search engines, read up on SEO. You basically need to use keywords and advertise your site.

I'm a web developer, if you do option 1 your site will be pretty poor and will rank poorly. Generally they're coded terribly, poor performance etc.

Go for option 2. Really easy, just sign up, install a theme and away you go! Install an WordPress SEO by Yoast, and you'll have your site ranking in no time.

Flyonthewall

Black_Dynamite wrote: »

I'm a web developer, if you do option 1 your site will be pretty poor and will rank poorly. Generally they're coded terribly, poor performance etc.

Go for option 2. Really easy, just sign up, install a theme and away you go! Install an WordPress SEO by Yoast, and you'll have your site ranking in no time.

I've seen plenty of Webs and Weebly sites ranked high on google. Had a Webs one myself a few years back that ranked high and I didn't advertise it or anything and used the free domain name. Think it still is high in the ranks.

Course, it does all depend on the content and layout. The bright green sites with orange writing, flashing images and few words rank terribly and make all web developers cry lol.

Generally I agree though and I wouldn't recommend it for a professional site, but it is an option if you're struggling. 2 is certainly the far better option.

If you go for 3 and get someone else to build it check how they're doing it. Some will build it from scratch, some will just use Wordpress and you don't want to pay out money for them to do what you can do for free yourself. There are tutorials online if needed but it is pretty straightforward.