How to get a website cheap adn then everything else

smileymummy

Ok guys i want to be my own boss,so i have channeled my thoughts into what i want to actually do,however i need a website a goodish one and one that i can use a shopping cart on and that will generate a lot of traffic,i want to hopefully get all this up and running within the next few months.

So have we any ideas on getting a cheapish one and where to go from there please? thanks x

Flyonthewall

What do you call cheap? If you expect lots of traffic and it'll be a shopping site then you the cheapest may not be suitable. You need servers that can handle the traffic and it all needs to be professional and secure.

Websites do not generate traffic all by themselves, especially not loads of traffic. You need good SEO, quality products, reasonable prices, a secure site and a lot of marketing.

Getting a site up and running shouldn't take long, but you won't get instant traffic. It takes time, money and marketing to get a good amount of traffic.

I assume you already know what you want to sell?

Would you be able to keep a site updated yourself or do you have no/very little website knowledge?

smileymummy

Flyonthewall wrote: »

What do you call cheap? If you expect lots of traffic and it'll be a shopping site then you the cheapest may not be suitable. You need servers that can handle the traffic and it all needs to be professional and secure.

Websites do not generate traffic all by themselves, especially not loads of traffic. You need good SEO, quality products, reasonable prices, a secure site and a lot of marketing.

Getting a site up and running shouldn't take long, but you won't get instant traffic. It takes time, money and marketing to get a good amount of traffic.

I assume you already know what you want to sell?

Would you be able to keep a site updated yourself or do you have no/very little website knowledge?

I know exactly what i want to sell and i want to stack em high sell em cheap sort of thing, how much time are you talking to generate traffic? and thanks for your reply x

Flyonthewall

smileymummy wrote: »

I know exactly what i want to sell and i want to stack em high sell em cheap sort of thing, how much time are you talking to generate traffic? and thanks for your reply x

I assume you've found somewhere to buy the products in bulk cheap? If not, you really need to source the product before you even consider starting a website.

There is no set amount of time. It all depends on how much you market the site and the interest in the product(s) you sell. You could spend thousands on marketing the site, but if interest in the product is low you won't get much traffic.

If you have good SEO, a professional site and market it in a few different ways then you should get traffic and it should grow overtime as more people hear of the site and from return customers. Although traffic does not always mean customers.

Black_Dynamite

To even start a website you need the following:

Domain Name - £5 - £10 depending on a .co.uk / .com per year.
Hosting - £30 per year, again depends on how big your site will be, how much traffic etc. You should be fine on a starter package.
SSL certificate - Up to £100 per year.

Not sure if I'm allowed to post a company name but Vidahost are who I use, Google them, amazing company, fantastic support. I'm in no way affiliated apart from my own website is hosted with them. (Please remove if i'm not!)

You then need your website, have you got any experience? I'd recommend paying somebody if not but if you have:

- Install WordPress
- Install a theme compatible with WooCommerce (ThemeForest have thousands)
- Install WooCommerce (WordPress shopping plugin).
- Install SEO for WordPress (Yoast SEO WordPress plugin).

You then need to create each page, with rich content in order to rank well on Google. For example, if you're selling cakes in Lincoln, and you want to rank highly for "cakes in lincoln". In your content you'd write "We are specialist cake makers and we supply cakes in Lincoln and surrounding areas".

That is how you rank on Google (basically). You need hundreds of these terms throughout your site, I'd recommend one page per each search term. It is all about good, clean content that is rich for both visitors and Google bots. If it focuses too much on one, you'll be hit by Google, they can tell if you're trying to spam keywords, so aim for around 5 - 10% of your content containing this search term.

To rank as number 1 you need to get people linking to your content. If you have 10 websites that have the link "Cakes in Lincoln" then going to your website, you'll be rewarded by Google, that is how these companies get to number 1, organic links on hundreds of sites.

Collect email addresses by offering newsletters and offers etc. Then email your customers weekly / monthly using a service like MailChimp, this will stop people forgetting about you and also drive sales.

Finally, if you don't know how to do the above, either learn or pay somebody. If you fudge a website together it looks cheap and nobody will use it.

Flyonthewall

Black_Dynamite wrote: »

You then need your website, have you got any experience? I'd recommend paying somebody if not but if you have:

- Install WordPress
- Install a theme compatible with WooCommerce (ThemeForest have thousands)
- Install WooCommerce (WordPress shopping plugin).
- Install SEO for WordPress (Yoast SEO WordPress plugin).

I agree with Wordpress being good but be aware that you are relying on someone keeping that plugin working and up to date. Plus any issues may take longer to solve as the creator of the plugin (whether that or another, there are various options) may not do that as a full time job.

If using Wordpress be sure that your site is secure and the plugin works fully with the theme you choose.

That is how you rank on Google (basically). You need hundreds of these terms throughout your site, I'd recommend one page per each search term. It is all about good, clean content that is rich for both visitors and Google bots. If it focuses too much on one, you'll be hit by Google, they can tell if you're trying to spam keywords, so aim for around 5 - 10% of your content containing this search term.

While keywords are important you don't want to spam your site with them as it will have a negative affect.

To rank as number 1 you need to get people linking to your content. If you have 10 websites that have the link "Cakes in Lincoln" then going to your website, you'll be rewarded by Google, that is how these companies get to number 1, organic links on hundreds of sites.

True. The more people linking the better, but spamming your link or placing the link on dodgy sites will harm your rank rather than help it.

Black_Dynamite

Flyonthewall wrote: »

I agree with Wordpress being good but be aware that you are relying on someone keeping that plugin working and up to date. Plus any issues may take longer to solve as the creator of the plugin (whether that or another, there are various options) may not do that as a full time job.

If using Wordpress be sure that your site is secure and the plugin works fully with the theme you choose.



While keywords are important you don't want to spam your site with them as it will have a negative affect.



True. The more people linking the better, but spamming your link or placing the link on dodgy sites will harm your rank rather than help it.

Definitely, good advice. My post was a quick overview, aim for good quality content that people want to read and Google will do the rest.

With Yoast SEO and WooCommerce, they're huge when WooCommerce goes out of business it'll be because another better plugin is available or WordPress is no longer supported.

Excellent advice regarding keeping a site updated, I'm currently fixing a site because somebody hacked his WordPress site after it hadn't been updated for 4 or 5 years.

Discodave

How you coming along with this - Another shout here for Vidahost!