Cheat Sheet: Websites
Why do I need a website?
Websites showcase your product or service to the world and create legitimacy for your business.
What can it do for my business?
- Showcase your service by helping your customers find important information like store hours, restaurant menus, event details, or other important product information.
- Increase legitimacy by giving customers a place of reference i.e. viewing your portfolio, pricing information or other crucial details
- Sell products or services using Ecommerce
- Serves as a digital business card
Watch the Video
Kanitha Snow is here from Kanitha Studio along with Scott Romano from Energize Colorado to help you quickly get started with a website for your business.
Quick Tips
- Start by finding a website that you like and think about what it is that you like it
- Also look at your competitors’ websites – what information are they putting out there? Do you want less or more?
- Then build a ‘sitemap’ of your website (it’s like an index of all the pages you want to have on your finished website):
- Think about what pages you are going to need?
- Who is your audience?
- What message do you want to convey to your audience to help build connection?
- Need help getting started? Reach out to a mentor here at Energize Colorado who can help you.
Popular Vendors for Doing it Yourself
| Website Vendor | Who is it best for? | Estimated Minimum Price | Get Started |
| Wix | Good for businesses who want to quickly create a website from a template | $18 per month | Wix.com |
| Squarespace | Good for businesses who want to quickly create a website from a template | $18 per month | Squarespace.com |
| Webflow | A less expensive option than the others but still with high quality designs and is very easy to use. | $12 per month | Webflow.com |
| WordPress | Very flexible. Best for websites that need to create a more tailored and custom experience. | Depends on Host | We recommend WordPress.com but other hosts offer cheaper hosting plans. |
| Shopify | Best if you just need a fast ecommerce solution with less website (like selling t-shirts!) | $29 per month | Shopify.com |
Get Professional Help From Friends of Energize Colorado
Mastercard® Digital Doors™
More information and help is available for small businesses trying to open their digital doors on the Mastercard website.
Websites – More Tips
Costs
Expect to spend at least $10 per month on hosting a website.
Domains
Your website will need a domain name (or web address). If you have a brand name we recommended buying that address, but unfortunately lots of domain names are already owned and quite expensive. Do not be afraid to look at domains with different suffixes like .io or .co (or anything like that). It will be much cheaper.
Analytics
Regardless of which host you choose, you should leverage the benefits of free website analytics from Google. It is a powerful service that allows you to understand more about the visitors to your website and how to increase your reach and conversions.
Google and Facebook Ads
Google and Facebook Ads are an easy way to get started with advertising at a very low initial cost (as low as $5 per day). This can be a very convenient and safe way to get started with digital advertising while you prove its efficacy.
Page Load Times
Lowering page load times is both important for the experience of your users and SEO (search engine optimization). Here is a quick free tool that can help you optimize your load times.