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Can you build a website for free?

Male business owner working from home and using his laptop to update this Go Sitebuilder website. He is wearing a blue v-neck t-shirt, sitting at a desk that has a mug, notebook and hard hat on.

If you’ve got a business you need a website. If you’re just starting out, though, is it worth shelling out a monthly sum for a paid domain when there are so many free options available? We look at the pros and cons of free website builders and building a website for free.

Why choose a free website?

With so many free website creators on the market, it’s easy to see why so many people have chosen the unpaid option to make their first digital footprint. Even if you don’t know anything about website design, they offer ready-made themes tailored to specific sectors that give your site a professional look in minutes. Many small companies start off on social media, and a free website offers a significant step up from a Facebook or Instagram page. Seems like a good deal, but there are limitations to a free website.

Why choose a paid website?

A free website provider normally has its drawbacks. First, you cannot get your own domain, but instead, have to piggyback on the name of the provider. One of the most popular free website creators, Wix, forces you to create an unwieldy and unprofessional web address along the lines of www.yourname.wixsite.com/yoursite. 

Another disadvantage is that most free websites cap their storage and bandwidth, which means you’ll be limited in the number of images, videos and blogs you’ll be able to upload. Restricted bandwidth will make your site slower, resulting in a worse user experience and a less visible site in terms of SEO.

The website may be free for you, but the providers need to make money through you somehow, which they do by cluttering up your page with their own adverts. The companies also bombard you with emails detailing all the features available in their paid version in a bid to get you to upgrade.

To decide whether it’s worth getting a free website rather than a paid one, then you need to look at your priorities. If you just want a web presence where you can show your services and upload blogs, then a free plan is all you need. However, if you are looking to grow your company, increase your SEO and need certain features such as online selling or mobile capability, then it might be better to look at a paid version. 

If you’re still not sure, Go SiteBuilder offers a 14-day free trial where you can see which features work for you and your business, as well as a team of experts on hand to offer support if you need it. Give it a go today!

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How can I build a professional website

Female small business owner is leaning over a table in her clothes studio to reach her laptop. She is building a professional website with Go Sitebuilder.

Just seconds after clicking on a website, you’ve already made an irrevocable first impression. 75% of users admit to making judgements on a company’s reputation based on the website design. So, how can you wow your users in the first few seconds of landing on your homepage?

What makes a website professional?

A website is often the first experience a user has with your company. Before they even interact with what your product offers, they will be impressed with a good design and good user experience. 

High-quality designs often use high-resolution images with overlaid text. The average user spends just seconds on your website homepage, so it’s important to make it simple and clear; what do you want the user to do? A call to action on the first page lets the user know what you provide and how they can access this service. 

The website can’t just look great though, it needs to feel great. Make sure the site navigates smoothly, that the links make sense and most importantly, that the pages don’t take too long to load. According to a Google study, 53% of users will stop engaging with a site if it takes over 3 seconds to load, which could result in a massive bounce rate for your site. 

Another thing to bear in mind is the growing importance of mobile capability for a website. According to Broadband Search, mobile internet usage has increased 222% in the past 5 years, and this trend is set to continue. Digital marketing site SWEOR also revealed that 85% of adults think that a company’s mobile website should be as good or better than their desktop one, so having this capability will increase both your company’s reach and credibility.

How to make your own

Your success depends on your website design, but how can you get a stylish and professional look when you’ve never made a website before? You can spend thousands of pounds on a custom-designed website, or you can use one of the many website creator tools available, as long as you create that will grab your users in that all-important first couple of seconds. 

With Go Sitebuilder, you can choose from a huge selection of professional and beautiful themes and personalise it to your company, safe in the knowledge that whatever you choose will work just as seamlessly on mobile and desktop. Take advantage of the 14-day free trial (no credit card needed) to try it out for yourself!

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What you need to start building your website

Caucasian female working from home in her kitchen. The kitchen is white with a dark wood surface. She is wearing a casual denim shirt and has notebooks, pens and a camera on the desk next to her

Thinking of building a website for your company but don’t know where to start? It’s easy to get bogged down in the details of what you do and don’t need, but we’ve compiled a handy list of key things you should think about to create a great website in line with your brand. 

Web hosting

First things first; you need to find somewhere to host your website. The best options provide a personalised domain name and multiple business email addresses, but there are three other areas to bear in mind; website speed, uptime reliability and customer service.

A website with a fast connection will rank better in SEO and increase your conversion rate, so avoid shared hosting and know that the cheaper you go, the slower the connection may be. 

Uptime reliability is also extremely important, as if the host isn’t working properly, your users won’t be able to access your website from any server. Look for a host with a 100% uptime guarantee, so that if your site does go down for any reason, you are likely to get some form of compensation. 

You might not think that customer service deserves a place on this list, but let’s face it, things go wrong. If this is your first time building a website, it’s much easier to quickly talk to an expert who can fix the issue in moments rather than spending precious hours trying to find a solution yourself. 

Design and Content

Not a designer? Don’t worry, most website creators have their own pre-loaded designs and themes ready to use and optimised for the type of service you provide, but check that they also have mobile capability. You can always try a few out before you decide on a final one, but make sure it aligns with your brand and your logo. 

When you’ve got your web-hosting site and themes set up, it’s time to start adding content to your website! Optimising blog posts for SEO is a great way to help your website rank better on Google and stand out as a relevant resource for your prospective clients. 

Creating a beautiful and effective website shouldn’t be a hassle. If you want all the features mentioned in this article and more, why not sign up for a free 14-day trial with Go SiteBuilder? Let us know how it goes, and contact our team of experts if you have any questions!

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Can you do SEO yourself?

Female florist wearing a pink t-shirt and apron is working on her laptop to improve her business website's SEO

The words “search engine optimisation” may sound overwhelming to you, but they don’t have to. There are numerous resources available both on and off the web that are here to help you create a successful SEO strategy; one that you can execute yourself! So, yes – you can do SEO yourself – and here are some reasons you should.

Learn a new skill

SEO is a skill, and there is no doubt about that. You’ll learn how to study trends in optimisation and find different formulas to help you achieve top search results. Tips and tricks can be found in every nook and cranny of the internet, and you get a chance to play around with them all. The best part is, once you find something that works well – you’ll be the one reaping the benefits.

Save money

Taking on any task by yourself can save you money, whether you’re fixing your sink or learning how to write blogs for yourself. By taking on your SEO, you’ll be able to save money on strategists, copywriters, editors and more!

DIY SEO will help you save money from the start, along with in the future. Once you’ve established yourself with your core keywords and have learned how to write incredible content, you can sit back and relax and watch your sales roll in. 

It doesn’t have to be scary

With all of the resources available today, you’re in good hands. Many online communities are buzzing with people willing to help and share their experiences. Whether you join an online forum, sign up for daily newsletters or buy a couple of books – you’ll hit the ground running in no time. 

Hiring an expert 

While DIY SEO is an excellent option for many new businesses, some people simply don’t have the time. That’s where the professionals come in. SEO specialists are here to drive traffic by ensuring that your website gets the best ranking on search engines. SEO experts understand the needs of their clients and promise to deliver, which is why they make a great alternative for those who aren’t looking to take this on all by themselves. Another reason to hire an expert would be to expand on a strategy you’ve developed or for some new and fresh ideas. 

Ultimately, doing SEO by yourself is exciting, and it is your business, after all! We love learning new things and developing new skills, and you should too.

You can achieve great results with DIY SEO or with some help from the experts. No matter what SEO route you choose to take, make sure you have a great site to do it on. Sign up with Go Sitebuilder today to create a beautiful website. 

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How to Plan a New Product Launch with Digital Marketing

Caucasian male sat in a stylish living room working from home on his laptop and holding his mobile phone. He has a beard and is wearing a gold shirt with a navy blue jacket.

Launching a new product can be a nerve-wracking process. By setting a digital marketing strategy in place, you’ll be optimising your product for success. Here’s a step by step guide on how to plan a new product launch with digital marketing:

1. Build a website

The best way to feature any product or information is with a beautiful website. Not only does this give you the space to scream and should about your launch, but it can double as a place for the customers to make purchases.

Use vibrant and appealing images to draw people to the pages. Make sure to include written content that explains who you are, what you’re selling and what makes your products so special. This is your chance to create a story and convert people from “lookers” to “buyers”.

2. Define an audience

Most people have an idea of who their ideal audience will be, but, you need to ensure you have established your audience on social media. Have you found them? Once you know who they are you can get to know them better. What are their interests? What hashtags they’re using? Do they have any slang terms? What motivates them and why would they be interested in following your brand on social media? All of this is exciting to learn and will help you build better relationships. Creating buyer personas is simply a way to attract the right customer, at the right time, with the correct messaging – our free buyer persona eBook will make sure you don’t waste another penny!

Once you’ve defined your audience, start to use their terminology and hashtags in the pre-launch posts to build up your future customer base before the product has even launched. Make sure to include links to your social media account on your website too.

3. Make goals for your launch

Linked to your business goals, your launch goals are critical to being able to measure the success of your product launch. Ultimately, you want new leads or customers, so it’s important for you to try and define how many you want in the first month, and what impact you want to make in the first few weeks. Set small achievable goals, they’ll help you get excited and you can always set more once you’ve finished another.

It’s easy to get lost in numbers, and so your goals should always strive to create quality leads that can be measured using data and metrics. For example, if you want to launch a new range of eco-friendly diapers, you probably want a launch goal of ‘create 30 new leads in the first month who are expectant mothers/mothers to babies and toddlers.’ Using free metrics like Instagram’s business analytics will help you to see who your most popular audience are – such as age, likes and gender.

4. Prepare launch content

For your social media, e-mail strategy and website, you’ll want to create some exciting graphics and content pieces for the launch of your product. A vital role for your product, you will want to keep a consistent style, including font, colour palette and tone of voice. Make sure your graphics are eye-catching and aesthetically pleasing, and that it is in line with the times.

Once you have these, start using them in emails, blogs and social media campaigns to drum up excitement. Partially cover images of your new product and use countdown timers to the launch date – it will all help to increase the excitement!

5. Influencer marketing

If you are going to be implementing an influencer strategy to your launching of a new product, then it’s essential you get them on board at least several months before launch. Get them to review the product, and share it on their social platforms on the day of the launch. You can even strike up a contract that involves them in the countdown to the new product, using their influence to drive in more traffic to your brand’s social media.

If you have influencers writing blogs about your new product, ask them to include a backlink to your website!

6. Launch day

Ensure all your social media posts and email campaigns are scheduled and ready to go on the day. Ideally, you want the launch to be during a time when your workers are in the office, in case there are any tech malfunctions. Run through your checklist to ensure everyone is prepped and ready to go. It can be a very daunting few hours, but ultimately one that should (hopefully) pay off if you’ve done it well!

If you still haven’t got your business online, now is a perfect time! Try Go Sitebuilder free for 14-days and see just how easy it is to get your website up and running.

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How to go about launching a digital product

Male wearing a blue, white and red checkered shirt is standing in his kitchen looking at his phone and making a coffee

To launch a digital product, it’s very helpful to have a digital presence. You can create this digital presence in one of several ways. You can do it through social media, online advertising, or you can do it by publishing a blog. But the thing that underpins all of these methods and makes it easy for interested parties to be aware of your digital presence is a website. A website is a place to tie it all together and express yourself with your customers.

Your website is your digital presence

A digital product is an online representation of a product or a service in the virtual world. Or in easier terms, this us what you do or sell – but online. Launching that digital product or service is all about raising awareness of its existence. But if you first use blogs and online advertising through social media or virtual directories to awaken public interest, in order to receive and action orders for whatever it is you are offering, you will need a website. A website helps you finish it all up, make payments and more!

To launch a digital product successfully, creating a website has to be your starting point. A website is your digital presence. It announces your existence to the virtual world and shows potential customers where to go.

How to create your first website

You could hire a bespoke website designer to create a website for you from scratch, but most product launches start off in a small way through a small business. Small business owners need to keep their costs down and hiring the services of a dedicated website designer can be an expensive undertaking.

So, to help entrepreneurs to get started affordably, we here at Go Sitebuilder came up with the modular website design concept. It empowers users to create their own professional websites a section at a time. Most importantly, you don’t need any website building experience. It works just as well for novices as it does for geeks.

By building your website in sections, you can make it as small or large as you require and add or subtract from it as your needs change. But whatever you do, thanks to the user-friendly programmable templates we have, you can customise your own unique website with ease. It will look and perform as good if not better than if you had employed the services of a bespoke website designer at many times the cost.

The complete website package

All of the websites you can create through Go Sitebuilder are available with a personalised domain name chosen by you, and five unique, business email addresses. The websites are compatible for mobile use, and you can access them via any device from anywhere to modify the site, process orders or do any other sort of maintenance as you see fit.

Ready for launch

With your website up and running, you will then be in a position to launch your digital product or service. You now have that all-important anchor point and can set about updating social media outlets, publishing blogs and instigating email marketing campaigns.

Anyone who wants to know more about the product(s) you are offering or who wants to go ahead and make a purchase will know where to go. You are on your way.

Having a website is crucial for every business. If you haven’t created yours yet, why don’t you check out Go Sitebuilder? Create your website from anywhere without the need for any technical skills. Try Go Sitebuilder free for 14-days to see just how easy it is to get your business online.

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Launching a new website – should I use .com or .co.uk?

should I use .com or new .co.uk

Where are your clients from? This question will help you get to the answer quickly. All .co.uk websites show that the business deals with customers based in the United Kingdom. All .com websites show that a company deals with customers on a global scale; therefore, they may lack tailor-made services for local customers. Sites with country codes like .co.uk command the market in their respective countries but have little to no effect in others. This article is here to break down whether you should use a .com or .co.uk domain extension.

Pros of using a .com extension

A .com domain extension is the most widely used website extension. Its market is wide as it does not incline to users from a specific area. Therefore, a business that wants to reach the global market can use the .com extension. In the worldwide market, a .com website extension seems more authentic and legitimate. Potential customers from diverse areas feel that the information or services offered are tailored to a global audience. Therefore, your website can reach more people globally if you choose .com as your website’s extension.

Pros of using a .co.uk extension

Knowing your target market is the first step in realizing the best website extension for your website. All website extensions with country codes are best for businesses that operate within that specific country. Therefore, the most clicked websites in the UK have the .co.uk extension. 

Having a website with a country code like .co.uk proves to be more authentic in the United Kingdom when compared with other extensions. If your site has a country code in its address, its legitimacy may only be recognized in the specific country. Long story short, if you’re a local business with your clients close to you, such as a plumber, tutor, painter, etc., this is the way to go. 

Finding the right extension for you

Using the pros and cons we have listed above, you can now make an educated decision on which extension is the best for your business. If you are a small to medium-sized company located in the United Kingdom, then it would make sense for you to use .co.uk. If you’re wanting to draw in a larger audience, then choose .com, as it is recognized worldwide. Alternatively, you can purchase both domains, but you’ll need to make sure they direct to one single place for search engine optimisation.

Decided on the right domain extension for you? At Go Sitebuilder, you can create a stylish website with a unique domain and up to five email addresses with no previous knowledge in web design. Try out our 14-day free trial today and see just how easy it is to get your business online.

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Core Features to Look For in a website builder

Core Features to Look For in a Site Builder

When you launch your website, you are sending it out into the world wide web to be seen by your audience, and new ones too! Go Sitebuilder helps you build your confidence in site launching, even if you are not a professional site designer. We’ve put together a comprehensive list of what core features to look for in a website builder!

Making your website look appealing

Go Sitebuilder offers several professional designs and a library of beautifully designed sections and themes, all of which are fully customisable. There is a wide range of layout possibilities with the numerous pre-built sections offered. You can style each section of your site individually or even change the whole layout in just a click. These layouts are very responsive to your commands, making it easy to operate your site on smartphones, tablets and larger screens. A beautiful website will make all of the difference. 

Editing images

With the built-in image editor you can re-size, crop, scale, reduce red-eye and even add filters or stickers to your images. This will help you make your photos pop!

Increasing activity on your social media platforms

By adding your social platforms to your site, it becomes easier for site visitors to view your profile and latest posts. Make sure you’re creating content on your social media accounts as well. 

Ensuring communication with customers

When you include contact forms on your site, you’re helping your customers! Following submission of the form, you receive an email on the same in a matter of seconds.

Uploading files

Upload files and PDFs to your site so that customers can easily view, download and print them. We love this feature, especially for restaurant menus.

Embedding external content

You can add relevant outside content from other sites such as YouTube and Pinterest to your site.

SEO

Ensure your site gets fully indexed on search engines by adding site-level and page-level SEO tags and content.

Creating a gallery

Incorporate an appealing multi-image gallery on your site for visitors to view, expand and zoom in. You can import images from your Facebook page or from the Go Sitebuilder stock image gallery to your site. Additionally, you can set these images in a slide-show that transitions both manually and automatically.

Previewing your site

Before you publish, see a preview of how your site will appear on any device in both portrait and landscape layouts. In this way, you can add products and updates from anywhere.

Mapping domains

Do you have multiple domains that you wish to make available on your site? Go Sitebuilder offers a simplified domain mapping page for this.

Analysing customer insights

By incorporating the Google Analytics tracking code into your site, you can see what your audience thinks of your site. This can help you in a number of ways in the future, we’ll touch more on this in a future post.

Website personalisation

Add personal content into your website including videos, audios, text and maps to increase site traffic.

Creating a product store

With Go Sitebuilder, you can create a store with assorted products and stock as much as you wish. Additionally, you get to integrate various payment options such as PayPal and major credit cards and also create customised offers, just-arrived items, discount vouchers or redeemable points for customers. You can create a preset stock level that gives you alerts when certain products fall below that level.

With Go Sitebuilder, you can choose from a huge selection of professional and beautiful themes and personalise it to your company, safe in the knowledge that whatever you choose will work just as seamlessly on mobile and desktop. Take advantage of our 14-day free trial (no credit card needed) to see just how easy it is.

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How to launch your new website the right way

Young, male entrepreneur using his mobile phone to launch his new website

How you launch your new website is important and we want to help you do it right. Your launch can impact on how many people visit your site, and whether they return in the future. Here are some effective strategies to get your website launch on the right path to success.

Timing

Timing is key when you’re about to launch a new website. You’ll need to let people know about your upcoming site, but when you do this is also important.

Ideally, let your audiences know as soon as possible that you’ve got a new website on the way, but if it won’t be out for several months or more, you’ll need to remind people nearer the time in case they’ve forgotten about it.

Create a schedule of updates and news posts in the run-up to launch day, so that you can firmly get into the minds of your target audiences. Whenever you do post a new update, make sure to include it on all of your social media feeds and other relevant places that your target audiences will get to see.

Announcing your launch

It’s not just when you announce your website launch that matters, but where you do this is crucial too. You should have an idea in mind of your target audiences. When you make announcements about your launch, do so in places where these groups will see it.

You want to make sure you’re speaking to your target audience. This is the best way to direct your time, effort and money. This approach is also more likely to be successful!

How you say it

People will need a compelling reason to visit your new website so don’t just let them know you’ve got one coming. Think of how you can entice them to visit your site on launch day and keep coming back for more.

Engage with your audiences as soon as you start your website launch campaign. Ask them for feedback, such as what they’d like to see on the new website. Create competitions or promotions, like offers or discounts for the first number of customers who purchase from your site. You might even wish to ask for relevant user-generated content from audiences to build anticipation and excitement for launch day.

Be honest! Don’t make any exaggerated or false claims about your website prior to launch day, this is key to running any business or relationship. Make sure to only launch the site once it’s fully operational and there’s sufficient content on it to inform and entice visitors while leaving enough to keep them coming back for more.

Having a website is crucial for every business. If you haven’t created yours yet, why don’t you check out Go Sitebuilder? Create your website from anywhere without the need for any technical skills. Try Go Sitebuilder free for 14-days to see just how easy it is to get your business online.

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What is the best day to launch a new website?

Male business owner reviewing some paper work in a stylish, light office with exposed brick work

Launching your new website is a grand event. Some people choose a day that resonates with them while others maybe don’t have any idea at all. However, if the website aims at targeting increased traffic, the day of the week matters a lot. When setting the launching day of your site, you need to be aware of the schedule of your clients. In most cases, sites depend on employed people. Therefore, you have to understand their common behaviour in terms of workload, personal time, and attitudes towards the days of the week.

Monday

Launching a website on a busy day for your customers is an ultimate miss. The potential clients are not just about to stop their busy schedules to look at your site. Mondays are known to be very slow days; most people are yet to adjust to the working environment from a fun and busy weekend. The workload is very high when employees deal with stalled tasks from the previous week. On Mondays, people do not have time even to visit their social media pages, and therefore it is hard for them to visit a newly launched website.

The weekend

For most people, weekends are there to be enjoyed. It is during this time that they move out of town to refresh. Most people have physical conversations with friends and families. With the current trends of technology taking over human connections, some people prefer to keep off from the internet. On the weekend, there are very few people to share with the trending issues as families do not have the best environment to discuss emerging issues. Weekends are not the best time to launch a new website as it may not get optimum traffic.

Mid-week

Most people who recommend news are workmates and colleagues. However, this happens when they have some free time. Employees are trapped in their jobs over the weekdays, and this is the best time to launch your new website. However, Mondays are extremely busy and dull for people to have free time. Similarly, Fridays are extremely hyper as employees look forward to the weekend. In this regard, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are the days with a conducive environment for the launch of a new website. If a website goes live on Tuesday, people have all day to not only discuss it but visit. For the people who fail to know about the new website, there is Wednesday and Thursday for the word to spread. Before the end of the week, the website will have become popular with many potential clients.

Having a website is crucial for every business. If you haven’t created yours yet, why don’t you check out Go Sitebuilder? Create your website from anywhere without the need for any technical skills. Try Go Sitebuilder free for 14-days to see just how easy it is to get your business online.