We’re in the midst of a major paradigm shift in how businesses cater to their customers. The Covid-19 crisis has introduced us to concepts such as social distancing which are major stumbling blocks to the way physical stores are run and operated. Online stores however are immune to the strain and stress of these troubled times.
According to the latest figures from the Office of National Statistics, the UK’s e-commerce revenue amounted to £688.4 Billion in 2018, and grew another 10% in 2019. The Covid-19 crisis has forced a change in hygiene and buying habits alike, with most customers preferring the safety of ordering online. This has resulted in an unprecedented spike over the past few months as most households opt for the comfort and safety of shopping online.
With holiday season fast approaching, and Black Friday right around the corner, you can no longer ignore the importance of having a website that meets the needs of your customers while providing an easy and engaging experience. But branching your business online is no small feat.
Create a thriving online business with GoDaddy
GoDaddy provides an all-in-one platform that takes care of all your needs for setting up a thriving online business. From registering your domain name, hosting your website, to tailoring your site to your needs, GoDaddy provides a host of tools to help you get your business online in almost no time all.
Step 1: Register a domain name
GoDaddy is the world’s largest and most trusted domain name registrar with over 20 million satisfied customers. The registration costs are minimal and GoDaddy offers you a wide choice in the top level domain (TLD) names. The Top Level Domain (TLD) name is the last part of a website’s URL. In addition to the always popular pick of com, net and org, GoDaddy provides more than a hundred different generic-TLD’s for you to choose from, such as .store, .online, .global, .shop, .photography, .bike, .rental, etc.
The obvious advantage is that visitors to your site will instantly know just by looking at the URL about what to expect from your website. A domain name suffix tailored to your business idea is just one of the many ways GoDaddy helps you promote your online business and create brand recall.
Step 2: Choose your hosting solution
GoDaddy provides a range of hosting plans for you to choose from. The ideal plan for your business will depend on the amount of data hosted on the website, the number of visitors you anticipate accessing your website.
GoDaddy’s Website Builder is a graphical utility that provides a point-and-click interface to help you quickly assemble a website, without any coding skills. It also offers a range of professionally designed templates to choose from, so you can customise the appearance of your website. The advantage with this option is that it requires no prior skill and can help you quickly design a website. (See Step 3)
Another option is to use WordPress, one of the most popular Content Management System (CMS) to base your website on. GoDaddy’s WordPress hosting plans are aimed at users interested in creating a WordPress site for their business. You can entrust GoDaddy to create a website that’s optimised for search engines and has all the marketing tools you’ll need to generate more sales. For those interested in creating an online store, the WordPress Ecommerce plan adds support for different payment methods to help convert more visitors to your site into paying customers.
Depending on your skill and budget, you can also opt to build a site from scratch yourself. GoDaddy’s cPanel hosting is a minimalist plan that’s aimed at businesses that wish to build their website from scratch. You’ll have the freedom to choose the CMS you wish to use, or to tailor your website in any fashion you like.
With GoDaddy’s guaranteed uptime of 99.9%, you also have the peace of mind that your online business will be accessible throughout the year, 24x7.
Step 3: Build your website
A well developed website is more than just a window into your business and its offerings. It’s a means of establishing a business that never sleeps.
GoDaddy’s Website Builder service takes care of one of the most challenging decision you have to make for your website, its look and feel. It can help you carve a professional looking website with only a few mouse clicks. Its intuitive interface is designed to assist users with no coding experience and requires no special skills.
Just provide the type of website you wish to create, whether an online store, blog, clothing and apparel store, or the industry you work in, such as fashion, gardening, etc. and the tool will present a range of templates and themes for you to choose. The theme defines how the information on your website is displayed, and you can opt for a picture- or text-heavy variety or a combination of the two, or something else entirely.
GoDaddy also gives you the option to use WordPress Content Management System to develop your website. You can then entrust the website to Godaddy for hosting, maintenance and administering software updates.
For users with an even more discerning eye looking to create a bespoke website that’s unique to your business idea, Godaddy will assign a dedicated design specialist that will work with you to give your website the exact shape you desire.
Step 4: Add content to your website
Depending on your business and requirements, you can create a single page website, or spread the content across multiple pages. The Website Builder will help you populate the different pages on a multi-page website with useful features such as a contact form, email subscription option, a map showing the location of your physical store or office, etc.
To promote visitors to create an account, you can also use the Website Builder to create members only areas of your website, with special content aimed at registered users.
Step 5: Market your products and services
You can link your website with major marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay and with GoDaddy’s Website + Marketing service, you can even integrate your social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other platforms directly into your website. This enables you to sell your wares directly on these social media platforms, in addition to established e-commerce hubs such as Amazon.
Syncing these marketplaces and social media platforms with your website through the Website + Marketing services ensures that updates to the products on your website, such as description, price, photos, etc. are synced directly on the different platforms. So that users always see current information, whether they visit your website, on find your products elsewhere on the internet.
GoDaddy’s Website + Marketing also lets you create tailor-made emails to help you keep your existing customers in the loop about upcoming events or sales, and new collections or offers.
Create brand recall with Websites + Marketing
If you wish to transform your business into a brand, constantly attract new customers and keep growing your business, you need more than just a website. Merely attracting new visitors to your website isn’t going to do the trick either. You need to be able to convert visitors into new customers and existing shoppers into loyal ones.
Step 1: Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a popular technique used to attract visitors to your website. GoDaddy helps you improve the ranking of your website on popular search engines such as Google and Bing. It analyzes the content on your website and makes recommendations about which keywords or phrases you can use to improve your ranking. The higher your website features in the search results, the more likely it is for users to engage.
Step 2: Leverage social media
This frequent engagement with potential customers is paramount if you want to turn them into loyal, paying customers. With GoDaddy Website + Marketing you’ll be able to reach a large number of potential customers by leveraging the power of social media through targeted campaigns. With your social media pages linked directly to your website, you’ll be able to directly sell your wares on platforms such as Instagram and Facebook, without requiring customers to step away from their favourite social media hangout.
Step 3: Regular engagement
This also ensures interaction with existing and potential new customers as they share their likes or post queries as GoDaddy Website + Marketing will also give timely reminders so that you can respond to reviews posted on Google or Facebook, or Tweet about the latest product, or even post pictures onto the Instagram account.
Step 4: Keep your customers informed
GoDaddy’s in-built email marketing tool can help you create eye-catching emails with a consistent look and feel to reinforce your brand. Website + Marketing makes it easy to track customers’ purchase history so that you can create tailored recommendations and announce new products. With its email tracking feature, you’ll be able to see how many people in the subscribers list open your emails, so that you can make necessary changes and make future email campaigns even more effective.
Step 5: Identify areas that can be improved
To further bolster your online business, Godaddy also provides a unique tool to identify areas that require attention. Godaddy Insight is a technology system that’s designed to study and analyze different metrics such as website traffic, social media activity and online sales. It then provides recommendations to help you improve your online presence.
GoDaddy also offers a range of monitoring tools to help you gauge your customers thoughts about your products and services. A unified interface will display your website’s Google search ranking, view Facebook likes, views and posts, receive recommendations on how to improve your online presence and more.
Create an e-commerce platform with Online Store
Your website shouldn’t be limited to providing a catalogue of services and products. With the Online Store, you can quickly create an e-commerce platform that provides a fast user experience on all devices.
With GoDaddy’s Online Store, you can add as many as 5000 products with 10 images per product onto your website. You’ll also be able to manage all these easily and keep visitors and customers informed of when a product is out of stock, promote offers and otherwise keep visitors engaged.
Flexibility in payment options is one of the advantages of online shopping. With the Online Store, your GoDaddy website can securely accept payments from most popular credits cards, PayPal and even Apple Pay.
As a large number of users prefers to shop using mobile devices, GoDaddy’s Online Store ensures your website provides a fast checkout by reducing the number of taps and swipes.
The Online Store also lets you configure the shipping method, whether free shipping, flat rate, weight-based, etc. During checkout, customers will see the shipping method selected, as well as other pertinent details such as shipping charges, if any, in their order summary. Depending on your business model, you can also enable In-person Pickup.
If you are overwhelmed by the enormity of the task ahead of you, unsure of how to make most of all the myriad capabilities of Websites + Marketing, or just need advise to make informed decision that’s best for your individual needs, Godaddy’s celebrated and award winning customer support will eagerly address your queries. There’s no reason to venture out on your own when you can leverage the knowledge that’s helped millions of people get online.
Godaddy provides 24/7 support over phone, email and even Whatsapp (in select regions), so you’re never alone on your journey to transform your business into a dominating digital platform.
