This series is written for the start-up small business in mind.
So, you know you need a website but where do you begin? Each of these articles (there’s 5, each one is around a minute to read) guides you through what you need to do and in what order, with useful links to websites that can help you achieve that particular goal. I’m not sponsored by any of the links, I’ve just used them and had a positive experience.
Throughout these articles we’re going to use the example of a new plumber in the city of Burlington.
Mike and Michelle have started a plumbing company in Burlington, Ontario. So far it’s been all referrals, but they want to expand their reach via a website. They just don’t know where to start…
Where do I begin?
You need 3 things to get a website up and running. Let’s look at each item in turn and we’re going to use an analogy to make things simple. Imagine we want to build a brand new house on a plot of land and we want people to know our new address. We need the following
- An address to give to people.
- The plot of land that we can build on
- The house on the plot of land.
Let’s see how these correspond to what we need for our website.
| Real World | Internet |
|---|---|
| Your address (e.g. 123 New Forest Road, Burlington, Ontario | Your Internet address (e.g. www.yourbusiness.ca) |
| Your plot of land (where your house will sit) | Your hosting company (where your website will live). |
| Your house. | Your website |
So Mike and Michelle need to start by getting their Internet address. That’s the subject of Part 2.