How to create a corporate website

The decision is made: you think the time has come to build a new website, through which to promote the services offered by your company, so as to make yourself known online and maximize the revenue attached to your business. The problem, however, is that you do not have the faintest idea how to create a corporate website, and it is for this reason that, after a short Google search, you landed on my website.

How do you say? Are things exactly as I described you? In this case, let me give you a hand in succeeding in this enterprise: in the following bars of this guide, I will take care to explain some of the fundamental aspects to be taken into consideration when designing a corporate website and, subsequently, I will show you the operation of an excellent portal dedicated entirely to the so-called “site-building”.

So, without hesitating further, make yourself comfortable and carefully read everything I have to explain to you on the subject: I’m sure that, at the end of reading this guide, you will have a clear idea of ​​how to move safely and professionally. Having said that, there is nothing left for me to do but wish you good reading and … good work!

Index

• Preliminary analyzes
  • Choose your name and domain
  • Choose hosting
  • Choose a CMS
  • Fundamental pages
• How to create a business website for free
  • Aruba SuperSite
  • Shopify
  • Other solutions to create a corporate website

Preliminary analyzes

The first step to be taken in order to create a successful corporate website is its “theoretical” design: this phase, all too often underestimated, serves to give an at least abstract form to the portal that is about to be created, setting guidelines to be followed in the actual construction phase.

To get started, first ask yourself who you want to visit your website and what information you want readers to glean from it: do you need a showcase to showcase your work? Do you need an e-commerce to be dedicated to the purchase of certain products? Do you offer direct customer services (e.g. payroll/bookkeeping, graphic design, home cooking, etc.)?

In this regard, you must have two fundamental concepts in mind: the mission that your site must have (i.e. the type of interest it must arouse in visitors) and the vision it must respond to (i.e. the ways in which to arouse this interest) . These concepts will prove to be almost fundamental for the success of the portal you are about to create.

Having defined these two points, you can proceed with the definition of the main details of the site: its name, the domain name and the hosting service to which you can contact to host everything. In the following paragraphs of this section it will be my care to indicate to you, precisely, what are the “choices” to be made immediately.

Choose your name and domain

To date, the corporate website is a bit like the business card: there is a very good chance that potential customers, even before talking to an “insider” or physically visiting the company headquarters, have taken a look at the website that represents it.

For this reason, I recommend that you give the site in question a  name similar to that of the company, which is incisive and at the same time easy to remember. For example, for my company I have chosen to use my name, and it is no coincidence that my website is also called Salvatore Aranzulla. So, if the business you manage is called, for example, Bei Prodotti Per Te, it would be a good idea to create a website with the same name.

Once the name has been decided, another very important step follows: that of choosing the domain to use, that is the main part of the URL where to reach it. Returning to my case, I chose to opt for a domain that is easy to remember and that leads back, also in a very direct way, to my person and my company aranzulla.it. :.

Ideally, you should follow a similar path, but keep in mind a couple of key details: the site domain should be easy to remember and short enough, as far as possible. For example, if your business is called Bei Prodotti Per Te, you could use the domain  beiprodottiperte.it(if your company mainly has Italian customers) or  beiprodottiperte.com(if, on the other hand, you plan to acquire customers on an international scale).

Another piece of advice I would like to give you, especially for companies with particularly long names, is to use the acronym of the business name, or an understandable abbreviation : for example, where the name of the same was Bei Prodotti Per Te Per Home and Environment, you could consider using a domain like  beiprodotticasambiente.it. In general, however, try to follow the “simple rule of three” as far as possible: simple to remember, simple to type, simple to communicate.

Another suggestion: if the company for which you are preparing to create the site operates on an international scale, if it is a very competitive sector or if you risk running into companies that have names similar to yours, buy, in addition to the domain ” main “of your interest (eg. nomesito.it), even alternative domains that have the extension .net (eg. nomesito.net) and .com ( nomesito.com): in this way, you will minimize the possibility that someone may use your company name to attract an audience that should really belong to you.

If you already have a Web space to dedicate to your site and you need to proceed with the purchase of the domain only, consult the guide I have dedicated to registering a new domain. If, on the other hand, you are starting “from scratch”, I recommend that you opt for a hosting + domain package: I will talk about it in the immediately following section of this guide.

Choose hosting

The ‘ hosting is nothing but the physical space in which a Web site is hosted. On the Net, there are numerous providers of this type, many of which allow you to purchase packages that include hosting,  domain and dedicated Web services.

Hosting providers can provide both free and paid solutions: the former, in general, are minimally customizable and combine a third-party or, in some cases, fourth-level domain (for example nomesito.nomehosting.it) with the Web space. ; paid hosting solutions, on the other hand, provide highly customizable services, a dedicated support team and, in general, can be combined for purchase with second-level domains (eg. nomesito.it).

Some providers allow you to choose the type of server to rent: this choice varies greatly according to the performance to be obtained and must be analyzed very carefully, in order to avoid running into unnecessary expenses.

• Shared server– resources are hosted on machines shared by multiple customers at the same time. The managers provide ready-to-use Web spaces, complete with everything necessary to create a site, even with little or no previous technical skills. This is the most common, simple and inexpensive solution.
• Semi-dedicated server – the resources are hosted on a complete operating system, in a virtual environment, at the complete disposal of the user (who will be left with the task of configuring the various aspects). This solution, not exactly cheap, is usually chosen by those who expect to generate high traffic or have to perform complex parallel operations through the Web server.
• Dedicated server– the resources are hosted on a complete operating system, installed on a physical machine, which is made available to the user. This is the least economical and most complex solution to manage, suitable for those who need high computing power and to manage significantly large amounts of traffic.

Unless you have specific requests of a strictly technical nature, I recommend that you opt for the purchase of hosting on a shared server: such platforms usually provide numerous services, such as the following.

• A certain amount of web space to use for the files that make up the site.
• A  second level (or higher) domain.
• The ability to create one or more subdomains(e.g. nomesito.it or ecommerce.nomesito.it).
• A number of dedicated email boxes.
• Pre-configured server services (e.g. web environment, database environment, PHP environment, ASP environment, etc.) and ready for use.
• Pre-configured CMS for simplified installation or proprietary CMS (more on that later).
• Optional backup services for automatic data saving.
• Optional staging service for the implementation of “test” functions of the site.

Clearly, the choice of hosting can vary based on the type of website you intend to get. If you need help in this regard, feel free to read my tutorial on how to choose a hosting for your website and my guide to the best hosting: I’m sure they will be able to clarify your ideas further.

Choose a CMS

Do you have every intention of creating a business website on your own but alas, have you never dealt with the subject of web programming before? Do not worry: there are tools that can create, customize, manage and update entire Web sites, with ease, also suitable for those who do not have specific skills on the subject: these systems are called CMS, or content management system.

There are a large number of ready-to-use CMSs, each featuring specific functions for the site you are about to create. Therefore, it is first of all necessary to identify the one that best suits your project, taking into consideration its main aspects and defining a list of needs and priorities, such as: the graphic aspect of the portal to be obtained; the methods of content creation; the presence or absence of e-commerce and/or showcase pages; the development programmatically; the monetization (i.e. the ability to earn from the site by adding advertisements) or other similar factors.

What I mean is that, depending on the site you have in mind, you will have to use a different CMS: if, for example, the website has to resemble a blog, an information showcase or a portfolio, it is essential to rely on a CMS able to create content easily and manage in detail the graphics of the site (eg. WordPress ); if, on the other hand, you are more oriented to the creation of an e-commerce, you need a CMS that allows you to create product sheets, to define payment and shipping methods and, if you intend to sponsor your page, also to create a landing page (eg Joomla ).

Finally, you should make sure that the CMS you have chosen has a  clean and light code, that it is optimized for search engines, that allows you to easily create responsive sites (suitable for both PCs and smartphones and tablets, with automatic modification of the display in based on the device used by the user), that has adequate support and documentation but, especially if you do not have much experience in this regard, that it is easy to use.

To clarify your ideas further, I have created a specific guide dedicated to the best CMS, in which I have told you, in detail, about the most known and used solutions of this type.

Fundamental pages

One of the keys to the success of a corporate website is to think of it by putting yourself, literally, in the shoes of the audience it is addressed to: for this reason, you must ensure that the information you intend to transfer to your readers is always there, at handy. Here, then, is a series of pages that should, in my opinion, be present to some extent on all corporate Internet sites.

• The home page that is neat, tidy, captivating and not excessive but, above all, in line with the style of your company: it is the first page that a user views when visiting the site, do not forget it.
• The About Us page, containing the history of the company, together with the mission and values ​​it embodies.
• The Contacts page, in which to indicate information such as the company address (and, if necessary, how to reach it by own and public means), the opening hours, the telephone/fax number, the email address and, if applicable, the addresses of social profiles.
• The Portfolio page, if you intend to give the reader a list of your works.
• The Testimonials page, where you can group the positive experiences of those who have contacted the company, making them easily accessible.
• The Success Stories page, in a similar way to what we saw previously, should list the most important solution projects completed by the company itself.
• The Store page, if you intend to give your readers the opportunity to shop online.
• One or more Landing Pages, to be created if you intend to advertise your company through social media or through other types of advertisements (eg Google Ads ). The landing page is the Web page that users reach by clicking on advertisements on the Net, in which to insert incisive content, discounts or promotions valid for a specified time.
• The page is dedicated to the Privacy Management & Cookie Policy, essential if the website is available for users belonging to the European Community, in which to enter information relating to the use of cookies, personal data and any other information that is attributable to the privacy of the ‘user. Most CMSs allow you to create pages of this type using a guided procedure.

How to create a business website for free

After having drawn up a project relating to the type of website you intend to create, the time has come to explain to you how to proceed, in practice. Personally, I advise you to consider the use of paid solutions, as the services offered (eg a second level domain) are more consonant with the result you should get.

However, if you want to experiment before investing any money, let me explain how to create a free business website with  Aruba SuperSite, a hosting service (with proprietary CMS) that provides a free trial period of 30 days, generally enough for evaluate the effectiveness of the website created.

Aruba SuperSite

Aruba SuperSite, as I explained earlier, is a complete solution aimed at the creation of medium complexity Internet sites, which allows you to create websites based on HTML5 and CSS3 technologies, with a customizable design and optimized for mobile and search engines. . There is also no shortage of options aimed at integrating blogs and selling products online. Aruba SuperSite can be activated, at the time of writing this guide, with 3 possible plans.

• SuperSite Trial– allows you to try the SuperSite Professional plan for free for 30 days. Includes a third level domain (e.g.mysupersite.it) with free 24/7 support. It allows you to create sites optimized for mobile devices and equipped with an e-commerce component, blogs, SEO options and Cookie Policy, even multilingual. At the end of the 30 days, the site is no longer accessible and there are 10 days to purchase the service in the Professional version, replacing the third level domain with a second level one (for examplenomesito.it). If, after 10 days, no upgrade is made, the site will be automatically deleted.
• SuperSite Professional– is the full version of the plan seen above. Includes a second level domain (e.g.it), 5 mailboxes, DV SSL certificate and free 24/7 support. It is suitable for creating sites optimized for mobile devices, with blog functions, e-commerce, SEO options and Cookie Policy, even multilingual. As things currently stand, the service costs € 39 + VAT for the first year, in promotion for new activations until July 30, 2020, then € 99 + VAT/year.
• SuperSite Easy– is the cheapest plan of Aruba SuperSite, which includes a second-level domain (e.g.it), 5 mailboxes, SSL DV certificate and free 24/7 support. It allows you to create sites optimized for mobile devices and with blog functions, SEO options and Cookie Policy. It costs € 39 + VAT / year.

To activate the trial version of Aruba SuperSite, connect to this website and click on the Try free for 30 days button to go to the next step, which consists of accessing the service with your Aruba account: if you have one, fill in the appropriate fields with your details and click on the Login button.

Otherwise, you can proceed with the creation of a new account using the New user section: specify if you are a natural person,  freelancer,  company / sole proprietorship or other person, press the Register button and enter the information relating to your person/company in the modules that are subsequently proposed to you. Once completed, you will need to verify your account by clicking on the confirmation button in the email you will receive from Aruba.

Once logged in, accept the  Service Supply Conditions and the  Service Supply Conditions Clauses, by ticking the appropriate boxes; click on the Continue button and connect to the SuperSite editor by logging in with your account and follow the guided procedure to proceed with the creation of your website: specify what type of website you are creating, by typing an indicative term in the appropriate field and selecting the suggestion most similar to the content you want to create, click on the Continue button  , indicate the name of your website in the next field and press Continue again, to move forward.

Now, select the style of your site, choosing one of the templates that are proposed to you and, subsequently, select the home page template that suits you best: take a look at the live preview (if you want to see the rendering also in mobile mode, click on the smartphone icon on the left) to choose the template that most convinces you and, when you have found it, click on the Create your website button to create the “skeleton” of your site and immediately start creating content.

If everything went well, you should now find yourself face to face with the SuperSite editor, on which you can act, in all its aspects, using the menu bar at the top: by pressing the ☰ button you can quickly reach the various sections of the portal ( Site Editor, Shop Management, Blog Management, Help / Tutorial, Site Settings and Account Management ); using the central drop-down menu you can choose the page to be modified; using the right sidebar, instead, you can change the design of the site, view it in desktop / mobile version or publish it.

The central part of the SuperSite editor screen contains the page to be edited, to which elements such as images, texts, headers, image galleries, slideshows, maps, direct contact buttons, various types of forms and widgets can be added ( e.g. PDF documents, YouTube videos, content incorporated from external sources and social widgets), product lists and purchase buttons if I were creating an e-commerce site.

Each of the elements can be customized thanks to the special tools of the visual editor, which allow you to define graphics and functions without directly intervening on the code. As needed, it is possible to change the background of each section of the page individually, as well as to create header and footer (header and footer) to be applied only to the page currently being edited, or to all the other pages of the site.

Finally, at the bottom of the screen, there are buttons to add new sections to the page  (the icon (+) ) and to add new pages/elements to the site (the icon of the four squares ).

Clearly, the methods of use of the SuperSite editor vary profoundly according to the type of site that is being created and the contents that you intend to insert within it: for a more in-depth overview of this service, I recommend that you read my guide dedicated to building a website with Aruba, in which I illustrated, in great detail, the use of the various functions of the proprietary CMS included in the service.

Shopify

If your intention is to create a corporate website complete with blogs and e-commerce to sell your products, I recommend that you consider Shopify: a service with over 1,000,000 stores already active around the world, the which allows you to create professional e-commerce in just a few clicks. It is accessible directly from a browser or from apps for Android and iOS / iPadOS and can be used without problems even by those who have no knowledge of programming or Web design, in fact it allows you to choose ready-to-use (customizable) themes on which to build. your own store.

Shopify offers unlimited hosting and bandwidth, free SSL certificate, a free shopify.com domain name (with the possibility of buying a custom one or using an existing one) and allows you to manage everything with extreme ease: products (unlimited), payments, shipments, orders, customer lists, etc. It also allows you to launch marketing campaigns via Google, Facebook, email or SMS and to analyze sales data in detail.

You can use it for free for a trial period (without entering any payment details or renewal obligation), after which you can choose one of the paid plans, starting at $ 29 / month. To get started, just go to the official website of the service, type your email address in the field provided and click on the Start free trial button.

Then you need to enter the password and name to be assigned to the shop, press the Create your shop button and specify, through the appropriate menus, if you have already started selling, what your current income is and if you are creating a shop for a customer. . Finally, you must provide the rest of the requested information, click on the Next button (or on Skip ) and provide the address to receive payments.

Once the shop has been created, you access the management page of the latter with, on the left, all the useful links: Home, to access the main dashboard; Orders, to manage orders; Products, to manage products; Customers, to manage the customer list; Analysis, to view sales data; Marketing, to set up marketing campaigns; Discounts, to set up discount codes; App, to expand the functions of e-commerce, and Online Store, to customize the appearance and pages of the store. More info here.

Other solutions to create a corporate website

If you feel that the solution I have given you above is not for you, you can consider using other hosting platforms + CMS that allow, within a few clicks, to create a respectable business website. Here are some of them.

• Wix– it is a very famous service used for the creation of professional sites complete with blogs, ecommerce and photo galleries, thanks to the help of an artificial intelligence. Basically, Wix is ​​a free service, which includes such a domain wixsite.com/nomedelsito, 500MB of storage, 500MB of bandwidth, and advertisements. To remove these limitations, you need to subscribe to one of the paid plans, with prices starting at € 4.50 / month.
• Webs– another site-building platform that allows you to create professional looking websites in just a few clicks. The free version of Webs allows you to create a site with a third-level domain of the type nomesito.webs.combut, by opting for a paid plan (with prices starting at $ 5.99 / month), you can get second level domains.
• Blooming– this is a portal dedicated to the creation of e-commerce sites with a personal space dedicated to sales. As for corporate sites, subscription plans are available, with starting prices equal to € 29 / month + VAT (with deduction of 2% of commissions, on a monthly basis).

For more information about these and other useful services, please consult my guides on how to create an Internet site, how to create a professional site and how to create an e-commerce site: I’m sure you will find what you are looking for!