As harsh as it may sound, it is pretty much safe to say that nowadays, if your business is not online, it basically does not exist. That is because most people go online, before choosing a product or a service. Essentially, no matter how small your business is, we strongly recommend you to build a website for it. Not only it will it get you more visibility and therefore more clients, but it will also make you look more trustworthy. Last but not least, it will help you grow your business faster and more effectively. With this in mind, here are 5 tips that will help you build your first business website and make you stand out: 
Have a Strategy and a Clear Goal
Needless to say that every time you set yourself to do something new, you should have a clear goal in mind and a strategy. So it should not come as a surprise that before building the website, you should have an idea of how you would want it to look like, what is its functionality and of course, what is your target audience.
More exactly, there are a few questions you should ask yourself – and then give an answer to, before starting to work on the design of the website: who is your audience? To whom is the website addressed? What are the most important features your website should have and what is optional? What will you connect your website to (social media profiles, landing pages, blogs etc.)? How will you measure your success and what are your short term and long term goals?
Even though the above questions may be overwhelming at first, it is critical to have a clear strategy before you start building the website. Remember what every website has its purpose and if yours is not created accordingly, you will not be able to meet your goals.
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Work with Professionals
For those of you that are second-doubting building a website for their businesses, do not let the confusing questions mentioned above scare you away. In fact, you do not even have to think about them too much, if you decide to work with a team of professionals, which is, in fact, our second tip.
We strongly recommend that you do not create your website on your own from scratch, if you have little knowledge about how to prepare a proper online strategy or how to choose the right design. Even though some things can be taught and we absolutely encourage people to create things on their own, this is not the case.
What you can do instead is choose to work with a website builder, like Wix, Weebly or Squarespace for example.
Website builders can be the perfect place to start if you are looking for a more streamlined approach. You can find beautiful templates to work with, lots of different tools and features, and most website builders feature support pages and guides. For example, Wix has a guide for how to build a website that covers the basics for any new site.
Keep the Pages Uncluttered
As we stated above, after you have decided upon a template, you can customize your website however you like. Unfortunately, if you do not pay close attention, the pages can easily become cluttered which, with no doubt, will drive users away. In conclusion, even though we do recommend you to share images and videos, in order to make it as appealing as possible, we also recommend you to keep it simple and choose an elegant and clean design, that is user friendly.
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Make the Website Mobile Friendly
After choosing the right template for your website and making sure it fully represents your business, it is absolutely necessary that you make sure the website is also mobile friendly. Nowadays, most of the customers navigate on the internet in search of products or services they need from their mobile phone, so making sure your website works perfectly on a mobile should be a priority on your list. In fact, according to recent studies, the majority place their online orders using their mobile phone, without getting in contact with the company first – if it is not necessary.
Get Personal
Last but not least, make your website as personal as you can, but keep in mind that it should still be written in a professional way. However, we strongly recommend that you give as much information about your business as possible. Tell your story and let people know how you started, what was the main goal and how did it change in time. Tell them what you can offer them and why should they choose you, instead of one of your competitors.
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Finally, encourage your audience to reach out, by placing a contact form on your website, along with the phone number, e-mail address and, of course, a link connected to all your social media platforms.