Nearly every small business client that's come to me in the last few months has been registered with GoDaddy for their website domains or hosting. In the US, they are the among the heaviest advertisers for website services, offering cheap domains and affordable hosting. When small business owners decide they need a website, they often turn to the first registrar that comes to mind, and usually that's GoDaddy.
GoDaddy: The Perfect Place to Buy a Domain?
The first thing you see when you visit GoDaddy's home page is a domain name search box. It's right there, front and center - just begging you to start searching for your perfect domain name.
Stop! Timeout!
What do you need?
Before you start looking for your killer domain name, start by identifying the business problem that your website is going to solve. What value are you trying to create? This usually falls into a few key buckets:
- Logistical/Informational
- Commercial/Sales
- Brand Building/Community
Do you need a website?
Now that you know what your business needs, do you actually need a website? If you're launching an eCommerce businesses, maybe you should try launching in an existing community to get started. For example, my brother's wife has just started her own Etsy store to sell her own line of purses.
For many doctors and medical professionals, a website doesn't help much -- however professional directory listings and a strong Google search presence can really drive a lot of traffic to your practice.
Build it on a platform, not a host
I've been impressed with the latest offerings from Squarespace, Shopify, and Wix. Each of these providers offer beautiful designs on their hosted platform, are already optimized for mobile with easy to use website design tools. If you're not looking to get into the deep details of Wordpress or other website content management software, these platforms are a great way to get started.
Find a better host
If you've read this far, you're committed to hosting your own website. There are a lot of great hosting companies out there, especially if you're looking for one of the more popular website platforms like WordPress. For example, many hosts offer one click installs for Wordpress that will copy all the files over and create your database automatically. While GoDaddy offers this, many providers also offer managed hosting for your platform that optimize your site for speed, security, and reliability.
A website is only the beginning...
Once you've established your own little piece of the internet, your online marketing work has just begun. You've still got to figure out how to drive traffic to your site or store, engage your visitors, and get them to convert into customers. Each business is a little different and you'll need the right mix of SEO, content, PPC, display advertising, conversion optimization, CRM, retention, and remarketing to make it all work.
