So You’ve Bought Business Web Hosting … Now What?

Own a business in UK? You must’ve been already instructed by a lot of people to create a website and go online. For that, there are three basic steps to follow:

• Register a domain name
• Buy a business web hosting plan
• Get your website designed and developed

It’s best to get it all done from a single web hosting and development company, so you can easily manage everything in one place. However, if you already have had your domain registered, make sure to choose a hosting provider that would deliver value for your money instead of just making empty promises.

All done?

Let’s move on to what comes next!

What to Do After Buying Domain and Hosting?

For your business website to go live, it needs to have a web address (domain name) and space on a web server from where the requested data would be sent to your web visitors.

Which means, domain name registration and hosting are the first two steps to going online.

Clueless about what comes next?

Here’s a list of 8 important things to do after buying domain and business web hosting:

1. Link Your Domain with Hosting

Simply purchasing a hosting plan won’t get you online, you’d need to connect your domain name with the hosting server as well.

In case you’ve bought business web hosting and domain from the same company in UK, skip this step. Otherwise:

• Copy the NameServers from the hosting account you’ve been given.
• Login to your domain user account and change the NameServer there.

You can also contact your hosting services provider to help you out with the task at hand. If you’ve chosen the best business web hosting in UK, getting the desired support and assistance on time won’t be much of an issue.

Watching a simple tutorial on how to connect domain with hosting can also help you get this done with ease.

2. Set Up a Business Email

Is it possible to run a business without an email address anymore?

Through email, you can easily communicate with your customers, let them know about your latest products and services, send newsletters, inform them about upcoming promotions or offers, and more. Plus, it makes it easier and simpler for your customers to get in touch with you in case of any queries.

Once you’ve registered a domain name for your business, you can have an email address that isn’t linked to any webmail service or ISP provider.

Having a business email id with your domain name would improve its credibility, as well as build your company image, and allow you to carry out email marketing campaigns that often result in conversions.

For this, you’d need to have a hosting plan that comes with email, which won’t be a problem because even the least expensive shared web hosting plans include email accounts. And if you’re going for top business web hosting in UK from a quality hosting provider, you may even get to have unlimited email accounts.

3. Secure Similar Social Media Names

For branding purposes, it’s best to have social media accounts with the same username.

Even if you just want to market on Facebook and LinkedIn for now, we’d recommend you to secure social media accounts with similar names on all social media platforms. So that, if you want to, you can easily expand your social media footprint later down the line and reach a huge number of prospective buyers every single day.

For instance, we use the handle “Websouls” for all our social media accounts, including Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

With the namechk tool, you can check the availability of your desired name without having to sign up on each platform individually.

Remember, having a strong presence on social media can result in numerous benefits for your business, including brand awareness, higher customer engagement, brand loyalty, increased conversions, improved rankings on search engines, better customer satisfaction, and more.

4. Build Up Anticipation with Email Marketing and SMM

If you’ve bought business web hosting in UK, it’s obvious that you want to build your own business website, right?

But a website isn’t something that could be created in a day, or a week. It’s a time-taking process that involves designing, writing the content, scripting, network security configurations, and more.

While your website is under construction, create a holding page and let your target audience know what’s about to come.

If you don’t have an email list, create one right away because even in today’s social-media-run world, email marketing can prove to be immensely beneficial for your business.

And while you find a web development agency and get your website developed, start building anticipation with teasers before the site goes live.

You can make a series of posts on social media related to your site’s upcoming launch, as well as send emails to your targeted audience letting them know how your website would make things easier for them. For instance, they’d be able to view your products and services online, get in touch with you via live chat, or make a purchase online.

5. Get Your Website Designed and Developed

Here comes the most important step – finding a top web development agency near you and getting your site designed, developed, and delivered.

If your chosen hosting services provider in UK offers this service, its best to let them build your site. This way, you can have your business website built, hosted, and maintained all in one place, and can avoid the hassle of having to deal with multiple companies at once.

While getting your site developed, make sure it’s easy to navigate, has an engaging design, and the web content isn’t too difficult to understand.

Plus, don’t forget to include a “contact us” form on all your web pages and ensure to provide all the necessary information that your web visitors are looking for, or may be interested in.

You can further include a blog that can help with your website’s rankings on search engines, as well as customer engagement.

Also, your website should be mobile responsive, integrated with social media platforms, secure, and come with an easy-to-use CMS.

6. Optimize Your Site for Search Engines

Who needs a website that isn’t visible to prospective customers?

If you really want to increase the number of customers you attract online, SEO is a must.

There are numerous reasons why SEO services are worth it, including the fact that an optimized site would have better online visibility and would appear right in front of your customers’ eyes just when they’re searching for the kind of products or services you provide. Which means, you’d be catching a prospective customer who’s ready to buy.

Don’t believe us?

Here are some major SEO stats you really can’t ignore:

Again, if your hosting provider offers this service, it’s best to let them do your SEO as well, but make sure there aren’t any compromises on the quality of work delivered.

7. Market Your Website for Increased Web Traffic

Done with search engine optimization? That’s just one of the many ways of digital marketing and increasing the flow of organic web traffic to your site.

Strategies such as paid advertising, content marketing, email marketing, and social media marketing can further help with web traffic generation which may lead to increased conversions and higher revenue.

Social media and email marketing are two of the most effective marketing strategies because you’d be marketing to your specific target audience – people who know you or want to buy products/services that you’re providing.

So, just put in the best of your efforts, or partner up with a digital marketing agency in UK and wait for a huge traffic flow!

8. Secure Online Transactions with an SSL Certificate

Another important thing to do after you’ve bought business web hosting in UK is getting an SSL certificate for your site.

An SSL or Secure Socket Layer encrypts sensitive data that users may enter on your site, such as passwords and credit card details. Hence it protects your users’ data from being stolen and misused by hackers.

Additionally, SSL is one of Google’s many ranking factors and can directly impact your site’s rankings.

With an SSL, you can also build customer trust. After all, no one likes buying from websites with the “Not Secure” tag displayed in their URL.

Pro Tip: Avoid Digital Decay with Ongoing SEO

For those of you who think SEO is a one-time thing, sorry to burst your bubble, but it isn’t.

If you want to secure top rankings on Google and stay there, you’d have to work on your site’s SEO continuously – keep uploading fresh content, link building, and social sharing.

Don’t have the time for it?

After buying business web hosting in UK and having your site developed, partner up with an SEO agency and make sure your rankings don’t fall for the keywords that you’re targeting.

Bottom line – you’d have a lot to do after buying business web hosting in UK, or wherever else you’re located. Don’t miss out on any of the important steps we just discussed above or you might end up regretting later.

Want to build your website from scratch? Find a web services provider who can manage it all for you, from domain registration, to business web hosting, website development and maintenance, as well as SEO.

By Websouls Content Team - 24 Nov 2020