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Many small businesses start their digital journey with a Facebook page, Instagram account, or other social media website, etc. These platforms do allow businesses to garner audience support and spread the word about products or services. Though social media presence does help, having an exclusive website gives you an opportunity to build trust amongst the audience. Furthermore, you can create an excellent website with the best website builders for free and within minutes. Additionally, the current social distancing environment has further underlined the need to have a strong and reliable online presence for small business.
Reasons to have a Website for Small Businesses
Following are the top reasons why small businesses must have a working website
Website reflects a sense of credibility and professionalism
When users find your business on any social media platform, one of the first things they search for is whether you have a website. Not having a dedicated website can potentially create a negative impact on your audience’s first impression. A beautifully crafted and responsive website establishes trust between you and your customers. Also, on your website, you can showcase all your products and other offers in an organized way.
Gives you control over branding and information sharing
With the help of the best online website builders, you can create your business’s official presence. Unlike social media, a website is a more formal way to communicate about your brand’s purpose and activities. Here users cannot comment or make remarks. Thus it gives you complete control over what you want your customers to view or consume.
Enables your product to appear in online searches
When customers search for particular products, Google and other search engines show all the relevant available options in their search results. This process creates an opportunity for small businesses to appear in those searches and drive more visitors (potential customers) to their respective website. This ultimately helps small business to increase leads and sales.
Today building a professional-looking website is much easier. There are several free website builders available for small businesses. These free website builders are continuously adding new capabilities to empower small businesses and complete beginners.
Top 10 Free Website Builders for Small Businesses
Following are the top 10 best website builders that offer free plans –
1. SITE123
Site123 is an effective option for individuals and businesses who need to set up a website with minimum time and effort. You simply need to answer a few questions (three steps) about the type of website you want, desired name of the site, pick a theme and style etc and within minutes you can create and add content to your new website and further add your desired features.
2. Wix
Wix is one of the top free website builders that is truly international in terms of its users. It has gained popularity as it offers tons of features and hundreds of ready to use premade templates. This website builder allows businesses to create professional-looking websites for free using a visual drag and drop builder. On the other hand, with its paid plans businesses can easily create premium looking online e-commerce stores. Nevertheless, the ability to customize hundreds of beautiful templates makes it a popular choice.
3. Google sites
This website builder allows you to choose between the old classic version and the new version. With the help of Google Sites, you can build websites easily and store all your changes securely. Additionally, it enables businesses to make websites public or private depending on the requirement. You can create a number of pages for the website and customize them with simple drag and drop features.
4. Google My Business website
This is the second most commonly used website builder used by businesses. Unlike other website builders, Google My Business is suitable only for local businesses. Once you simply create your website with this builder, it will automatically fetch all your business information from the information tab that you added to your Business Profile. Furthermore, the website can be customized by using content and photos. Moreover, the created website is optimized for mobile devices as well as desktop and tablets.
5. WordPress
One of the key advantages of using WordPress is the broad ability to customize and build an excellent website even when you do not have any knowledge of coding. Here all you need to do is to register an account and start building a website. Additionally, you can choose from thousands of professional templates available in the free plan to create a functional website.
6. Weebly
Like other website builders, this solution also provides website-building options from a selection of well-designed templates. Also, the templates are mobile-friendly. Moreover, it is more focused on eCommerce businesses which can be its distinctive advantage and offers businesses a number of plans to choose from. On the flip side, lots of advertisements are available on the website’s footer area. Some of its advantages include the ability to optimize websites for search engines, lead generation features, popup notifications, promotion of your products and more.
7. Ucraft
Ucraft prioritizes design while building a website. It’s an advanced website builder which allows you to customize every detail on your website right from font to included images. Also, Ucraft enables you to connect an existing domain name for free.
8. Squarespace
Squarespace as a website builder allows you to build high-quality websites. With the help of available templates and editing options, you can give your websites a polished look. The solution also equips you with a powerful content management system. Thus any small business can create a website without needing to alter existing code. Additionally, you can add exciting features such as an announcement bar, information bar and create a shortcut information menu with ease. Squarespace also saves you from all hassle of maintenance and security. They offer a free trial, however, after this you will need to upgrade to a paid plan.
9. Webnode
This website builder offers very beautifully designed and responsive themes to choose from. One of their distinctive advantages is that they support more than 20 languages and thus enable you to create a multilingual website. Additionally, its low-cost variant costs very little thus making it an economical option for small businesses.
10. Strikingly
Strikingly is suitable for individuals looking to build a one-page website. This format allows beginners to build a website that does not overwhelm its uses with a number of product pages. However, if you want to add multiple pages to your website then you can upgrade to a paid plan. Furthermore, pre-existing templates are easy to edit and can be easily handled by a beginner.
Ready To Learn More About Our Top 10 Free Website Builders? (Video Tutorial)
It is important for small business not to get blinded by all the free offerings. Firstly, gain as much knowledge in order to understand each website builder and then select one according to your business’s unique requirements and budget. Watch the video below for an overview of our top 7 best free website builder.
