Your Essential Elements of a Business Website

Plus free Website Elements Checklist

This guide is perfect for any small business, regardless if it is service based or e-commerce. E-commerce is a little more in depth (ie. Woocommerce etc.), but it’s great as a base. Each element is essential for keeping your business website running smoothly and securely.

The 12 Must Haves for Your Business Website

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Hosting and Domain

Fast, Reliable Hosting with ample Storage. Choose a reputable Company with 24/7 support.

I highly recommend VentraIP. They are Aussie based and run and the support is second to none. Black Cactus Creative provides hosting through VentraIP’s sister company Synergy Wholesale – same amazing customer support people! Siteground is also a great hosting company with great live chat support.

Domain Name – choose a domain name that is easy for your clients/customers to find you.

SSL Certificate – If you look at the website address bar, you will see a padlock which shows the website has an SSL certificate. An SSL certificate allows secure connections from a web server to a web browser. Some hosting providers supply SSL certificates with your hosting (ie. Black Cactus Creative, VentraIP, SiteGround) others you are required to purchase to add this on (ie. Go Daddy).

SEO

Having a Google account will allow you to activate the following FREE services, which allow you to track your rankings, how your visitors are using your website and listing your business on Google Maps.
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Google Analytics
Google Search Console
Google My Business

Website Legals

Website Legals are for protecting yourself and your business. Website Terms and Conditions containing your Returns and Refund Policies are now a requirement by Australian Consumer Law. (Read more about Website Legals.)

Website Privacy
Website T&Cs
Website Disclaimer
GDPR Clauses

Security

Having your website Safe and Secure is extremely important to prevent website hacks and spammy bots.

Security Plugins (ie. Wordfence) can help block attacks, alert when your website is vulnerable, being attacked or needing important security updates.

Strong Passwords like s_bGZuf-2ghU are hard to hack and also hard to remember. Google Chrome has a handy feature where it will generate a strong random password for you. Otherwise ‘Strong Password Generator‘ can generate one for you. Need a place to keep all of your crazy long passwords? I HIGHLY recommend using Last Pass. It’s the bomb diggity.

Uncommon Usernames help prevent hack attempts. Prevent using generic ‘admin’ or ‘user’ usernames as these will always be the first used during an attack.

Website Maintenance

Website Maintenance is so important for a website’s security and a website’s overall performance.

Backups
Updates (Core, Theme & Plugins)
Security Monitoring
Caching (temporary file storage removal)
Optimisation
Uptime Monitoring

Responsive on all devices

Your website needs to be responsive (work well) on all devices. People no longer only use their computers to trawl the web and are using their mobile devices more and more. Making sure your website is responsive on the following devices will ensure they have a positive user experience and are less likely to leave your website.

Desktop/laptop
Tablet
Mobile

Email Lead Capture

Sign up with an email marketing provider to start capturing email addresses from DAY ONE. It doesn’t matter if you don’t yet have content to send them – you can always do this later!

MailerLite – free up to 1000 subscribers. Great features, including Automation. Excellent drag and drop builder. Highly Recommend!
Active Campaign – Popular Premium service.
ConvertKit – Brilliant for automations.
Mail Chimp – Free up to 2,000 subscribers. Limited features in the Free version. No longer user friendly.

Download the free checklist below and tick them off as you go. Take your time, it can take time setting up if you don’t know your way around WordPress.

* There are a couple of affiliate links above – but only because they are tried and trusted by me and we both get something rad out of it 🙂