It’s sad but true. While I’ve spent the better part of 25 years preaching about the benefits of tech — as a journalist, author, radio and TV host and public speaker — until recently, I never pulled the trigger on my very own website. Better late than never, right?
I was a technology evangelist without a website.
Oh sure, I registered my marcsaltzman.com domain with GoDaddy more than a decade ago. But like many, I figured creating and maintaining a website for my business would be:
a) Time consuming,
b) Complicated and
c) Expensive.
Boy, was I wrong. On all three fronts.
But it wasn’t until I started attending a few GoDaddy events, and was then asked if I wanted to try out Website Builder — a super easy-to-use tool that lets you create websites in about an hour — that I realized I could do this. Getting your idea online can be easy!
And I couldn’t be prouder of the results. And no degree in computer science needed.
What about you?
If you still don’t have a website for your small business, or if it’s time for a refresh, then please allow me to tell you a little about Website Builder. Essentially, this is a tool to design, create and manage your own website.
It’s mobile friendly
Website Builder is mobile friendly, so it works well on a smartphone or tablet, as well as on a personal computer, if you prefer. In other words, not only will your website be optimized for mobile — an important consideration today, since most people will access your site from a mobile device — but with a couple of taps on a touchscreen, you can easily update your website anytime, anywhere.
Out of curiosity I booted up my site-in-progress on a smartphone to see if it was easy to edit – and it was.
You can add a new section to your site, import new assets — even upload photos or videos directly from your mobile device. Personally, I chose to use a laptop for the most part, as I prefer a mouse and larger screen to play with the provided templates.
Easy to learn
For my own site, I wanted to:
- Highlight the various areas of my business.
- Provide an easy way for companies (or consumers) to contact me.
- Link to my various social media platforms.
After I collected everything I wanted to showcase — including my written bio, photos, video clips, audio samples, links and social media handles — I chose a theme that was techy. I used a lot of the licensed Getty photos and other artwork tied to my theme, and I began dropping in my personal info and assets.
As GoDaddy claimed, it took less than an hour to get it the way I want.
Since I’d never created a website before, I had one or two small questions before I pushed it live, and was able to reach someone on the GoDaddy tech support team right away.
Fun to launch
After I linked my designed website with my registered URL, I clicked the button to push it live. And voilà — it was on the web for all to see. It was super exciting to see it live for the first time and share the word about my website on social media. Within minutes I began seeing the traffic start flowing.
In fact, GoDaddy also includes an integrated SEO (search engine optimization) tool to improve your site ranking on Google and it pushes your site content to Facebook (so you don't have to double-enter data). Website Builder also comes with an email marketing tool that ties your site design into your emails, if desired.
But Website Builder isn’t just a tool to create and promote a website — it also offers an integrated set of eCommerce tools, should you want to have an online store as part of your site. This wasn’t relevant to my specific site, as I don’t sell products. But many small businesses will no doubt want to take advantage of having a storefront smartly integrated into their site — and that’s doable with this tool.
Join the better late than never club
Regardless of the industry you’re in, and whatever your passion, the GoDaddy Website Builder is a super easy and fun way to create and maintain your place in cyberspace.
While it’s a lofty claim to say a website can be built in an hour, it’s certainly true. You don’t need to be tech-savvy to use one of the many design options. It’s optimized for mobile devices, and you also get SEO and marketing tools, too.
Considering all the work I’m now getting from my sleek website, I’m kicking myself for not starting sooner.
