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So, you’re starting your pallet business. You got all the necessary permits, licenses, and insurance and even hired some pallet assembly employees. As you ramp up toward the official launch, you start thinking about how all those business magazines insist you must have a website. That thought gives you some trepidation because you don’t know much about building a website. If you’re in the market for a pallet business website, keep reading for the best way to build a pallet company website.
Before you start fretting about the nuts and bolts of building a website, there are two essential things you’ll need to deal with first. You need to buy a domain name and website hosting.
When you go to a website you know well, assuming you haven’t just bookmarked it, you type a URL into the web browser. It typically looks like this: https://www.palletmarketing.co.
Everything after “http://www.” is a domain name. For a business, you typically want a domain name that is as close to your business name as possible. So, let’s say that your business is named First Tier Pallets. You’d want a domain name like: FirstTierPallets.com or 1stTierPallets.com. You can buy domain names and website hosting from a company like GoDaddy.
Next, you need web hosting. There are several common tiers of web hosting services, but the odds are good that you’ll start with shared hosting. Shared hosting just means that the files for your website are on the same server as those for other websites. While this can cause problems, it generally doesn’t.
Before coming up with your website design, there are some common features that business websites share. For example, every business website has a Contact Us page with important information like your physical address, phone number, and email address. You’ll typically also see a home page, product page/services page, about page, and blog.
You must consider whether you want anything beyond those core pages for your site. For example, do you want to allow users to submit quote requests?
If you’re unsure what you want on your website, look at other pallet company websites. Looking at other sites can give you insight into what are “industry standard” websites in design and what pages you want.
When deciding how to build a pallet company website, the major question for most businesses boils down to this. Do you want to do it yourself or have it custom designed?
If you have plenty of time and don’t need anything special, DIY can work. There are content management systems (CMSs), like WordPress, and website builders, like Wix and Squarespace, where you can build a website yourself. It is important to understand the pitfalls and limitations of these DIY options.
In the case of a CMS like WordPress, you have a lot of flexibility. The catch is that you must understand and master the site editing process for the system. WordPress recently changed its site editing system to favor professional web designers rather than DIY website builders. While you can still get themes that will simplify some aspects of the process, fine-tuning the website can mean investing a lot of time in the learning process.
Website builders are also a popular DIY option because they typically use a drag-and-drop approach. The price you pay for that simplicity is drastically limited options. You often face severe limitations regarding color selection, font selection, and overall site structure.
Content management systems and website builders can prove problematic if you want to add specific functions to your site, such as online quote request tracking. In the case of a CMS, you can typically find plugins that will do what you want, but it's often unclear which plugin will serve you best. In the case of website builders, they often offer things like e-commerce integration, but only with one system. If you don’t like that system, you’re out of luck.
Getting a custom or semi-custom site is often the most practical option to build a pallet company website. A true custom site is one that you have made from the ground up. That means a company writes all of the code for your website from scratch. This is often the best approach if you have very specific needs or special needs for your website. The web developer can code the site to do whatever you want.
A semi-custom site is one where a third-party company builds your site using WordPress as the base. In most cases, you end up with a custom theme and a lot of help picking out the right plugins to get the functions you want on the site. This approach is typically faster than a true custom site but far less work-intensive than a DIY site.
While custom or semi-custom sites typically get a site that matches your needs and wants, they aren’t a hands-off solution. In most cases, you will need ongoing maintenance for the site to ensure that the site is updated and remains secure.
Are you ready to take your pallet company website to the next level? Building an effective pallet company website requires a good strategy and resources. Hiring a professional web design firm with experience working with pallet manufacturers, you can create a custom website with all the necessary features, like online quote requests, return on investment (ROI) tracking, Google analytics, and more. If you want to increase pallet business sales and attract new customers, investing in a quality website and search engine marketing will pay off many times.
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