Whether you’re a freelancer who wants to showcase your portfolio online, or a small business looking to sell more on the web, getting your first website live is an important first step to turn your business from a lightbulb above your head into a real entity.

The good news is that it’s not as complicated, time-consuming or costly as you may think. The great news is that if you finally decided to take the plunge and registered a great domain name with 123 Reg for your new online business, from now on you won’t have to go it alone.

You also won’t have to worry about finding and hiring developers and designers to create a website for you, or not having the technical skills to build it yourself.

That’s what our new Website Builder Starter solution is for. It’s an easy, affordable option to build a simple yet professional-looking one-page website that’ll get your business online and found by the people who matter most – your customers.

In this post, we’ll introduce our new Website Builder Starter so you can see how quickly and easily you can set up a one-page site yourself, even if you have no technical or design skills.

How getting a one-page website up and running can help your business

Having a business idea and registering your domain name are great starting points, but they’re not enough to become a business, one that people know exists or can find online.

The key step to turning that idea into a real business is to create a website and get it online so people can visit and learn more about what you do and sell, and how you can help.

Creating a full-blown website can take weeks to finish. On the other hand, your one-page website can be up and running today.

So if you’ve bought a domain with 123 Reg, you can now use our new Website Builder Starter package to get your one-page site live and start generating leads. All for just £1 a month.

(If you don’t yet have a domain registered with 123 Reg, you can search for a domain name here.)

Here is how it can help your business:

• You can give it an online presence so your prospects and target audience know you exist.
• People can find your site and learn more about what you do and how you can help.
• Your website will look great on all devices.
• If you also add a sign-up form on your site, you’ll be able to build an email list of interested prospects that you can then build a relationship with and turn into customers.

There are lots more benefits to starting a business online with a simple one-page site but hopefully, these are enough to motivate you to get yours up and running today.

Next, we’ll show you how you can do that with our new Starter package in just three easy steps.

The three simple steps to setting up your site with Website Builder Starter

To set up your one-page website, you will need to go to the domain management section in your 123 Reg control panel.

Next, you’ll need to fill in some information about your industry, business and website and then decide how you’d like it to look.

Here are the three steps you need to follow to get your one-page site online:

Step 1: Let’s set up your website

In this first step you’ll need to fill in some basic information about your business.

First, select your domain from the dropdown menu. Next, choose the industry and category that your business is in. Then simply add your business and contact details, including your company name and address, email address and phone number.

You can also upload your company logo, if you have one already. If you don’t, that’s okay. You can add it later.Click “Continue” to save the information and move on to step two.

Step 2: Tell us more about your company

If there’s one thing that people love, it’s a good story. So this is the time and place to share yours with the world.

This part is important because it’s your brand story that gives your target audience a reason to care and choose your business over your competitors.

So use your company slogan and description to tell people who you are, why you do what you do, what you stand for, what makes you unique and, more importantly, why they should care. You can learn more about developing your small business brand by watching this webinar.

Make sure to also add one or two relevant keywords in your description that your audience might use to find your business online since this description will also be displayed in the Google search results.

Next, if you already have business pages set up on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn, add the links to your pages in each dedicated field.

If you don’t have a presence on social media yet, you can add the links after you’ve set up your accounts.Click “Continue” to save the information and move on to step three.

If you don’t have a company slogan or social media accounts just yet, that’s okay. Click “Skip (Edit later)” and come back to this section when you’re ready.

Step 3: Choose your layout

This is third and last step and it’s where you need to select a layout for your website.

When choosing a layout, think about your goals and what you’re trying to achieve with your one-page website.

Do you want to:

• Showcase your business so people who visit can learn about who you are and what you do?
• Promote an upcoming event or a special offer for a new product or service you’re launching?
• Generate leads by gather people’s email addresses so you can contact them at a later date?

Click to select the layout that best matches your goal for your new site. Finally, click “Build it”.That’s it. Three simple steps and your new one-page website is up and running.

If you change your mind or need to edit any of the information you provided in these sections, you can always come back and change it.

Wrapping up

Now that you’ve seen how easy it is to get your business online with a one-page website, you can get started straight away. Checkout with a new domain name and you’ll get a free 30-day trial of Website Builder Starter, or activate it in your control panel for an existing domain name.