How to Build a Website in Under 5 Minutes

I can't tell you how many offers I have seen at website hosting companies that tell you that you can build a website in under 5 minutes. That is so ridiculous it is mind boggling.

Sure you can build a website in a few minutes, but the site will be useless and a waste of 5 minutes ad how ever much cash you are paying for it each month.

The whole basis for the growth in the Internet has been the easy exchange of information and the vast resources available. While a 30 second TV commercial can hook a customer, a website can inform them and give them the information they need to make the final decision to purchase a product.

If your website consists of a "Welcome to my website" page, a contact page and 2 paragraphs about our business or product on an about us page, which is about what you can do in 5 minutes it has no value to anyone except the hosting company charging you every month.

Hosting companies advertise that it is easy so that you will sign up. And the people that are looking for the easy way to success will do just that, unfortunately they won't find it. At least not in 5 minutes.

The fact is, building a website takes time, effort and patience. You will add to pages, write articles and update information on a regular basis. You can't just build it and forget it and you can't build it in a few minutes.

If pageBuzz.com consisted of 5 pages, 1 a welcome page, 2 a contact page, 3 a sitemap, 4 an about us page and 5 a signup page. Do you think anyone would sign up for website hosting with us? Would you?

People want to know more detail. They expect to read how it works, how they will use the tools, how other people are doing, look at samples, see demonstrations, read about search engine placement and how their website will be found online, learn what a domain is and how they can get one and on and on.

If our website was 5 pages we would not be in business. If ebay was 5 pages they would not be in business, if google was 5 pages they would not be in business and the Internet would not be what it is today.

Nobody is searching for a 5 page website except the people looking to build one. People do research and get information, that is why they call it "Information Technology". The one thing that a 5 minute website does not have is information.

There is no sin in being too lazy to build more than 5 pages or spend more than 5 minutes building a website, there are plenty of good people that do not want to spend the time needed to do it right, but none of them will make money with their website and none of them will get any benefit from their website.

Having a website with a picture of your store a map and an address is just about useless. It is definetly not completely useless because having a domain and at least an address and phone number will help your existing customers find you and call you. But it will not get you new customers, it will not help your business and it will not help your reputation.

I don't care if you are a retail store or a plumber or an attorney, without a good website your are wasting a huge opportunity for your business.

A lady called me and said she cleans houses. Nothing glamorous, just wanted a 5 age website with her phone number and a page about services. I explained that nobody is going to find the website unless she adds content. Create articles about house cleaning, talk about how to clean rust stains properly, talk about the chemicals needed to clean bathrooms and the antibacterials that will kill fungus on the floors and anything else you can think of.

People are not going to find your website unless you have content. When they do find your website they want to know you are an expert at what you do. If you don't demonstrate that you are an expert in some way, you just lost a potential customer.

I told the lady that it does not matter that you only clean houses, your website is the first point of contact for new customers. If they are not impressed with your knowledge they will look for someone else who is just 3 clicks and a google search away.

I think everyone can understand that with house cleaning, if you see a website that someone spent 5 minutes on, you would not expect them to make any more of an effort on your home.

Think about this. Mail order companies print huge catalogs and mail them out to millions of people. They do that so the customer will be engaged with the product, the shopping experience. They could just send a postcard that says, go to our website. But the impact is not the same and people likely would not shop with them. It is all about the first impression and that is hard to bounce back from.

How many websites have you looked at and said, this is not a good company? It is so easy to form those impressions and once imprinted in your mind that company will have a difficult uphill battle to get your business.

Don't wast 5 minutes build a crappy on a website and be one of those companies. Build a real website, add some pages, make an effort or just don't do it. You are better off having people laugh at you that you are not online than thinking you are just too lazy to offer a good product.

Businesses don't understand the impact of a website on their business, hey don't understand what it is and they are suckered in by 5 minute website offers and the result could actually hurt you more than you realize. If that is your plan, save yourself some money and time and just don't do it.