How To Design My Own Web Site
PUBLISHED: SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 – ARTICLE: HOW TO DESIGN MY OWN WEBSITE
This article will show you step by step how to design your own web site. We wrote this article for people who are non-technical or just starting out. There's very little that you need to know before you can follow this guide. If you know how to browse the Internet and you have a mouse, you have all the tools that you need to get started. If you need further instructions beyond this article, you can search "how to design my own web site" on the Internet to find other informational articles and other site building companies like Easysite.com that you can use to create a website.
Follow Our Step By Step Guide On How To Design Your Own Website - If You Need Any Help With The Sign Up Process Or Building Your Site Contact Us
How to design my own web site
1. Define The Purpose Of Your Website
The first step to create a website is to define what the purpose of the site will be. Do you want to design your own website to help promote your business? Are you making one to help you sell products? Are you creating a connecting point for a group of people? Are you creating a site for a nonprofit organization to help with awareness and raising support? Once you define what your site is going to be used for, it will make the next steps for how to design your own website much easier to follow as you will have a good idea what your website will be about.
2. Decide What Your Site Will Do
The next step to design a web site is to decide what your web site will do. This is important because the method that you use to build your site will change based upon the functionality. For example, if you're going to sell items directly from your site, you will want to use an ecommerce website builder to do so. Web pages can do lots of different things today. You can use a site to simply display information. These types of site are commonly referred to as "brochure" sites. They present information with very little interaction. The direction of the information travels in one direction. Other sites are very interactive and let people log in and interact with pages like message boards, chat rooms, shared calendars, etc. You might want to design your web site a site so that members can log in and post content, such as pictures, news, blog entries, etc.
Take a few minutes before diving in to design a web site to decide what the site is going to do. Write down your wish list for the site. This will act as the blue print or game plan for what you want to accomplish. This could be something as simple as, "I'd like to design my own website that I can my products from and keep people up to date with the latest news and information about my business with."
3. Pick A Domain Name
Picking a domain name for your site can be fun. We encourage you to not simply pick the name of your business for your site's domain name or URL. Try to be descriptive when choosing a domain name that will be used with your site. This helps visitors as well as search engines know exactly what they can expect to find on your site even before they visit your site.
You can use this site's domain name for example, "Easysite" contains the words "easy" and "site." When you visit this site, you can expect to find an easy way to design your own web site. Another example would be "GeorgiaFamilyLawyer.com." When you see this domain name, you know exactly what information to expect when you visit the site.
Lastly, don't use more than one domain name with your site. We know this is tempting, but if you assign more than one domain name, search engines will not rank your site very well. They see this as a way of trying to cheat the system, by having two sites with exactly the same information on them.
4. Select Design Elements
The next step in learning how to design your own website is selecting some design elements. Notice that we didn't say, "create a look for the site" or even, "design your own website". At this point, you should simply pick some general design elements for the site. What we mean by this is, what colors will be used on the site? What fonts will be used? Do you have a logo for that you want to display on the site? Do you have a list of other sites that you like the look of that can be used as a reference when you design your web site?
After you complete the above four steps and have selected the design elements to use, you'll be ready to design your own web site.
5. Choose An Online Site Builder
We're not going to spend much time on explaining why to use an online site builder. To be brief, using an online site builder to learn how to design your own website will always be the easier, faster and more affordable way to design a web site.
Let's face it, if you're a typical business owner, you don't have time to learn how to design a company website from scratch or design your own company website. Most business owners barely have enough time to do the daily tasks of running a business.
There's just not enough time to learn HTML, JavaScript, CSS, SQL, shopping carts, credit card processing, server programming code, etc. The other way to go is to hiring a web developer. This can be very expensive, plus once the project is done, you're still completely dependent on this person to do updates and maintenance to the site.
These days, using an online site builder to design your web site is really a no-brainer. There are so many good ones to choose from. They are affordably priced. They have a lot more features than they used to. Plus for the most part, they make it very easy for just about anyone at any technical level to design a web site.
Easysite is our do-it-yourself website building system. We believe that easysite.com is the best and easiest way to create a website, especially an ecommerce website. You can try it out right now by signing up for a free trial from the sign-up page.
6. Add The Site Content
Adding content to your site simply means that you are posting text, post pictures, videos and more to the site. You are adding in the unique information that makes the site your own. If you're a business owner then talk about your business, what you do, why do it, etc.
If you're a nonprofit organization then talk about the good things you are doing and keep visitors to your site up to date with the latest news about your organization. Keep updating your site and make sure that the information you're posting is unique and useful.
7. Test The New Site
It's amazing how little testing is done once a site is launched. We encourage people to really kick the tires. Have your friends and family test the site. Look at the site on a desktop computer as well as a tablet and smart phone. Try the different functions of the site. Really, try to break the site by clicking all over. It's always better for you to find the problems rather than wait for your visitors to report them back to you. Plus it makes a much better impression for you if everything works as expected.
8. Get Visitors to Your Site
Once you're site is up and running, it's simply not enough anymore to expect visitors to find you. You need to promote your site. You can start this process by submitting your site to major search engines, such as Google and Bing. Beyond that, make sure you include your site's URL in every email that you send out. Print your domain name on every receipt you give out. Post a sign in your place of business with your site on it. Use social media to draw attention to your site. Ask for feedback on your site. Do a promotional giveaway or contest with your site.
Conclusion
Utilizing the above eight steps will help you create a web site that will help increase your business or bring awareness of your organization. Some business website samples for you to have a look at.
Unlike most online guides, we encourage people to really think through the purpose of the site along with the features before jumping in to design a site.
There are lots of other resources available on the web to help with site creation. We hope this article has helped you get organized and motivated to create a successful site.
If we can be of any help to get your business website online or you have any questions about creating a website please contact us, we can even make a website for you.