How to create a website

Can you really create your own website easily (and properly)?

So, the guys suggested that I write a blog post about “How to Create a Website”. When I got up off the floor, I decided that I could do this without writing War & Peace on the subject, so here goes…

As I’m sure you’re all aware you can create your own website without knowing any code. You must have seen the TV adverts at the breaks in Coronation Street – GoDaddy, IONOS and WIX are all options available to anyone willing to give it a try and start building an online presence. But where to start?

What about the domain name?

Well, in my opinion, it’s the domain name for your business. Use services such as Hover (https://www.hover.com/domains), which you can type in some words, and it’ll present you with literally hundreds of options.

Pick a custom domain that is not too long – who wants to type in a long domain name when sending an email – but the shorter the domain name, the more chance of it either being taken already or being very expensive! Once you’ve picked and registered your preferred domain name, then you’re ready for the next step.

Getting started with your website

If you’ve picked the site you want to build your website with, GoDaddy, WIX, IONOS, or any other. They will give you instructions on how to point your custom domain at their system, and you don’t need much technical knowledge for that. So that’s it, you’re off and running… or are you?

Well, no, you’re not really, not unless you’ve already planned everything;

• What about extra features?
• Do you need a search bar?
• Have you had a logo designed?
• Have you considered a coherent colour scheme?
• Have you decided on your site map and what you’ll put in the navigation bar?
• Have you written all the content?
• You know what you like and don’t like on a website?
• Have you thought about a contact form to collect leads, email addresses, etc.?
• What about blog posts and useful stuff that your user will keep coming back for? (Search engines LOVE a constantly evolving flow of content).

You crack on, yeah. For design options, you can just pick any theme for the site from the library of available themes in Wix and use the drag-and-drop editor (what could be easier?), add your logo that you’ve knocked up in Word Art and start typing some content into the areas of the template that the WIX editor lets you.

But wait, what about the images – where do you get them from? You remember someone once told you that you can get stock photos on iStock or something, or Getty Images – yeah, that’ll do. Wow, so many images… you’re lost… (I’m sure you are – next you’ll be telling me you want to sell online and build an eCommerce site with a shopping cart to rival Amazon!). 

So that escalated fast… I hope you didn’t give up at the domain bit!

Yes, it can be a bit of a minefield, and yes, you may need to be a jack of all trades to create your own website. It’s not impossible, but it is challenging. I once waited years for a client to actually write the content for the website we’d designed and built for them. 

(I know, they had one job! It never went live…).

The website creation process

When starting a web project, we follow this step by step guide:

• Research
• User Experience (UX)
• Content
• Design
• Front end web dev
• Back end web dev
• Tracking and tagging using Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics
• Launch
• Post-launch Checks & Tests

I say we, as we are a multi-disciplined team with experts in Branding, UX, Web Design, Front End Website Development, Back End Website Development, Copywriting, Domains, DNS, Hosting Services… etc. etc. 

And then what?

That’s often not the end of the project, there’s Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Marketing via various channels that may include Google Ads, Email marketing, Social Networks and even print media (remember that?).

In conclusion, you can create your own website if you have the time and the skills. Or, if you prefer not to tear your hair out or go prematurely grey, then give us a call. We’ll have a coffee (when we’re allowed) and see how we can help you get the website that matches your expectations.