There was a time, when creating your own website with minimal design and development knowledge was impossible. In years gone by, developing a website from scratch, required you to hire a group of professional designers and programmers, but thanks to advances in technology, website creation is now easier than ever.
With content management systems (CMS), it’s now possible to create stunning websites without having any programming or design experience whatsoever. The process of designing a website can now be as simple as dragging and dropping items to create a design with the correct tools, visual resources, and direction.
But, where do you begin? Even if the process is much easier, there are still a lot of factors to take into account. Without the right direction from the start, you run the risk of making mistakes that force you to continuously redesign your website, which can be extremely frustrating and time-consuming. This article outlines every aspect of website design from beginning to end, and has been put together to help you build a professional looking site, in the easiest possible way in 2023.
How to Design a Website
1) Define Your Site’s Goals and Purpose
You must have a distinct idea of the end result you wish your website to achieve before you begin developing it. You need to create a detailed list of specific objectives for your website. What is the purpose of this site? Who is the target audience you are trying to reach? What goals do you have for the site? Websites are made for a variety of reasons, such as:
- Sales and lead generation
- Community building
- E-commerce
- Portfolio
- Brand promotion
- Online learning
- Customer service
- Entertainment
- Booking and reservations
- Surveys and polls
- Crowdfunding
Having a clear understanding of your goals will help you make key decisions on essential elements, such as layout, content, and overall design. Also, it will help you create a website that is aligned with your needs objectively and effectively serve your target audience.
2) Choose Your Website Builder
The next step is to select a website builder, now that you are clear on what you wish to do accomplish your website. Without any prior coding experience at all, you can now design and customise your website using a website builder.
You can concentrate on the website’s design and content by letting website builders take care of the technical aspects of website building. By using drag-and-drop interfaces or templates, website building tools enable you to do this, making the process as simple as putting together a PowerPoint presentation.
The most popular website builders include Elementor (for WordPress), Shopify, Wix and Squarespace. Along with these, there are many other lesser known site builders including Pixpa, GoDaddy and Weblium, Weebly, and are a few more. You must select the one that best meets your demands because each has unique features and capabilities.
3) Select a Theme/Template
Once you’ve chosen the platform and site builder you wish to use, you then need to choose a template for your website. You have the option of starting from scratch when designing the layout of your website, but you can also choose to modify one of the free templates offered by the website platform to fit the objectives of your website.
A library of free pre-designed website layouts provided by website builders was established by qualified designers. Whether you wish to build a business website or site for a personal project, a vast array of professional designs are available to suit all types of website. If you wish to create a website from scratch, sites that sell premium Themes are a great place to find inspiration.
Start by perusing the collection until you discover a design you like. Then, once you’ve purchased it, you can alter the text, graphics, and colour to suit the requirements of your own site. The amount of menus and pages, the size and font of the buttons, and the links to the social media sites can all be changed as you see fit.
4) Choose a Domain Name
Choosing a domain name is an essential step in website design. Your domain name is the address of your website on the internet. Visitors use it to identify your website, so it’s crucial that it aligns with your brand or business and is easy to remember. Here are some tips to keep in mind when choosing a domain name:
- Keep it brief and simple so that it will be simple to remember. Don’t use words that are too complicated or long.
- Keep numbers, and symbols such as hyphens, to a minimum. It makes your domain name hard to remember and presents a less-than-professional image.
- To raise your website’s search engine ranks, use pertinent keywords.
- Utilise the appropriate domain extension. There are numerous choices, such as .com, .co, .net, .online, .org, .site, .info and .biz. Pick one that is appropriate for your industry and geographic region.
Finally, verify with a domain registrar if the domain name you want is available. If it is still available, don’t hesitate to secure it.
5) Create an HTML Sitemap (optional)
Creating an HTML sitemap that depicts the organisational structure of your website is the next stage. You can organise the pages and content of your website using a sitemap. Visitors will find it simple to navigate your website and find what they’re looking for with the help of a well-designed sitemap.
Additionally, it will aid search engines in comprehending the layout and function of your website. Create a structure for your sitemap by placing the primary sections at the top and the corresponding subpages at the bottom. Pages like: should be included in a good site map.
- Home page
- About us
- Our products or services
- Blog or News
- Contact us – phone number, business email address, social media links (Facebook page, Twitter, etc.)
- Privacy policy and terms of service
- Legal pages
Naturally, each website serves a distinct purpose, so make sure your sitemap includes all of your company’s vital webpages, services, and goods.
6) Prepare Your Content
It’s time to gather your content and identify which pages you to include on your website. This concerns all the content you’ll use on your website, such as text, images, videos, logos, and more. Make sure your material is well-written, captivating, educational, of the highest calibre, and relevant to your intended audience. Your website copy should entice visitors and persuade them to take action and collaborate with you. Here are some suggestions for you:
- Keep it clear and straight to the point.
- Make important words or phrases stand out.
- Optimise for SEO by including relevant keywords.
- Proofread and edit to ensure it is error-free.
- Create CTAs (calls-to-action).
7) Optimise Your Website for Mobile
Your website’s responsive design is essential to your online business, as many people now choose to browse the web on their phone or on a tablet. Your website should be simple to use and be optimised to work on all types of screens.
Thankfully, all modern website builders now offer fully responsive layouts by default, ensuring that your site will always be functional on all screen sizes and devices. Even so, there is still plenty of room for further optimisation and fine-tuning to customise the appearance of your site on all devices.
Additionally, make sure that all of the interactive elements, such as buttons, are large enough to be touched with a finger. Once more, reduce the size of images and videos so they can be properly scaled on smaller screens. Your website will load more quickly on mobile devices as a result.
8) Use Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
The next step is to make use of SEO, to help maximise the online visibility of your site in search engines and increase the number of visitors to your site. There are many ways in which site owners can go about this. The basic fundamentals include adding keywords in your page titles, descriptions and throughout your content. Keywords that matter most to you, can be found by using any number of SEO tools such as SEMrush, Ahrefs and so on.
Another technique to help make it easier for search engines to understand the content of your images and videos is to use descriptive alt text and file names. Google Analytics can be used to monitor the development and effectiveness of your website and to learn more about how visitors use it.
9) Test, Refine, and Launch
It is essential to test your website’s functionality before launching it. To ensure that it functions properly and displays correctly on all devices, test it on various browsers, gadgets, and screen sizes. Make sure all the features and operations on your website are working without issue.
Additionally, seek out the opinions of those you trust. Make use of their suggestions to pinpoint any problem areas and make the necessary changes. Once you’re satisfied with the look and functionality of your site, it’s then time to send your site live.
If the idea of designing your own website is too difficult for you, consider web designing outsource.
Need help designing an outstanding website in 2023?
SEO Web Logistics have been designing outstanding websites for clients since 2013. Get in touch with us today, to learn how we can build you an excellent website for your business or personal project.
