When it comes time to build a new website from scratch, or completely re-design your old site, it’s important you have a process that ensures you can build the right site every single time. A lot of websites lack a clear structure or purpose, and don’t even up serving their customers effectively.
In this post we’re going to walk you through a simple process that will help you find the goal of your website, and choose the right foundation elements.
1. Narrowing Down The Purpose
What’s the reason your website exists in the first place? Is it there to provide a way for you to collect leads? Or, does it act as an online portfolio for your work?
Take the time upfront to actually decide the reason for your site to exist, as this will determine the next steps of the process.
2. Choose The Right CMS
Once you know the purpose for your website you can expand to choosing the right CMS for your website. Using a content management system is a great way to give you a custom site that’s easy for you to customize yourself.
There are a variety of different CMS for you to choose form, but the most common are WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal.
3. Choose Your Hosting Provider
Your web host is one of the most important elements of your website user’s experience. By choosing the right hosting provider your site will load much faster, which provides a much better experience for your viewers.
There are a variety of hosting solutions for you to choose from, but the most common include HostGator and Bluehost.
Your web host is responsible for the uptime of your website, along with the loading speeds and the amount of media you can upload to your website.
4. Upload Your Theme
For the sake of this simple install we’re going to assume you’re going with WordPress. WordPress is probably the best website solution for non-technical business owners, and those who are building their first website.
WordPress has thousands of free and premium themes that are very easy to customize and install. Once you’ve chosen your domain and your hosting provider it’s time to link your domain to your hosting provider, and install the WordPress framework.
This can be done from with your hosting dashboard. Most hosting providers have a one-click install that will enable you to install WordPress very easily. Then, browse the WordPress directory to find the best theme for your needs, and install the theme via the WordPress dashboard.
If this process seems too technical, or you’d rather work with a website design Jacksonville professional, then get in touch with our team for a free project quote.
5. Develop Your Page Content
On a very basic level there are a few pages you must have across your site. Those are the home page, a contact page, an about page, and a services page. Everything else is secondary. Without those primary pages your visitor won’t be able to contact you, or actually understand the work you do.
Of course, there’s a lot more that goes into a successful website, but the above steps will give you a foundation you can work from. If you’re interested in building your website today, then reach out to our creative team.
