How To Build Your Own Website – Step 3: The Website Builder
Welcome back. Over the last couple of days we should have helped you put together your thoughts on how you want your website to look, what you want it to do and what you want to achieve from it.
You should now have started to fill a small notebook with some great ideas and be almost ready to take the first steps to bring it all together.
The next step shouldn’t be that difficult because you should have already established what you want your website to do, all you need to do now is find a website builder that will provide you with exactly what you need to make this great website.
Website builders are perfect – they offer great value for money, they’re quick, easy to use and they keep you in control of updating your website, which means you’re going to make huge savings going forward.
Firstly, check out what other people have to say about the hosting provider. You can do this by looking at reviews of the company.
You might want to create a free account to start with just to make sure your chosen provider meets up to the requirements you need. You can do this when you have registered your Domain Name.
It’s also a good idea to look for a hosting provider that offers a full 30 day money back guarantee. So if you find that you’re not happy with the service, you can get your money back and start again. Hopefully if you use our website building guides to help you choose the right provider, you won’t need to do that.
Once you are 100% happy with your choice, you can then easily upgrade to the most appropriate paid hosting package. Many providers will give you a free account when you register or transfer a domain name to them.
Netcetera is one such hosting company that provides website packages with email, access to Joomla, WordPress and website building tools with simple one click installation from a very powerful control panel, as well as ample bandwidth to ensure your website can cope with site visitors.
Creating your website with a website builder
You should now have your hosting account which is FREE with every new domain registered and you should also have a really good idea of how you want your website to look.
The next thing you may wish to consider is how to choose a great domain name.
Having a good catchy simple name, that’s easy to remember and easy to spell is paramount. A little later we will look at the controversial topic of search engine optimisation and how important getting the right name and domain extensions may affect your business in Google’s ranking algorithm. If you want to get your business right up there on the first few pages of a search engine like Google or Bing then it needs to be right. If you get stuck for ideas, you can always try a domain checker. Netcetera has a really good choice of Domains and with over 300 extensions you’ll be spoilt for choice when you register. You may want to take a look at this blog all about Domains.
- Remember – The top 100,000 websites on average have no more than 9 characters in their domain name.
- Avoiding trouble! – Do your searches properly. The last thing you want to do is choose a name, establish a brand and then at a later stage be forced to change it because it is too close to an existing trademark or registered business.
- Be creative – I cannot emphasise the importance of spending time on thinking of a name that stands out from the crowd. It’s not easy to do this because the majority of single word domain names have been taken.
- Don’t worry – Think outside the box and come up with your own word. Spotify and Deezer are both made up words, that with the right marketing, have gone global. So have a go at making a word up, you never know you might come up with something that trips of the tongue and becomes an overnight success.
There is so much help out there and once you have a shortlist of names go out and ask people which one they like best before you go ahead and register it. Do your market research, there are always people prepared to help.
Now onto the easy bit. Registering your domain name can be a quick and easy process and you can normally do this online. You’ll find many videos on YouTube and we have also put together a quick video showing you exactly how to do it.
You are now ready to start creating your new website. This is your shop front to the world. You’ll want your clients to feel at ease as they wander around from page to page, effortlessly with speed.
Think about the font type, size and colour you’re going to use. You can choose this from your website builder’s layout or style menu bar.
The next step is all about how your end users will find their way around this exciting new website. This is called Navigation. Think about what your clients will want to look for. They want to know where you are? They may wish to enquire about a product or an offer. Some clients will want to know about you and your team. Think about it from their perspective and this will help you come up with your main menus and sub – menus.
From outlined pages to finished content
Once you’ve used your navigation menus as a basis for your site’s basic structure, you can begin to add bullet points and short sections to the individual pages (i.e. creating outlines). This is also a good time to add any image ideas. In this way, the website itself becomes a collection point for your ideas.
There are some advantages to this approach, as opposed to writing out all your text in a single document until you’ve decided on a final version.
- When the page outlines are done, you’ll have a good overview of the entire draft and better coordinate your final text.
- If you want to hire a copywriter, you can send them the link to the website with the unfinished outlines. This gives them a very clear idea of what you’re looking for.
Little by little, you’ll find your website will acquire a base coat, the signage will be hung and content will be added in the form of text, image and video.
Check out the video for of our Website Builder using the below button to prepare you for the next step.
Join us the same tomorrow when we will discuss building your website.
Questions?
Speak to the team today to find out what our services can do for you, or for any other queries, please call 03330 439780 or Chat Live with one of the team