According to Internet Live Stats, there are over 1.5 billion websites online today. While it doesn’t take an entire development team to get online, it does take a bit of know-how to stand out from the crowd.
Ready to create your own website and rock a strong web presence? With these nine tips for building DIY websites, you can get online and get new customers.
Start using these nine tips for building your own website now!
1. Get a Goal
Before you start, figure out what you want to accomplish.
You can use a website for a number of different purposes. As a business, you might want to keep customers up-to-date about industry advancements and trends. Maybe you’re a food blogger and you want readers to take a bite out of your mouthwatering recipes.
Get specific about what you’re aiming to achieve. Then, you can design a website that’s all about accomplishing that goal.
Whether you prioritize an online store or blog page, that attention to detail can help your website stand out from the crowd.
2. Determine Your Audience
Once you know your goal, it’s time to get to know your audience.
Chances are it’s not every person online.
To start, you can define your audience based on demographics. These include age, gender, household income, and other telling details.
To narrow it down, ask yourself:
- Who are we trying to communicate with?
- What do our target customers need help with?
- What websites are our target customers already visiting?
If you figure out what your audience likes, you can determine how to attract their attention online.
For example, if your audience includes local churchgoers, you can use this church website builder to get started. Now you’re developing a website that’s designed with your target audience in mind.
3. Find Inspiration
Now that you have your audience, find what they like online.
Remember, there are already 1.5 billion websites out there. Chances are you can find a few sources of inspiration.
What do you like—or don’t like?
Seeing other DIY websites can help you define your preferences. If you can figure out what you like, you can pull those elements for your own website.
That way, you’re building your own website that uses the cream of the crop design components.
4. Organize Navigation
The best way to build a website is to get—and stay—organized.
Your page structure is a list of the essential ingredients you need to bake up an effective website. The best websites prioritize user experience, which means making it easy for visitors to explore your website and find what they need.
Write out the pages you need. These can include:
- Homepage
- About Us
- Product/Service
- Blog
- Contact
These five pages are a good starting point. Depending on the purpose of your website, you might choose other pages that are essential for achieving your goal.
Try to narrow your navigation down so it fits on one line.
Now it’s easier for visitors to navigate and find what they visited for.
5. Get a Domain
Once the planning stage is done, let’s get you that website!
Investing in a custom domain, or website address, helps your company appear professional. That way, ads won’t pop up on your website, either.
Instead, choose a domain name that’s short, easy to spell, and memorable.
Avoid hyphens, too.
These steps will help customers take your company seriously, on and offline.
Keep track of the email you use for your domain, too. Otherwise, it could become difficult to fix errors (or renew the domain if it expires).
6. Lay It Out
Design for DIY websites usually starts with the homepage. This will establish a template and benchmark for the remaining page design.
Consider the page elements you need. These include:
- A brand color scheme
- Fonts
- Your company logo
- A header image
- Form
- Call-to-action
- A blog reel
Using the inspiration you gathered earlier, starting laying these components out on your homepage.
Make sure your logo has a transparent background (think .png file). Pick two fonts and two colors. This will keep the design simplistic and consistent.
Don’t feel the need to cram these DIY website components into tight space. Instead, use white space to your advantage. Adding white space improves user experience, makes your content easier to read, and improves navigation, too.
That way, you’re making things easier on your website visitors and yourself.
7. Stock Up
The best DIY websites look real—not full of cheesy stock imagery.
Stick to high-quality photos for your website. You can do more with larger images, instead of trying to stretch out smaller ones. This leaves them looking pixelated, blurry, or grainy—and makes your company appear cheap and unprofessional.
Instead, professional stock photography can help you stand out from older websites.
Better yet, professional custom photography gives customers a realistic view of your product or service. Transparency can make a big difference when you’re trying to increase sales.
8. Make It Mobile
According to this report, over 52.2 percent of all website traffic across the world is generated through mobile phones.
With more people visiting websites from their phones, it’s essential companies use responsive design. A mobile-friendly website will automatically adjust your content to fit any screen. That way, you’re not leaving out any potential customers.
9. Optimize Content
Designing DIY websites requires a balance of visual and textual content. Once you have everything up and organized, you need to optimize, too.
Search engine optimization (SEO) makes it easier for people to find your content online.
When someone runs a search on Google or Bing, hundreds of websites show up. Using SEO, you can make sure your content shows up for relevant searches. That way, you don’t miss out on potential customers who are looking you up online.
DIY Designs: 9 Tips for DIY Websites
With these nine tips for DIY websites, you can rock the web with your own smart strategizing. Get online and design with your customers in mind by using these nine tips!
Check out our most recent posts for more digital marketing tips and tricks.
