How To Design A Website When You’re Not A Website Designer?
These days, every business, irrespective of size, needs a website. But contrary to popular belief, creating an impressive website is easy with the right tools and tips.
According to Amazon Web Services, approximately 88% of the website visitors are less likely to come back to a website with which they’ve had a poor experience. And, that is understandable.
Websites need to intuitive and optimised to effectively attract and retain visitors, and eventually, convert them into customers.
Here is a guide to help you build and design a perfect website for your small business.
How to Design a Website on Your Own
1. Set your goal
Begin your website project by figuring out what matters the most to your business. This helps you identify what essential elements to include in your website.
Scanning through other websites in your industry for design inspiration also helps. Browse through their pages and note what information they provide, how they communicate their brand and what things they offer to attract and retain the attention of visitors.
2. Outline your approach
A sitemap serves as a list of important web pages included in your site. It helps outline your website and creates an organised architecture of its pages.
Consider including the following basic types of web pages on your website:
Homepage
As this is your website’s main page, it is often the first page visitors see. They should be able to see the most important information first to understand what your business is, what your products or services are, and navigate to the next action they need to take.
About Us
This page includes all the essential business information, such as how you got started, where you are based, your vision and mission, and your team members’ profiles. You can also include links to social media pages, store locations and hours (if you have them), and contact information.
Services
Depending on what your organisation or business does, product pages help visitors learn about your offerings. These should include short descriptions of the product or service, as well as product specifications, measurements, and pricing.
You may even turn your website into an ecommerce store, where customers can directly purchase through the product page on your website.
Blog
Your blog can be a central location for visitors to find all your published content. It often contains industry-related articles, branded content, company news updates, and any other content that provides value to your readers.
Of course, the goal is helping them identify their need through your articles and converting readers into paying customers.
We’ve created a quickstart guide on creating a blog for your small business website.
3. Secure strong hosting
To create a website, you’ll need a domain name that serves as your website address. You also need web hosting or a server space where you can store your website and take it live and accessible to internet users.
There are hundreds of web hosting options out there, but you will want to ensure that whatever hosting service you choose covers these bases:
- Reliability. What is the hosting provider’s uptime guarantee?
- Storage. How much storage capacity will you require for your website’s files? For example, large ecommerce websites with many images may need more storage capacity.
- Bandwidth. Ensure that your hosting plan includes adequate bandwidth so that you can easily manage traffic spikes to your website.
- Security. Essentially, take into consideration the security features in a hosting plan, including 24/7 monitoring and protection against DDoS attacks.
Choosing an unreliable or suspicious web hosting provider can land you in serious trouble. Therefore, go with an established and well-known company.
4. Pick a website building tool
Once your web hosting and domain name are set up, it’s time to figure out how to design a website that looks great and is easy to manage. Planning in the beginning will make it seamless for you to maintain a functional and up-to-date website, without draining a large amount of your time.
All-in-one website builder
To get a website up quickly and with little technical knowledge required, considering a website building tool like BigRock’s Website Builder is the perfect solution.
Our intuitive, fully mobile responsive and intelligent builder makes it easy to add images and text, change colour schemes, and even set up product pages if you plan to sell online. The features of this tool include ecommerce store functionality, marketing features, website security, and more.
WordPress
If you have a bit more time and plan to build a website you can optimise as you desire, consider using a content management system (CMS) like WordPress.
While the platform has a steeper learning curve than a drag-and-drop site builder, it offers endless customisation features – which is great for more complex website requirements.
Best of all, there are thousands of WordPress plugins on ecommerce, security, and more to enhance your business website, plus wide-ranging support networks and tutorials to help you if you have any questions.
Best Practices for Designing a Website
Keep it simple
As you design your website, maintain a user-friendly and seamless interface. You may not notice you’ve added features that complicate the website, making it difficult for your audience to navigate.
Have a clear call-to-action (CTA) button
‘Sign up’, ‘contact us’, ‘buy now’, ‘place an order’ and other CTAs should be intuitive and easy to find. Keeping track of your website design makes it easy for your visitors to know where you want them to go next on your website.
Make it mobile-friendly
Your website should be responsive from every device. Review how the different aspects of your website appear and perform on tablets, mobile phones, and PCs. Ensure that users can view images and text properly on different devices and that CTAs and other buttons are easily clickable on various screen sizes.
Create a User-First Design
Website design is majorly subjective; the look and experience of your website may not please everyone. But with the right practices, it may attract and convert visitors. Put time and effort into getting your website design right. Doing so helps users easily navigate and use your website, and transact with your business for long term.
But if you don’t have the time to do it yourself, leaving site creation to an expert web design team is the way to go.
