Building your DIY website yourself does have its own advantages. You have complete control over your website, you can personalize it to your taste, and you can save money.
Meanwhile, putting the time and effort to learn and implement known web design practices allows you to build your DIY website for success.
First of all, you have to be clear and specific about what you want to achieve through your website. You also must have a clear idea of what you want to do with it before you get into work.
Start your project with a clear set of goals. What are your long term and short term goals for your business?
Then, evaluate and make a definite plan on how your website can help you achieve these goals. For example, if you want to boost the revenue of a particular product to about 10 percent, then your goal is to come up with an X number of inquiries for that particular product on your website.
You can write out these goals and keep them in a safe place for future references.
When making a design-related decision for your website, your goals should be the first thing that you should refer back to.
A large number of people are already using website builders to create their website. Others accomplish this through drag-and-drop interfaces, others through templates, making website building a lot easier.
With website builders, anybody could create a website, no matter what technical skill they may have. And even if you lack the technical know-how, you can easily look for tutorials online. For instance, you can type in “how to use Squarespace” on Google.
When you are using a website builder, you do not have to worry about the technical aspect. You can just focus on the content and design itself.
When choosing your domain name extension, opting for “.com” is still the best option.
Why? It is because .com is easier to remember.
“Of course, other websites might have “.org” or “.net” depending on the nature of your brand or website. Nonetheless, the “.com” extension is probably your safest bet. If you’re interested in seeing a full list of new gTLDs available, check out this list from 101domain.”
Your goal is not to build a website that looks nice. Instead, your goal is to create a website that your visitors will like.
So, before you start designing your website, take the time to know what your visitors are like. Do they fit in a particular demographic? Do they have common interests?
Once you have a clear idea of whom you are designing your DIY website for, you will do better making something that appeals to them.
If you open a website on your phone and found out that you could not read the text because it is either too big or too small, then you know how frustrating it can be.
This only means that the website is not mobile-responsive. Other users feel the same way, and will likely abandon your site if it is not responsive enough to adjust to their screen size.
With mobile searches now gaining a significant source of conversions, and with responsiveness as a factor of Google’s algorithm, it certainly is something that you must not overlook.
As you are designing every page of your website, the primary thing that you want visitors to do or see should always be on the top of the page. The less important data that you still want to include could go further down.
The main reason you must place the most important information on the top is that most users will not even bother to scroll down. That’s why it is crucial to capture their attention immediately.
Images are a great way to improve the content of your site. However, filling it with stock images is not always a good practice. Quality is always important than quantity.
Personal photos would feel a lot more genuine, helping build the trust of your prospective customers. So, refrain from using stock images because it feels a lot more generic.
You could even end up with the same photos that are already used on other sites, and your visitors could recognize that.
To create a more memorable and original website content, you should use professional photos for your website.
Reading on a screen is not easy, and users will likely skim what you write.
You could help readers out by placing texts into smaller paragraphs, using bullets, headings, columns, and whitespace to make your website easier to read and process.
A lot of people skip this part because they think that search engine optimization is too complex and advanced for them.
While, of course, there are some things that you need to master first before you could do it by yourself, SEO isn’t one of them.
If you could fill your site with Page Titles, Site Titles, and Page Descriptions for every page, then you have done pretty well.
Widgets are those small add-ons in your site that improve its functionality. It could be in the form of a calendar, donation form, or a booking widget.
There are so many options to choose from, and most of them are rather easy (and free) to install, even if you are new.
Your site visitors must never wonder how they could contact you.
You should include a contact page along with a contact form, place there your primary contact information, as well as some social media links. If you have a physical address of your business, then include a map and directions.
Apart from that, your contact information should also be visible on every page. The footer of your website is a great place to put your contact information, as well as links to your contact page and on social media accounts.
With website building platforms that keep popping up each day, more and more DIY website are on the rise. By implementing these aspects of web design, you’re sure that your site will look more professional, attractive, and trustworthy.
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