Although this guide is generally intended for beginners, it will cover some processes that may require intermediate to advanced coding and web development skills.
Creating a website from scratch, though intensive, is a great way to make sure your site reflects your company’s goals. In fact, it lets you bring your unique vision to life from the earliest stages of site creation, tailoring aspects such as aesthetics, navigation, and overall usability accordingly.
Here are ten important steps for creating a website from scratch.
1. Hone and align relevant skills
Before conceptualizing your new website, it’s important to first take stock of your relevant skills—specifically, those related to web development and coding. These skills can play an important role in building a site yourself, since they can help you handle key technical steps independently, making for a smoother development process and giving you more creative control.
Useful prerequisites for website development may include working with languages such as jаvascript and HTML/CSS (for various design and usability factors), troubleshooting and debugging (to keep your site consistently effective, up to date, and free of major security flaws), and search engine optimization (or SEO—to optimize and promote your site effectively so it can be discovered and compete within Google’s search algorithm).
Front-end and back-end web development skills are also very useful, since they let you understand and effectively manage both customer-focused usability issues and the site’s underlying architecture at a comprehensive technical level. To get started in web development, check out our guide on how to become a web developer.
2. Set a goal
Once you’ve aligned your key skills, your next step is to set an overall goal for your new website. Ask yourself: What’s the long-term goal of this site? Is it to sell products? To express and expand your brand identity? What user experience do you hope to provide? Which user metrics will you track through the site?
Once you’ve answered all the relevant questions, it’ll be easier to plan the site’s interface, aesthetics, potential pages, and other aspects directly related to your goals. For example, if you plan to use the site to build brand awareness and facilitate digital transactions, you could design a homepage offering easy access to both featured online products and company updates, along with identity-based information (such as a comprehensive “About Us” section). Whatever your vision, be sure to make your goals as clear and detailed as possible.
3. Choose a hosting provider
Choosing a hosting provider is a relatively simple but important part of building a website. Many leading hosting platforms (such as Bluehost and HostGator) have streamlined this process, often offering free domain registration, discounted website-building tools, and other perks when you first sign up.
As with the previous step, this decision should be based on your site’s needs and goals, especially those related to its structure and usability. For example, if the site is meant to showcase image galleries and multimedia, you’ll probably want to choose a platform that can host large files and provide suitable speeds. Using criteria like these, you can narrow your options down to a few promising providers and figure out which ones will be the most cost-effective, reliable, and aligned with your company’s aspirations.
4. Choose a domain name
In theory, choosing a website domain name can be quick and easy, but as GoDaddy notes, it’s comparable to choosing a business name. It can take quite a bit of thought and consideration, since your domain name will play a big part in your online identity. From an SEO perspective, an effective domain name can make your site more visible in keyword searches and make it easier to promote your site through digital marketing campaigns.
With all that in mind, take the time to brainstorm several domain options and do keyword research and other market analysis to pinpoint a name that’s short, catchy, and representative of the service or product you provide. Your domain should be memorable and distinctive, reflecting your target audience or location (for example, you might consider including your location directly in the domain name).
5. Choose a website template or layout
Your website layout will be crucial to facilitating the intended user experience, and you should choose it with careful planning and preliminary research. You can start by choosing a website builder with a selection of applicable site templates, narrowing your options down to those with styles and structures that reflect your vision. Considerations may include whether you need e-commerce elements, appointment scheduling, or other features specific to your business. Assuming the theme can be customized to your liking, use it as a framework for bigger development ideas, such as specific plugins and widgets, color schemes, page order, and hierarchy.
6. Create relevant pages
The most effective websites contain multiple pages or sections—typically a homepage and several supporting pages representing different aspects of the company. As the core building blocks of your site, these pages should be structured and ordered to match your intended user journey, and they should be accessible and easy to navigate. If you’re using a website builder, it will most likely let you add, remove, and customize pages within your overall site theme. Use this feature to create pages that collectively embody your site’s intended purpose and message.
7. Set up a payment system (if needed)
If your site is intended for online shopping, equip it with an appropriate storefront layout showcasing your company’s products or services. Smooth digital transactions are generally considered a crucial feature for retail-focused sites, so be sure to design your storefront accordingly. First, most successful digital storefronts support various payment methods, from credit and debit cards to connected services such as Google Pay and PayPal.
In addition, your payment system should be built around fast, hassle-free, secure payments that feel smooth and trustworthy. This feature can improve your site’s bounce rate and encourage people to consider more products or services for purchase. You can also use features such as sticky header navigation, a type of header that stays static as users scroll, giving them constant access to search and purchase options. A positive, user-friendly experience can go a long way toward building customer loyalty and trust, and the most effective digital storefronts are a microcosm of this idea.
8. Test and refine your site
Now that your site’s key elements are ready, you’ll want to spend plenty of time testing and fine-tuning the final product. Since usability remains one of the most important measures of a site’s success in 2021, your main considerations should be your site’s user interface (UI) and user experience (UX). You can assess these elements through usability testing and a technical audit of the site’s front and back ends. To test usability, watch users navigate your site and note any flaws, confusion, or other issues they encounter along the way. Ask detailed questions to get equally detailed feedback, which can lead to more robust solutions and a better overall user experience. For the technical audit, evaluate site performance metrics (such as page speed and media playback), various SEO factors (such as content optimization, organic keyword mentions, and functional backlinks), and issues related to the site’s underlying code.
9. Promote your site
Once your site is live, it’s time to introduce it to your target audience. Fortunately, there are many effective ways to market a website digitally. Social media accounts are a great tool for building awareness of your site. Many of these platforms let users link directly to site URLs, integrate site content, and send followers seamlessly to different site pages. Many website templates can embed social links directly, which can benefit all linked properties from an SEO perspective, since organic links can positively affect rankings.
Other options include Google’s advertising and business features, which can help site owners promote their properties with targeted ads and, where applicable, display relevant physical locations on Google Maps (with corresponding website links). Webmasters can also get creative with their site’s multimedia to expand their website’s reach into other social markets. For example, a site video can be syndicated to social networks with a link back to the original content.
10. Keep your site up to date
Even after your site is built and has followers, be sure to keep it updated. As your site gains popularity online, your users may eventually grow impatient or lose interest in outdated content and poorly maintained site usability features (broken links, broken media, etc.). So it’s very important to keep your site active, and that means more than just posting and blogging.
