How To Build A Website: What You Need To Get Started

In this digital age, if you wish to have an online presence with your business or a personal portfolio you are going to need to have a website. You can use social media so people can find you, but if you wish to fully customize the user experience you will have to create your own. Luckily, there are many websites builder tools you can use that make the process simple.

​In this blog, I will be going over what you need to do to get started in creating your website. I will give you a few options of websites you can use if you are not a master at HTML5. I will look at two different articles that will help you plan your website, why you need a website, and how to go about building it. I am going to narrow the most important information I find down into three steps. If you wish to find more information, you can read the articles. 

​The first article I am going to be pulling from is from websitebuilderexpert.com. It goes over what one needs to build a website. The article gives an unbiased opinion and gives readers tons of different builders to choose from. The next article is from circlesstudio.com. In this article, the author goes over what publishers want to do when they have a website designed and codes by others, how and what content to put into it. 

Take a quick look at what you need to do to start building your website and making your presence known online. 

​What builder should I use? 

​The most important part of your website is actually putting it together. You can pick from a few of these popular website builders, pick a plan to use and start choosing which theme you like. 

• Pick a website builder. The most popular are Weebly, WIX, SquareSpace and SITE123. They each have their strengths. WIX and Weebly use an innovative building technique that makes building a website feel like you are putting together legos. SquareSpace lets you do more creative design and SITE123 is most likely the best for small websites because SITE123 does not allow as much customization as the others.
• Pick a plan. Unfortunately hosting a website is not free if you want all the tools you need to get seen online. All the websites above let you choose from a subscription plan to host a website. The cheapest was Weebly at $6 a month, which includes a custom domain. At the high end with most data storage and features you can spend up to $40 for shopping cart and payment functions.
• Pick a theme. All the builders give you a layout of what type of design you would like to use. There are over 500 to pick from on WIX. You can also create your own theme, which takes a bit more time, but this allows you to get personal with your style.

​What content do I put on my website?

​Once you have your builder set up and a plan purchased it is time to start figuring out what content to put on your website. Here are a few things you should keep in mind. 

• Navigation is key. Make sure you make things easy to navigate. That means putting buttons and links wherever they fit. You do not want your website user to be lost. When I build my websites, I try to put buttons that follow you where you scroll for quick and easy navigation. It’s also important to make sure the website is easy to navigate for the visually impaired.
• Style is important. One of the worst things is when you go onto a website and there is a wall of text on a boring background color. Luckily, the layout templates on these builders will help you with this. Choose colors that are high contrast your text to pop and so that it’s easy to read. Don’t be afraid to use visuals as much as you can. Visuals make things fun and interesting to look at. Visuals includes images, graphs, videos, and GIFs. Don’t forget to use Alt Text, which stands for alternative text, if the image does not load or for someone who is visually impaired. Read more on Alt Text here.
• Use apps. Apps are plug-ins for your website that help you utilize more features. Apps include calendars to ads that will generate cashflow. Apps, when used appropriately or with discretion, will enhance users’ experience and decrease bounce rates. All the website builders I listed have app plug-ins to choose from. Most are free, some require payment. Find ones that suit your needs.

​How do I keep my website up to date? 

​Keeping your website up to date is simple after learning how to use a website builder. Before adding content to your website, create a plan for content generation and maintenance. 

• Do a website audit. Before adding new content, look over everything that you have already. Add to any holes in content or information that you identify or change things that need to be kept up to date. 
• Look at the metrics. You can look at your websites metrics to see how much traffic is getting and see what is popular. You can find the metrics tab in your website builder of choice.
• Develop a schedule. Once you have your website established, you want to constantly post things to keep your audience’s attention. Map out what you want to post and when you want to post it. Put it in your calendar and keep to that schedule; more up-to-date websites will get more traffic.
• SEO to get traffic. To keep it short, search engine optimization (SEO) is how easily your website will rank when people use search engines to find content. There is an article here if you wish to learn more. There are many app plug-ins on the website builders that will help with this. If you want to get more traffic, use these plug-ins.

​Hopefully, you have learned a thing or two about building a website. Take this knowledge and make your presence known online. If you have any questions, the internet is full of useful and helpful tools and tips. 

​About the Author

Nick Tomaro is currently a Communication Studies major at SIU. He is passionate about technology and navigating the social mediascape.