Having a website is a great way to share thoughts, photos or to help promote your business because it provides a platform for you to create a personal travel blog, share a wedding announcement or set up a fully functional online store for your small business. In this day and age, just about anyone can create a website effortlessly with website builders. Although these services have made it easier than ever to create and maintain a website, there are five things you should do before you actually start creating your website.
1. Select a domain name
The first step in creating your website is to select a domain name. This is the URL displayed in the browser's search bar to your visitors use to access your site. Because it is essentially one of the first things your readers or customers will see and know about your site, you should take some time to select the perfect domain name. It should be something easy to remember yet still so topical that your site has. Using too many numbers or special characters in your domain name can be too difficult for people to remember, so try to keep it as simple and to the point as possible. A basic domain name is generally yourbusinessname.com or something like that.
2. Choose a website builder
Having determined that your domain name will be, it's time to choose a service to help you build your website. Many of these website builders offer free plans with their names in the field (eg yoursite.wix.com), as well as premium plans that contain only your domain name by itself. When trying to decide what type plan is best for you, consider the purpose of your website. If it's something personal, such as a wedding announcement, it may not really matter if the name of the website builder is in your field, but if you plan to use your site for your small business you may want to look into one of the plans of bonuses to help you with brand recognition.
3. Decide how many pages you need
Whether you're creating a website for personal or business use, you'll probably want to create a website with multiple pages. It is important to determine the number of pages you will need before you start building your website, you will need to take this into consideration when selecting the appropriate type of plane with a website creation service. With an advertising site engagement or wedding, for example, you can create pages for our history, wedding and gift registry information. On the other hand, a website for a company may require several pages like Home, About Us, Location, and Contact Us store. Keep in mind that there is such thing as too many pages, and you do not want to overwhelm your visitors with a super large site. Also the complexity of your pages, as detailed pages with a handful of photos and videos will require more bandwidth to function properly. Visit our bandwidth guide to learn more about it.
4. Include an option "Go home"
If you are going to create multiple pages for your website, you must also provide your visitors an easy way to return to your home page. This can be done by adding a "Return to Home" link or button, which should be at the top or bottom of each page on your site and clearly labeled as a way back to the home page. It is essential to direct your users to the home page, because it allows them an easy way to return to the central page, which usually contains more menus or links to help users navigate the site, in the case where they can not find something they 're looking for.
5. Create a concise and compelling content
When creating multiple pages, you'll want to make sure that every page on your site has something valuable or information your visitors. If your home page already has scattered information about your company or business, for example, it may not be necessary to create a separate About Us page. Also, you'll want to make sure you're not bombard each page with too much information - making it difficult for visitors to digest everything on your website. All you add must be relevant, informative and easy to read.
If you're still deciding which website builder may be the best for your website, we've done the homework for you and the biggest names in the game research. Check our reviews building a web site for more information about the plans, prices and how to begin.