How to build a website from scratch?
Websites are essential for all small businesses and start-ups. Both existing and future customers expect a site, and they expect the web to be attractive, fast, and intuitive. In this guide, we show you how you can build a website to be proud of, from the ground up, without having to be able to program.
Are you ready to start building your brand’s new, stylish website right away? Choose the package that best suits your needs – and you’re up and running in no time.
How do you build your website?
A website can be made in several different ways. But for every way, you always need a domain name and a web host.
Code a website
You can build a web by coding it yourself. It has the advantage that you can create your site exactly as you want and without any restrictions. Coding a web takes a long time and requires a high degree of technical knowledge, which makes it a less attractive alternative for most people.
Build a “free website”
On the Internet, you can find several different options where you can create a “free website”. But with these services, you will always encounter some complications. For example, your website will not be on your domain or unwanted ads will be placed on your web. You will still end up paying to get the website you want. Therefore, it is not a recommended proposal to create a “free website”.
Build a website with CMS
CMS, or Content Management System as it stands, is a content system and a tool for building and maintaining the content of your web. The most famous and popular content system is WordPress. Building websites with WordPress can have a steep learning curve for beginners, but due to its endless possibilities, it is considered by many to be the best tool to build a web with. At affordit.co.nz you can create a web in WordPress and with our 1-click installation you can get started right away. WordPress is also the best option for creating your own blog.
Build a website with a Website program
The easiest and fastest way to build a website is through an easy-to-use webprogram. Our Website program is a user-friendly tool that allows you to create your own site easily and in no time. You can choose from 140 pre-created templates to get started right away. The website program is the best option for people who want to create a simple, yet stylish, website without spending endless hours on it.
What does it cost to build a website?
Now that you know that you need a domain, a web host and a site tool to create a page, surely the question of price comes up. It is not always clear how much it costs to build a web and the prices can vary greatly. Especially since different web hosting providers often offer several different packages, which can make it difficult to do quite well.
The cost of building a depends, among other things, on the size of your site, the features you want on it and the tool you use. A large website with many subpages has more technical requirements than a smaller, simpler website and therefore requires more powerful hosting to work quickly and well. Personal web or blogs often have less technically advanced requirements or needs and are therefore significantly cheaper to build.
Building a with a CMS or a website program is not only the easiest way to build a website, but also the cheapest. It is often much easier to buy a domain name, web host and program from the same provider, but not everyone offers this. To make it as easy as possible for you, we at affordit always offer you what you need in complete and affordable packages. It does not have to cost more than one cup of coffee a month.
After building your web, you may encounter other costs, such as online marketing. These costs are of course voluntary but can be well spent money to drive more traffic to your website.
What is important to keep in mind when building your website?
Having a well-functioning website is important for your business and nowadays it is very easy to do this yourself. However, there are some things you need to keep in mind to make your site perform even better.
Think about the following things and get started on building your website:
- Create a visually appealing web. The design of your web is the first impression visitors get of your brand. A website that is attractive and enticing attracts visitors and has a greater chance of success than a sloppy, poorly designed website.
- Make your website easy to navigate. Navigating a site is very important. Visitors will be frustrated and leave your page if they do not easily find what they are looking for. Therefore, you should always have an easy-to-use menu and put internal links in strategic places so visitors always find the page they want.
- Make sure your website is responsive. More and more people are surfing the Internet with their mobile phones. It is therefore imperative that your website looks good and works painlessly on mobile devices. Fortunately, the templates in both our Web program and in WordPress are fully responsive. The site application also has a specific mobile voice editor so you can make manual changes to the page your mobile visitors meet.
- Make your site secure. Of course, it is vital that you protect your site from various types of digital threats. It gives your visitors a sense of security and drastically reduces the risk of your site being hacked. At affordit.co.nz, we know how important a secure website is and that’s why all our packages include a free SSL certificate.
- Write good and interesting content. This is a must to generate more traffic to your web. A user will leave and never return if the content on your web does not interest them. Therefore, you should always create good and engaging content such as informative texts, beautiful images or fascinating videos.
Important Tips for Your Website Design
Your homepage gives the first impression
Your homepage gives the first impression of your site and your brand, so you want to get the design right. Whether you are planning a website design or starting your business website for the first time, the following tips are to keep in mind.
1. Make it immediately clear what you are offering
Although we often tend to focus more on graphics than text when it comes to design, both are important when planning the title of your site. Use coherent images and text to directly tell your visitors who you are and what you offer.
Use only high quality images
Your website should always have high-resolution original images so that your website looks professional. NOTE! Keep in mind that the images must not be too heavy to make the web heavy and slow.
3. Your website design must also work on mobile devices
We all know by now that a website must be optimized for mobile, but that does not necessarily mean that it looks good on all devices. Since web traffic from mobile devices accounts for a large portion of your visitors, you want your web design to look exactly like you want it on different mobile screens.
4. Enhance your website design with a video
Video is the most engaging media format and it is one of the most powerful additions to any web design. For example, a short animated video that explains your product or service is a very good idea and can give a nice touch to your web design. In addition, they are quite easy to produce.
5. Create feeling with color
Colors are emotionally appealing, and the colors you choose for your website should not only match your brand, but also the emotions you want to associate with your organization.
6. Include a selection of your blog posts on the first page
You want to get your visitors to engage with your blog content and an effective way to do that is to add a section with thumbnails from recent posts to promote your blog on the website.
7. Maintain balance and structure on the website
When your design is not in balance, it gives a bad user experience. Our eyes seek balance and poor structure gives an awkward appearance that reduces the value of your brand. Read more about minimalist design here>
8. Update often
No matter how good looking your is, your design will get old after a while. It is always nice to make small adjustments and improvements every few months to keep your web fresh and relevant. Your visitors will notice the changes even if they are small.
9. Embrace the typography
Previously, there were not many unique fonts to choose from, but now there are lots of beautiful fonts available to use. If you do not want to spend money on a fancy kit, look at Google Fonts for many great free options.
10. Optimize your design
Keep in mind that your website design needs to be optimized so that it loads quickly. Images must be compressed, effects and animations must be built correctly so that they do not become heavy and clumsy and cause your page to load slowly. Today, Google penalizes heavy and slow pages.
