Before you can actually build a website, you need to gather information. This will include your purpose, main goals, and target audience.
Your purpose is essentially the reason behind creating this website. Is it for self-promotion or to provide information about a certain topic? Your goals are what you want to accomplish with this website. Having goals will give you a better idea of how to go about creating the website and what content to include. Your target audience is who your website is going to appeal to. Every business has a target audience, so make sure you figure out who yours is before actually creating the website. Imagine your ideal customer, including their age, gender, and interests.
Step 2: Planning
Once you’ve gathered the basic information for your website, you then need to start planning it out. Using the information from the first step, you’ll create a sitemap. A sitemap is a list of all the topics and sub-topics of your website. The sitemap will help you be able to visualize the website and how a user can jump from one page to another. This step is crucial so that you can create an attractive website that is easy to navigate.
Step 3: Design
After you’ve planned the outline of the website, then you need to figure out how it’s going to look. This will include all visual content, such as photos and videos. Be sure to keep in mind your target audience when planning the design of your website.
For example, a public relations brand will have a very different website than a brand with a target audience of pet owners. You want your website to be catered towards your target audience’s wants and needs.
Step 4: Content
The content that you have on your website is one of the most important aspects of a website. Your content will convey your message to your audience and encourage them to use your website. But before you can write your content, you need to figure out your goals and purpose, which is why step 2 is so important. Your content should be relevant and interesting enough that your users keep coming back.
Step 5: Functionality
At this step is when you’ll actually start to build your website. This is also when all the above steps will come together to create the look and functionality of the website. You want your website to be user-friendly and easy to get around. The homepage will usually be created first, and then all the sub-pages will come after. You also need to make sure the website can be accessible from both a desktop and mobile phone.
Step 6: Testing
Once the website has been successfully created, it’s not quite ready to be launched just yet. It needs to be tested first. Testing the website can be a tedious process, but it’s necessary to make sure the website is running properly. During this step, you’ll test all the links and buttons on the website, check the spelling of everything, and make sure the website looks the same on a phone than it does on a computer.
Step 7: Launch
After you’ve thoroughly checked the website and tested it a few times, now comes the exciting part: actually launching it. To launch your website, you need to upload it to a server. Once it’s uploaded, you’ll want to quickly run one last test just to double check that everything is correct. The website will now be viewable to the public.
Step 8: Monitoring and updates
Even after you successfully launch your website, it’s still crucial to go back and check it from time to time. Mistakes can happen, and it’s important to stay on top of the website to make sure it remains in good shape. You want to fix any problems as quickly as possible and always keep your website up to date.