How to Publish a Website

When you're ready to design and publish a website, are several options available. If you have a significant amount of coding knowledge—or the budget to hire a developer—you might choose to create a custom website from scratch using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. This option gives you tremendous flexibility since you wouldn't have to worry about tailoring your website to meet the requirements of specific plugins or software programs. But, if you're not an experienced web developer, this could be time-consuming and expensive.

Fortunately, there are other options available for building and publishing a website, including powerful web creation platforms like Wix that offer a drag-and-drop interface that you can use to create your website without coding knowledge.

In some situations, the website builder will even allow you to host your site for free, making creating a website more accessible and intuitive. There are a number of website-building options on the market, so be sure to take the time to find one that best meets your needs.

You might also be interested in using a content management system (CMS). This software allows you to create, manage, and edit the content on your website. Content management systems often come with a slightly larger learning curve than traditional website builders, but they offer plenty of widgets and plugins to help you customize a website to your liking.

Additionally, you can use a combination of all of the tools above to help you put together an effective website. Consider your technical expertise and the goals of your website. Then, you can find the right tool(s) to meet your needs.

Step 2: Pick your domain name

The next step is to pick your domain name—the URL string that someone will enter to visit your website. Whether you want to start a blog, an e-commerce store, or anything else, you need to have the right domain name.

When picking a new domain name, you'll want to choose one that accurately represents your business, brand, or offerings and is relatively easy to remember. If your preferred domain name is already in use, consider trying a different top-level domain. Instead of ending your URL with .com or .org, you may want to see if an alternate option—like .net or .co, for example—is still available. However, be careful about using something too obscure, as some people may avoid visiting a site with an unfamiliar top-level domain.

Step 3: Choose a web hosting provider

The next step in publishing websites is to choose a web hosting provider. A web hosting provider is a service that allows your website to go live on the Internet and makes it accessible to the public. Website hosting providers give you space on their servers to store all of your content, files, and data. They can also help you boost the security of your site and help with any maintenance issues that may arise.

Often, the same tool that you use to create your website will be able to provide hosting options, too. Some tools give you access to free hosting, which can be a good starting point for beginners but might limit the number of pages you can create or the amount of traffic your site can handle at once. As your website grows or becomes more popular, you'll likely want to upgrade to an option that offers more bandwidth, increased customization, and in-depth site analytics.

It's also important to look at your hosting provider's reviews, ratings, and limits. If your hosting provider can't handle your traffic, it can result in slower page speeds that turn customers and visitors away. A high bounce rate can harm your search result ranking, which can make it more difficult for users to find your website organically. Make sure you use a reliable hosting provider that can grow with your site.

Step 4: Create content for your website

Before people can visit your website, you must have content they can view. Content can come in various forms, including copy, videos, and images. Often, these forms of content work together. For example, if you have blog posts, you could include unique photos and videos to capture your audience's attention and improve readability and user experience. Additionally, you may want to create a way for them to provide you with feedback or comments after reading.

Of course, you need to choose content that will drive traffic to your website. As a result, you may want to run a search engine optimization (SEO) campaign. SEO is the process of customizing your website's content to meet search engine demands. This means conducting keyword research to figure out what terms and phrases people use when looking for your content on your website.

If you are wondering how to do keyword research, there are tools that can help you identify terms and phrases that are helpful for you to use in your content. Remember that you need to think about not only how popular the terms are but also how competitive they are. You may have a difficult time competing with multinational corporations that are targeting the same terms.

Next, you'll want to design your website. Web design is crucial, as it’s how your website looks and feels when users visit. Poor web design can hurt the user experience, driving people away from your site. Some key components of web design include:

• Branding: Ensure your site uses consistent brand colors, fonts, and tones that align with your logo, values, and mission.
• Layout: A clean, simple layout makes your website easy to navigate. When someone visits your site, they may get frustrated if they can't find exactly what they are looking for. To ensure a good layout, include a navigation menu with buttons that work, ensure all text is readable, and keep your content organized.
• Mobile friendliness: Mobile web browsing and shopping are becoming more prevalent, which means your website layout should align with the standard width of phone screens with text, buttons, images, and videos appearing in the right place. In fact, shoppers with a negative mobile experience are 62% less likely to make a purchase from that site in the future.

User experience (UX): Good user experience comes in many forms. Incorporate white space throughout your layout to allow their eyes to rest and focus. Make sure all your pages load quickly, incorporate navigation tools to help visitors find what they're looking for, and use CTAs to guide them through the sales funnel.

Step 6: Test your website

The next step in publishing a website is to test it. Before your website goes live, you need to test all of the individual buttons and links to make sure they work as expected.

Start by clicking on everything to ensure it takes you exactly where you want to go. If you have a search function, you'll also want to confirm it works as intended.

Remember to double-check all of your design elements, including your colors, images, logos, and fonts. You don't want anything to get lost on the page because the colors don't blend well or the pictures aren't aligned properly.

Want to be extra sure everything is ready for launch? Consider having a third party test your website and provide you with some feedback.

Step 7: Publish your website

When your website is finished and ready for an audience, you can hit the publish button and allow it to go live. Generally, search engines will index your website automatically, but you may want to proactively submit your website to search engines instead—using Google's Search Console and Bing's Webmaster Tools, for instance—to verify ownership. This could make it easier for people to discover your website while searching online.

Of course, you also need to maintain your website. For example, as your website grows, you may have different needs in terms of web hosting. You need to make sure that you work with a provider that can grow with your website. Test your website's speed periodically and ensure it is not too slow. If it is slow to load, you may want to invest in a better hosting service.

Be sure to look at your links occasionally to confirm they all still work as expected. Broken links can negatively impact the SEO of your website, which can make it hard for you to maintain your web traffic. You'll also want to keep an eye on your search results rankings to ensure they don't begin to suffer. If they start to drop, you may need to reassess your SEO campaign.

Create and publish your website

Now that you know how to publish a website, it’s time to get started.

A web creation platform like Wix can help you establish your online business presence with intuitive tools that allow you to launch a professional website in minutes, regardless of your industry. And since it's easy to connect a Wix website to Mailchimp, you'll have everything you need to elevate your marketing with personalized, automated email campaigns that turn site visitors into customers.