How to Design a Website: Detailed Guide

You want to create a new website for your business or portfolio, but you’re not sure where to begin.

Powerful new website makers have made creating web pages and eCommerce stores easier than ever.

However, that doesn’t negate the need for careful preparation and execution when creating your own website or eCommerce store.

A website’s design from scratch is simpler than it once was, and with this straightforward guide, it’s even simpler!

Continue reading to find out the answers to all of your queries about how to create the ideal website with all the visual elements and landing pages that appeal to your website visitors!

This article will guide you through the crucial step-by-step procedure for creating a successful website and delivering what your visitors expect.

Why is web design so important?

Web design is crucial because it can determine a person’s or company’s first impression if it’s a business website. In less than a few seconds, web users decide whether to interact with a site, mostly by assessing its aesthetics.

Additionally, web design influences a visitor’s assessment of a person or company’s credibility by about 75%. Therefore, if a website appears to be poorly made, with poor design elements or bad visual content, the target audience and users may assume it is a scam.

Additionally, web design can have a big influence on a customer’s purchasing process.

According to Toptal, 88% of online shoppers said they wouldn’t make subsequent purchases if they had a bad user experience from the product or service page. Furthermore, if a website platform doesn’t look or work properly on their devices, mobile visitors are five times more likely to leave.

Brand recognition is significantly influenced by web design as well. The target audience may find it simpler to recognize your company’s identity if you maintain visual consistency and other important elements users want to see across all marketing channels.

Finally, Search Engine Optimization is influenced by website design. If users find it challenging to navigate your website or read your web content, search engines will probably feel the same way. As a result, especially if you don’t have a sitemap, the bots may struggle to crawl the content for indexing and ranking purposes to enable these search engines to pop up your website’s content in its search results.

Owning a website seems like an incredibly difficult endeavor. But you can certainly succeed if you have the right resources, advice, and visual aids. We’ve created a brief, step-by-step guide to help you learn how to design a website because of this.

Additionally, how to create a website that converts. Because ensuring that your website does its job of informing and selling to your customer is equally important to user experience and ease of use.

You don’t have to start learning how to code or worry about a protracted design process, so don’t worry. Of course, if you have the money, you should hire a professional web designer, or take a web design course but if not, stick with us. Check out the guide for the best content marketing tips.

How to design a website or online store in 10 simple steps

Even though how to design a website is simple, there are many things to consider. You may end up wasting time and money repeatedly reworking your site design or online store if you don’t have or follow a plan from the start.

Here is a step-by-step tutorial on how to create a website, from the very first ideas to the finished product.

Step 1: What is the vision and plan for your website?

Making a purposeful and clear strategy is the first step in creating a professional website. You must approach any website page project with a plan, whether it is a personal website platform to showcase yourself or a company website platform or an eCommerce website for your business.

Make a list of precise, well-defined objectives for your website.

• Why do you want to build it?
• Who is your target market?
• Leads, clicks, sales, downloads, engagement, or a bigger audience which are you hoping to gain from it?

There are many types of websites, each with a different purpose.

eCommerce store

An eCommerce website is where both the seller and the consumer can play their respective roles. In essence, a customer should be able to browse products on an eCommerce website, add items to their cart, and then check out and pay seamlessly.

Portfolio site/ Resume

A portfolio website is a digital resume for a freelancer or business. It gives potential customers an easy way to see your work and gives you the chance to highlight your skills and offerings as well as show samples of previous jobs.

Blog site

A blog is a discussion-based or informational website that is published on the Internet and consists of brief, frequently casual text entries that resemble diary entries (posts).

What distinguishes a blog page from a website?

A blog is a category of the website. A blog’s primary distinction from other kinds of websites is that blogs frequently feature new content that is organized in reverse chronological order and updated on a regular basis (new blog posts first) and could count as a digital marketing strategy.

Landing page

A landing page is a stand-alone web page designed specifically for a marketing or advertising campaign in digital marketing.

It’s the page that a visitor “lands” on after clicking on an email link, an advertisement from Google, Bing, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or another similar website.

Landing pages are created with a single focus or goal, known as a call to action, as opposed to web pages, which typically have multiple goals and encourage exploration (or CTA, for short).

Event site

An event website is essentially a free digital advertisement for the gathering you’re planning. Although creating a page is not difficult, you should make sure that attendees are aware of the information.

Brand website

A branded website can be compared to your company’s online resume. It consists of images, vibrant colors, and persuasive copy that work together to convey your brand’s personality.

Note the difference between a brand website and a portfolio site. A portfolio site could be embedded in your brand website so your visitors can check out samples of your work. Explore some finest branding ideas.

Step 2: Go hunting for inspiration

Finding web design examples will help you picture what your future website should look like.

Many places exist where one can find inspiration. Given that it features numerous website designs that have won awards in the industry you want to go into.

It’s also a good idea to browse rival websites. It may give you some insight into what customers look for on a website like your own. Sites like SimilarWeb can help you find out who your competitors are if you don’t already know who they are.

Finally, take a look at the most recent developments in web design. By incorporating the most recent design trends, the website will look fresh and current. However, remember to only use these features when they are appropriate for your company or personal brand.

Using last year’s popular themes makes a website look more out of date than anything else. Browse your favorite websites for a while, keeping an eye out for recent updates. Anything that catches your attention?

Keep them as your design inspiration, we’ll need them later.

Have you recently visited any websites that seem new? If so, what did they do? When looking for hot trends, you don’t have to do it alone, but it starts with just keeping an eye out.

Step 3: Select a website builder

Numerous well-known website creators exist. The biggest names in the industry are Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, and Weebly.

These businesses make web design incredibly simple, but they are targeted at a broad demographic. Although they have some lovely templates for their websites, there are few options for customizing them for particular purposes.

Users in specific niches might find the mobile-friendly templates provided by these companies to be somewhat constrained. The equipment required for creative professionals is typically one of our weak points. Yes, you can create a basic portfolio using almost all website builders. But wouldn’t it be nice to have a website builder with enough ravishing templates for that all-important portfolio?

Most people who lack web design knowledge consider the pricey option of hiring a freelancer or a professional web studio.

Instead, pick a top-notch website builder with all the built-in tools that will let you completely customize your page for a completely custom look while being drag-and-drop and easy to create.

This choice is much simpler and more affordable. You can build a professional website with high-quality website builders and all the features and design elements you require on a single, effective platform.

Top website builders you can choose from

1. Wix

As one of the most well-liked website builders, Wix web designer has something up-to-date to offer everyone. Making a website with the free plan is possible, but you’ll be using a subdomain and getting Wix display ads which might not be a very good experience for your website visitors. Although the cheapest plan is a little bit restrictive, you can access many free apps to increase the functionality of your website.

You will receive SEO and Google analytics tools, an events calendar, and a logo maker with higher-tier plans. Plans for e-commerce have even more to offer, but they are also more expensive.

Wix provides one of the largest template collections available for an all-in-one website builder. There are more than 900 templates made by web designers. Not all of them are successful; some appear very outdated, but the majority are contemporary and appropriate for a variety of industries.

New small business owners should consider Wix, especially if they want to try operating an online store. The eCommerce plans appear to be expensive, but Wix’s pricing is on par with rivals.

2. Shopify

Shopify is primarily used as an e-commerce website builder. To help you sell online, all of the paid plans include built-in shopping carts and marketing tools. Only nine free eCommerce templates are available for use. There are dozens of premium templates available if you don’t mind paying, but they typically cost about $100.

The fact that the editor isn’t a true drag-and-drop editor might make learning it a little more difficult. Although it uses more point-and-click navigation, it is still simple to understand and use once you have used the tools for a while.

You can sell in person with the Shopify point-of-sale mobile app or add a buy button to a website you already own with Shopify Lite, which costs $9 per month.

Shopify should only be considered by serious small businesses doing with shopping. Not only websites but also online stores can be built with it. For brick-and-mortar businesses that want to sell inventory online as well, it is the perfect solution.

3. WordPress.org

To start, we want to be clear that the WordPress we’re recommending here is one of the free, open-source content management systems from WordPress.org, not the site builder of the same name at WordPress.com. Due to the platform’s extensive flexibility and freedom, the well-known content management system is also one of the best website builders.

It’s crucial to be aware that you must purchase separate web hosting if you decide to use WordPress to build a website. There are many (more than 8,000) free WordPress themes available, in addition to a large number of paid themes.

WordPress’ site builder is simple to use on its own, but it only includes the essentials. You can add literally tens of thousands of plugins to your site to increase functionality, and many of them are available for free.

No other website builder offers as much customization as WordPress. The only catch is that you might need to either learn how to use the right combination of plugins to get what you want or hire a freelancer to help you code your website so it does what you want.

Who ought to use it? By no means is WordPress difficult to use, but it isn’t as simple as the all-in-one website builders.

WordPress is a good choice for you if you have some technical know-how and want a personalized website with web hosting of your choice—whether you want an information-only site or an online store.

4. GoDaddy

The GoDaddy website builder doesn’t require any technical knowledge to use; all you need to do is answer a few questions about the site’s purpose to receive a prebuilt site that can be customized. Alternatively, you can select a template and begin adding content using the drag-and-drop editor. Although GoDaddy doesn’t provide as many design options as some of its rivals, the templates are neat and polished.

The all-in-one website builder, web host, and domain registrar have tools to aid in SEO and marketing. A long-term contract is required, but upgrading to an e-commerce site is simple and starts at $14.99 per month. To have your data in one place you can make use of a contract template.

GoDaddy creates a website for you based on your needs using artificial design intelligence. Even stock photos related to the theme of your website or business will be added.

GoDaddy provides features designed especially for online stores and small businesses. Although many marketing and SEO tools are included with your monthly plan, not all are built into the editor or dashboard.

5. Squarespace

Because it is brimming with helpful features, Squarespace is one of the most well-liked and effective website builders. You can build a membership website, blog, online store, portfolio site, or small business website.

Although the editor is user-friendly, it might take some time to get used to where the menus and features are. It resembles a hybrid of a point-and-click editor and a drag-and-drop editor.

The website builder Squarespace is well known for its templates; in fact, it has won numerous design awards. The majority of the templates were made by experienced designers and are bold, minimalist, and modern.

They are also mobile-responsive, saving you the trouble of creating an entirely separate website just for mobile users.

The accelerated mobile pages (AMP) feature offered by Squarespace is a standout feature because it reduces the load on blog pages. Mobile phone loading times can be sped up by reducing the size of images, utilizing a particular font, and removing custom code.

Who ought to use it? A Squarespace design would work well for photographers, designers, and other artists. Squarespace is one of the best website builders for creatives. It’s a good option for an online store as well, especially with unique features like labels for limited availability.

Step 4: Build your brand identity

A brand could be a person’s or a business’s. It includes both the overall personality of your brand and your visual identity, which includes your color scheme, typography, logo design, imagery, voice, and many more.

If you want to design a website for a business, it’s likely that they have their own branding and style standards that specify their brand identity, including the colors, fonts, and logo variations that you can use on the website.

However, there are some crucial components to take into account if you’re starting from scratch: color scheme, typography, imagery, and overall voice and tone. Besides, a site owner should take security into consideration like SSL certificate, which can secure the data between the server and the browser.

Step 5: Choose a template or theme

It’s time to move on to the following step now that we’ve shown you the website platforms and where to find themes or templates for each one.

Start looking through your design options after registering for your preferred website platform. This helps to provide a great starting point, even though each website will probably still need a ton of customization to fit your brand and web page needs.

You must upload the zip file under the Appearance > Themes section in your left sidebar if you decide to use a WordPress theme. You can activate the theme internally on every other website platform because you’ll be making your selection directly on that platform’s website.

If localizing your website is on your to-do list, be sure to choose a layout that can incorporate longer phrases from various languages. Making sure everything functions from the start is preferable to going back and fixing the design later.

Step 6: Make it your own

You do not have to keep every element just because your website is based on a template that was expertly created. With Pixpa’s design tools, you can alter every template option. It’s possible that you simply don’t require a specific feature or that you want to add something that the template doesn’t already include. Or perhaps you want to better align it with the personality of your brand.

A key component of the marketing presence of your website is brand identity. You should take your time developing a comprehensive plan. Your customers will remember you this way and return to you.

Your custom domain name is where your brand on the internet begins. The URL you select matters. It must be straightforward, distinctive, and memorable. Additionally, it must effectively summarize your company. It’s also a plus if it includes a few keywords that search engines will recognize.

Step 6: Imagine your domain name

Given that it serves as the URL for your website, selecting a domain name is among the most crucial decisions you’ll make. It must be simple for your customers to type into their navigation bar and match the name of your company.

This means your domain name shouldn’t contain any numbers, hyphens, or other special characters. You want to be able to speak your website address clearly and have someone type it in without any difficulty.

You must buy a domain name from a registrar regardless of where you decide to host or set up your website.

Unless you’ve already begun to establish your presence, you might want to consider changing your business name if the one you’ve chosen isn’t available.

If so, you can start investigating various domain extensions.

There are many different extensions, including.com, .co, .net, .online, .site, and more, but.com is the most popular one. This is why going with a straightforward.com website is a good idea, though you can also use other domain extensions.

When you’ve found the perfect domain name—ideally yourbusinessname.com time it’s to buy it and make sure you are the owner. Your domain name will need to be renewed every year, but many only cost $10 to $20 per renewal.

Step 7: Write your web content

You can begin writing your website copy once you know which pages you’re going to need on it. Even though website copy doesn’t always need to be long, it must be captivating.

Your website copy should captivate website visitors and compel them to take action and engage with you and your company.

Here are some pointers to help you start creating persuasive website copy that increases conversions.

Speak with your ideal client.

Make sure to keep your target audience in mind as you write the copy for your website. Since they will be reading this, address your letter to them specifically.

Instead of writing to the entire world or a different market segment, you want to write in a way that persuades them to take action. Only communicate with those who would be interested in purchasing your good or service.

Keep it brief and to the point.

A blog post and a website copy are not the same. Your home page should be concise, with only one paragraph (at most) in each section. Focus on getting an attention-grabbing headline, a smaller paragraph of content, a call to action button, and a visually appealing graphic consisting of your logo templates.

Here’s an example, our very own website.

Website copy is not meant to be walls of text, but simply supporting copy alongside videos, graphics, call-to-actions, and things like that.

Important words or phrases in bold

Bold some of the more crucial words in your shorter paragraphs to make them stand out even more so that website visitors can skim your pages further.

Bolding particular words make them stand out and makes it clear to readers what is most crucial in each line.

Here’s another example from our website.

Embrace keywords

Right, you want Google to rank your landing pages. This means that you must make your copy search engine friendly.

Include relevant keywords in your copy, and aim to concentrate on just one main keyword per landing page to increase your chances of ranking for that keyword and getting on search results.

Add calls to action

As a final piece of advice, make sure your landing pages have calls to action scattered throughout them to maximize conversions.

Step 8: Create your web page design

This step could be extremely simple or moderately difficult depending on how many pages you intend to build and the website platform you select,

The user interface on platforms like Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace has been created to make it simple for anyone to create and edit websites. Making pages is as easy as dragging content blocks around, adding copy, and adding graphics.

On WordPress, it might be a little trickier, especially depending on the theme you’ve selected. While some have fantastic, simple builders, others require a little more manual creation.

Nevertheless, we advise you to look into some WordPress page builder plugins to help you ease the process, but of course, this is only possible if you have chosen WordPress as your preferred website creator.

Step 9: Gather feedback on your web pages

You don’t want launch day to be when someone visits your website for the first time. Once you have a draft of your website, ask friends and colleagues to test the usability.

Kasturi Roy described how she built her content design portfolio from scratch using research and revision. She divided her reviewers into two categories: hiring managers and fellow designers. If you’re in charge of a small company, you might swap out hiring managers for members of your intended market.

You’re seeking input at this point on the overall aesthetic and feel of the website as well as the user experience it offers. There are many ways to gather and arrange feedback, including using Google Forms, Typeform, or Airtable responses.

Step 10: Publish and promote to web users!

You succeeded!

It’s time to launch now that you’ve finished learning how to design a website on your own. Once your own website is live, share the link on your social media pages and other web traffic sources and begin promoting your new website and company.

Final Words On How To Design A Website

Web programming and the website design are quickly losing their relevance in business. These are still very relevant topics, but they should only be discussed by experts. Modern website builders enable business owners to get online for a fraction of the cost and time required by the outdated method, which is helpful because they have more important tasks to complete. It has never been simpler or less expensive to design a website if that concerns you. Check out the difference between UI, UX, and graphic design.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I create my own website for free?

You can build an online presence without any charge, however, the free website builders will never let you have a custom domain and will be full of ads that might disrupt your user experience.

Can a beginner build a website?

With the help of a template and an easy-to-use website builder like Wix or Squarespace, anyone, including beginners, can build a stunning website.

What does a website plan look like?

A site plan is a straightforward map or outline of what you want to include on your website, including the pages you’ll create and the content that will appear on each. It makes it easier to see everything before you begin to put it all together. An outline of your website’s navigation menu can serve as the most basic site plan.