For over 20 years, our team has been creating effective websites for small businesses in every industry. Through trial and error we have created a process to consistently create high quality websites again and again.
Here is a brief overview of our process. Click here to download the comprehensive Website Blueprint.
Step 1. Create A Plan
Obviously you need to know what you’re doing before you start. Spend some time thinking about the purpose of the website. What do you hope to achieve with it? Look at competitor websites and gather ideas for what you want to include on your site. Consider both the look and feel of the sites as well as the features of functionality
Create a list of the pages you would like to see on the site. This is called a sitemap and is a foundational piece of every website.
Step 2. Gather Your Content
Most people want to jump right into the design phase but we have discovered that gathering the content for the website first makes the design phase much easier. Start writing copy for your site, gathering photos and images to use, and collecting any other material you want to be on the website.
If you have any trouble with writing copy, consider using a tool like ChatGPT to get some ideas.
Step 3. Design Your Site
Now that you know what pages you will have on your site, what images you have to work with, and what copy you have available, you can finally start putting together your design. If you’re not a designer by trade, you may find it easier to find a template to start working with.
This may be a good point to start deciding which service you want to use to build your site with. There are a ton of options but we use WordPress to build most of our sites.
Step 4. Create Your Site
Once we’ve created our design we can then start creating the actual website. If you’re using a template, this step may be as simple as swapping in your own information. You may need to consult the help documentation for the service you are using.
It goes without saying but I’ll say it anyway, Youtube can be a great resource for finding how-to videos for the website service you landed on.
Step 5. Test and Launch!
Make sure you check your work on your computer and your phone. You want to be sure the site displays well across all devices and behaves the way you expect. Double check for spelling errors or other common mistakes.
Need Help?
Fill out the form below to download our comprehensive Website Blueprint.
