How to Create a Professional Website When You’re Not Tech Savvy
A website is beneficial in a lot of ways. Whether it’s a portfolio website for personal purposes or a business website, both can help you grow professionally.
What’s great, making a website is not as difficult as it used to be. CMS (content management systems) and website builders allow you to publish a proper website in a few simple steps. These tools minimize the need for coding and technical knowledge for beginners.
Thanks to these advancements, anyone can build a website today, even when you’re not tech-savvy. In this article, I will explain the seven easy steps on how to create a website.
1. Choose the Right Web Builder for Your Needs
A website builder is a tool that helps design a website without having to write codes for each feature. Usually, it operates as a drag-and-drop tool that simplifies adding and removing elements from a website.
Since there are plenty of website builders on the internet, it’s necessary to choose one that best suits your needs and has the most value for money. First, make sure that the website builder offers these features in a package – fast hosting, free domain name registration, and an SSL certificate.
I recommend buying a website builder that has responsive customer support for beginners. That way, you can easily ask the support team if there are any problems or difficulties. Read the user reviews to see how helpful the support team is before deciding on a website builder.
2. Pick a Domain Name
Choosing a great domain name is crucial for any website. It is the address that visitors type on the URL bar of their browsers to visit a site. A domain name is practically the brand of your website as it may be the first thing visitors remember when visiting.
Brainstorm a list of domain names that best represent you or your website. It’s always great to stick with the .com TLD, as it is the most memorable and trustworthy of all options. Then, use a domain checker tool to check for the availability of the domain names you want. Usually, you can make a direct purchase and register the domain name from the checker tool page.
3. Select a Web Design Template
Not only a website builder, but there are also templates that can make your website look proper without having to spend too much time and effort on designing. These templates are usually installable in one simple click and easily customizable through the website builder.
Great templates guarantee a good viewing experience and comfort for the visitors. It also saves time as you wouldn’t have to tweak and edit a lot. I recommend getting a website builder that comes with plenty of website templates that you can simply choose from. Make sure you’re using a mobile-friendly template.
4. Customize Your Website
After finishing the website’s design and layout, add the features and functionalities that the website needs to operate smoothly.
For instance, a CMS (content management system) is important to help post and organize content. If you’re using a hard-coded site, you might have to publish your posts by writing HTML code, which is all kinds of hassle if you are not familiar with coding.
One of the most popular CMS around is WordPress. Simply install it through the control panel, and you will have an interface that works almost like Microsoft Word to edit and publish your posts.
Then, you can install other add-ons that may help the website reach a bigger audience. Add an SEO tool that may help the website rank in search engines or social media buttons to make it easy for visitors to share your content.
5. Upload Content
You have the frame of your website all set. Now it’s time to add it’s core.
Content is what you want to deliver to the visitors through your website. Ways to do it may differ depending on the website’s purposes, but the most common is through a CMS. Simply click New Post, paste and upload your content, click publish, and you’re set.
You can refine the site’s reach through search engine optimization, which you can do through your posts on the website. I will explain more on how to do it below.
6. Work on Website SEO
SEO is short for search engine optimization. The process refers to optimizing content so that the page it’s on will show up as a top result on search engines. It’s a great way to reach your target audience and increase the traffic headed to your pages.
SEO can be worked on in a lot of ways, but the most important is by regularly publishing helpful content relevant to your niche. It also helps to insert keyword phrases that can be picked up by search engine web crawlers.
You can install an SEO tool to your website to help you do that. The tool will help you measure if you have used enough of certain keywords related to your niche in a post. I recommend reading more about how to improve site ranking through SEO.
7. Publish!
Now you have your website all set. It’s time to get it up and running on the internet.
Usually, you can publish directly through the publish button or menu on your website builder. You can also download a backup of your site before publishing as a preventive measure when facing website errors or server crashes.
If you have published your site, I suggest integrating it into several social media platforms. Promote your website by posting snippets of the content you upload on social media. This practice is good to reach more audiences and gain traffic.
3 Reasons You Should Create a Website
You have covered the basics of creating a website for various purposes. But how does a website benefit you? Here are several reasons:
- Go online with your business. By putting your business online, you can reach out to a bigger audience who needs your products or services and gain more sales leads.
- Look professional with a portfolio website. This is a chance to stand out from competitors and showcase your achievements and ability. Using a website as a portfolio will show the effort that you put in your work, hence giving off professionalism.
- Share your knowledge and experience. Reach out to people with the same interests by posting updates and content about your passions, knowledge, and expertise.
Conclusion
All in all, a website is greatly beneficial, and there are tools out there that make creating a website simple for beginners with less technical knowledge. Begin with choosing a website builder that eases the designing process, and then choose a template to base your website.
After that, register a domain name that best represents the website. Then, install features, add-ons, and plugins to maintain the website, such as CMS and SEO tools.
When you’re done, upload the content you want and optimize for a chance of ranking in search engines. Finally, post and promote the website to reach the audience and start gaining traffic.
I hope this article helps, for any questions, make sure to leave them in the comments section below.