Building a website is something every business out there should try their hand at. It is an online portal for your brand, and you should be seriously proud of it. When you have a website, there’s all kinds of markets and investors and business contacts you can open yourself up to which may be impossible without one, and that is something you can’t afford to miss out on. Especially if you are just starting out!
So How Hard Is It To Build A Website Really?
Building a website is something a lot of people struggle with, and think that it is a huge commitment to undertake on their own. They often believe that they don’t have the time or the expertise and will have to pay a web designer a huge amount of money, which they don’t have, to do it for them.
But does it have to be as hard as most people say it is? Maybe not – here are just a few ways you can make building a website easier with both your time and relative skill level.
Know Your Function
When you know what kind of website you want to build, and what it is going to do for you once it is finished, you are going to have a much easier time of putting your website together by yourself. You need to know the features you are going to use, how many pages you need to link to, how someone is going to navigate through them etc. Once all this is noted down and you’ve got a plan together, the idea won’t be so daunting.
So many people will try to build a website without thinking it through first and then get frustrated at the outcome. For example if you are going to have a shop front for physical products you may need a specialised website builder like shopify or you may just need a woo commerce plugin on your WordPress site. If you are a photographer then there are specialised website builders for that too.
For most businesses you may only need a Home Page, A contact page and a portfolio page. Do not make your website any more complicated than it needs to be. Sit down with a pen and paper and think about what you need to showcase your business to its best effect.
Know Your HTML
HTML Is the basic language of the coding world, and it is what scares most people from trying to build a website. Just seeing a coding screen can make you feel like a bit of a hacker! HTML can look like a totally different language but it is what makes your website look and work how you want it to.
Today you can build a website without knowing any coding at all. You can choose a theme which is pre coded for you and it will fit the bill perfectly for your business. You can add plugins that will enhance that theme and it’s function and again no coding will be required.
This said it will not hurt to familiarise yourself with it a little, especially if you are considering making any changes to it or are required to copy and paste some code into it so you can have certain functions. Don’t worry, this is definitely much easier than you think!
There are a lot of free coding academies you can sign up to in your spare time, or you can just have a play around by yourself. Note here, please create what we call a child theme of your website before changing any coding. This allows you to play around with it without damaging your actual website.
There’s Plenty Of Advice
Having professionals on call for when web design gets too tricky for you, is not the worst idea but is not always possible. If you ever find yourself stuck with the website you are building, when trying to implement some clever features or adding plenty of images that are going to keep your viewers (and potential customers) interested, then make sure you look the problem up. There is always going to be at least one other person out there who has come across the same issue. Using the search engines to find the answer is a great idea and don’t be afraid to surf through forums and chat boards either.
Personally I have had the luxury of having a huge community of people who have built many websites to call upon when I get stuck. I host my websites at Wealthy Affiliate and as well as hosting, I got Step By Step Training in the basics of setting up a website and endless training on all things websites and making them function as they should. There is so much, I have not yet read or viewed all of the trainings and probably never will. No one person has all the answers but whatever I don’t yet know, but need is there for me.
Take a read of my post which will give you more information about Wealthy Affiliate or take a read through more of my blog posts if you have a challenge you need an answer to. After all buildingwebsitesfordummies.com exists to help everyone who wants to build a website to do so!
Know Your Content Management Systems
A content management system (CMS) is simply the platform on which your content is loaded onto and enables it to be distributed to the internet via your hosting company. Different hosting companies will use a specific CMS but you should look into some of the best content management systems out there (CMS). My own preference is for WordPress ( but not their free version… it is too limiting)
Choosing the right CMS for what you want to achieve is vital for moving your website forward. Choosing badly to start with is going to give you a headache later on if you need to change it over.
Final Thoughts
How hard it is to build a website will depend on how well you know the internet and your own patience, but you can make it easier for yourself by educating yourself and I highly recommend Wealthy Affiliate for all of your Building, hosting and training needs. Obviously they also use WordPress as their CMS.
I hope you have found this post useful and given you some confidence in being able to build your own website. If you have please give it a share on your favourite social media platform.
As ever if you have any questions or just want to share your thoughts please leave a comment below and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
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