Want to build a website but are too overwhelmed or confused as to where to start? Shelf the concerns and follow our 7 steps to building a successful website in 8 hours or less.
It will be unique, it will be on-brand, it will fulfill a purpose in your business, and it will be affordable!
1 - Work With A Website Builder (5 minutes)
If you are looking to build a website quickly and easily, you don’t need to be an expert in HTML, CSS, or Javascript to do it. In fact, going with a website building platform can provide all the things you need for your website, in a well-designed manner, without the years of website building knowledge!
There are dozens of website builders available, so the process of choosing the right one for you can be overwhelming.
If you’re just starting, and I may be biased, Wavoto not only provides you a fully hosted website with drag ‘n drop building tools, it also has set-up support so you can make the most out of your
free 14 days when you first get started!
Unlike many website building platforms where you start with a template and can’t adapt it to the vision you have in your head, with Wavoto you start with a template that can be fully customizable (even if you want to add in your own, specially coded modules or widgets).
2 - Choose A Domain Name (10-20 minutes)
A domain name is your online address, it is how people will find your website online. In order to make it as easy as possible for people to find you, you’ll want to get a domain that is directly related to your business and easy to remember.
For example, at Wavoto, our domain is wavoto.com. Using our business name as our domain name makes it incredibly easy for people to find us. Additionally, we use “.com” instead of “.business” or “.software” because that is often what people associate with website URLs.
Take a few minutes to think about what your domain name should be and go to GoDaddy or Google to purchase it!
3 - Know Your Audience (30 minutes)
While it may seem counterintuitive, you need to have a distinct audience rather than hope that anyone will purchase from you. Instead of trying to reach everyone around the globe who be slightly interested in your product, you need to connect with those who already have a problem you can solve and those actively looking for a solution.
It's the difference between yelling "dinner" in your house or yelling "puppies, dinner!." One may get a reaction but the later definitely will.
This step is figuring out your avatar. Writing down who is interested in what you provide means you can focus your energy on those who are most likely to become customers!
4 - Set Your Intention (60 minutes)
Before you get to building your website - decide what purpose it is serving in your business.
Is it to connect with new leads?
Is it to sell products?
Is it to share your knowledge?
While you need a website as an entrepreneur and budding small business, you also need to be in direct communication with your audience, the best way to do this is through a funnel.
Funnels allow you to automate collecting people's information and contacting them. They are broken down into three parts: attraction (enticing people with something), connection (collecting their information), engagement (responding with something you promised and building a relationship).
A funnel is a system in your business to automatically guide people through a process. Your funnel may not sell something or even focus on getting to an eventual sale, but be for after a sale.
Creating your website with its purpose upfront and center means that from the start, your website will fulfill your intention and do it on autopilot!
5 - Define Your Brand (60 minutes)
In the past few years, the word “brand” has taken off while the definition of a brand seems to get left behind.
While you can “brand” yourself, it’s more than just stating it (kind of like
Michael declaring bankruptcy in The Office, it doesn’t quite work that way). Your brand is the consistency of style, voice, and imagery that makes up your presence online and offline. I like to use style sheets for this (find my style sheet template
here).
I find it’s really helpful to create a Pinterest board to find your brand style, pinning anything that you feel like represents your brand. Find examples of creating a brand board on
Pinterest here!
Once you have a brand board, take the colors you consistently see to create your
color palette, the images to use for your brand imagery, and the font styles for your
brand fonts. Lastly, you need a logo! You can either create your own using Canva or work with an expert on 99 Designs or Fiverr.
6 - Customize Your Website (4 hours)
Your foundation has been laid, now you’re just filling in with content. It’s kind of like moving into a new house, you already have all of the things you need for your home, but you figure out the best place to organize it and where everything belongs.
When you get started with Wavoto or almost any other website builder, you’ll begin with a template. On Wavoto you’ll be able to move around any of the template elements, customize it to your brand with the click of a button, and add new elements from other templates or that you’ve designed.
Even though you start with a template, by customizing with your brand and picking and choosing what website elements you want to feature you create a unique look!
Start filling in with your own text (what marketing professionals call “copy”), change the stock images to your own images (or images that match your brand and business), and make sure you can a lead capture collecting emails and connecting you with new people.
This step takes the most time, like unpacking your house - but if you time block space for it, you’ll get it done quickly!
7 - Preview And Tweak (60 minutes)
Before you hit publish on your new website, take one final step to review what you’ve put together.
I often like to take a day between creating my website and reviewing it so I don’t rush the process, like a palate cleanser between your main course and dessert.
Preview your website and go through it with fresh eyes, like you’re a first-time visitor. Look for:
In just 7 simple steps and a night in, you’ve built the website of your dreams! #DreamYourOwnWay with Wavoto and get started
building your website for free today. Share it with us using the #DreamYourOwnWay hashtag for a chance to be featured ;)