Want to increase your on-line presence and reach more customers in 2022 ? There ’ s no better direction to do it than through your own web site .
The great newsworthiness is that the march of building a web site has become much childlike over the years. As you ’ re about to see, you can make one yourself without any coding skills or needing to hire a developer.
You can make it happen in no time by following this 9-step plan. ready ? Let ’ s dive in .
Bonus: Want to refer to this guide late ? We ’ ve turned it into this handy infographic and this practical video recording walkthrough .
How to build a website from scratch
Did you know? With GetResponse Website Builder you can make a web site of your own, wholly rid, in no time at all. It comes packed with a diverseness of cliched templates, intuitive UI, and uses artificial intelligence to help you build a web site from scrape, mechanically. Watch the video below to learn what you can achieve with this newfangled web site creator and start building a web site for your minor business today .
1. Specify a goal for your website and list all your requirements
If you want to build a web site from rub, it ’ mho best to start by figuring out what goal or purpose it should serve. In other words, what do you want to achieve with it ?
Are you planning to sell products or services ? possibly you want to show off your portfolio ? Or possibly you ’ ra building your web site strictly for branding purposes ?
The answer to this question will help you determine :
- What types of pages you’ll want to publish (portfolio page, pricing page, about us page)
- The types of content you’ll want to feature on them (image gallery, articles, videos)
- As well as the technical capabilities you’ll want (such as integration with an email marketing platform or a live chat solution)
If you ’ re not 100 % certain about this footfall, this scout tackles the big doubt – Why do I need a web site ?
And if you already know that you need a web site, but aren ’ t certain what to base it on, then these profitable web site ideas might come in handy .
once you ’ ve figured that out, you can move on to the adjacent step, like researching your marketplace and competitors for model .
Different websites can serve different purposes.
2. Research your market and competitors
With your goal and initial ideas in mind, it ’ s time to inquiry your target audience and competitors .
What you want to find out is :
- What type of information your potential customers are interested in
- What types of content your competitors have been publishing to capture them
The best way to do it ( although slightly time-consuming ) is to manually go through competitors ’ pages, social media groups, Q & A sites, and forums – and note down all relevant data like the topics addressed, questions asked, and types of content that you see .
To give you an theme of what this kind of research could lead to, imagine you ’ re a personal trainer. By checking out other personal trainers ’ websites, you ’ ve noticed that all of them have these kinds of pages and capacity on their web site :
- A services page where they describe their services and pricing plans
- An about page describing the trainer and their background
- A page with testimonials and transformations of the happy customers
- A blog with training tips and stories
- An email newsletter signup form offering a downloadable meal recipe plan
- Social media links leading to their YouTube and Instagram profiles
On top of that, on social media groups, you ’ ve noticed that your aim hearing frequently asks about personal trainers working in specific locations. Because of that, you besides decide to add an extra page listing all the gymnasium where you provide your services .
It ’ s even super crucial to do your research even if you ’ re creating an informative-only directory such as a web site for your local anesthetic church. You should determine precisely what those members want to see, so you can plan your subject consequently .
once you ’ ve finished your research, note down everything that you absolutely must include on your web site, and move on to the following footstep .
3. Research what appeals to you visually
Examples of website templates available in GetResponse Website Builder. now it ’ mho clock for some ocular research to find some web site design layouts you and your aim audience would find visually appealing .
merely like the previous step, you ’ ll want to start by researching your competitors, going through versatile web site template galleries, and Pinterest .
The crucial thing in this step is to remember the finish of your web site and the aim consultation the page is meant to serve. These two factors should help you decide the steering and layout of your web site ( for case, you could be building a multi-page web site or a one-page web site ) .
While you can get some inspiration from them, you don ’ triiodothyronine want to spend excessively a lot time looking at websites from ball-shaped companies if you ’ ra running a humble local anesthetic business. not lone would such companies have different goals from yours, but they ’ d probably besides have a larger budget and a solid team of designers and developers building the page for them .
Alright, let ’ s now move onto the slightly more technical step – selecting your web site builder .
4. Choose your website builder
Let ’ s starting signal by answering a question – do you in truth need a web site builder to make a web site ?
In short, no .
If you have coding skills you can create a web site from scratch using just a code editor program and HTML, CSS, and JS libraries like Bootstrap. however, this approach requires a lot of time, skill, and feel .
You could besides hire a network developer to build a web site for you. Most likely, such a developer would customize one of the templates they ’ ve already worked with and set up the web site for you using WordPress or another democratic subject management system ( CMS ) .
This is a popular approach, specially if you ’ rhenium plan on running a web log, but it ’ s not ideal. The most authoritative disadvantage is that WordPress needs constant update and their splashboard is not intuitive or flexible. And if you want to make any ocular changes that go beyond what your template offers, you ’ ll indigence to ask your developer for their avail .
The one-third set about – one that is the most cost-efficient and gives belittled businesses like yours all the flexibility – is to use drag-and-drop web site builders. They come with free, ready-made templates, intuitive user interfaces ( UIs ), and don ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate require that you know any HTML or CSS. Plus, you don ’ t need to update them to have your web site up and running without any delays .
Some of them, like GetResponse Free Website Builder, besides help you far improve the serve of building your web site and your on-line presence by :
- Using AI to build the perfect website to match your business goals and needs
- Giving you access to thousands of free high-resolution images you can use on your pages
- Automatically connecting your website with marketing solutions to run email marketing campaigns, connect with your audience through live chats, or run paid ads through Facebook or Google
- Automatically making your pages mobile-friendly and secure with free SSL
- Giving you free web hosting and letting you register your own domain right inside the dashboard
To choose the best web site builder you should refer to the outcomes of your research in the previous steps. If you ’ ve narrowed down the types of pages, subject, capabilities, and ocular layouts you ’ d like to have on your web site, you should browse through the most democratic web site builders and see which ones check most of your boxes .
once you ’ ve narrowed down your list, go ahead and try them out. Most of these tools come with a free or free trial report that ’ ll give you a better feel of their UI and how easy they ’ re to use .
On circus tent of that, when choosing your favorite web site builder, you may besides want to look at these slenderly more promote factors :
- Does the website builder come with any specific limitations or, for example, does it offer unlimited bandwidth?
- Does the website builder offer search engine optimization (SEO) capabilities?
- Does the website builder come with a content management system (CMS), and how complex is it?
- How difficult it is to connect other essential tools, such as Google Analytics?
- Is it an actual drag-and-drop builder? And does it require additional skills like HTML or CSS?
5. Choose your web host
When building a web site from scratch, you may besides need to choose where your foliate will be hosted – the identify where all the files that make your web site will be stored .
Choosing the right network hosting provider is important for a few reasons :
- It can affect the speed and performance of your website, which is key to ranking high in search engines.
- It can help you ensure your business website is secure and capable of withstanding any potential threats.
- It can help you back up your files and the whole website so that it doesn’t get lost under unforeseen circumstances.
- On top of that, different web hosts provide various levels of service in terms of customer support or flexibility to make changes in your website settings (such as DNS settings).
In early words, the web hosting provider can heavy impact how effective your web site is and how your little business will be seen by others .
The thoroughly news is that most of the popular web hosts have robust capabilities, and the deviation between them will largely be noticed by bigger companies that attract hundreds of thousands of web site visitors every month .
humble businesses won ’ t need to worry, particularly if they ’ re creating their occupation web site using a web site builder, like the one offered by GetResponse. Most of these tools offer highly dependable absolve web host, meaning that you don ’ t need to dive into the technicalities yourself. And if you ’ re building a personal web site or tied a web site for your small business, you don ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate want to have to stress about these things .
6. Choose your domain name
Explaining the different parts of your website URL address – protocol, subdomain, domain name, top-level domain. Source: MOZ It ’ sulfur meter to pick a sphere diagnose for your business. In other words, the URL address your aim audience will need to type into their browser to find your web site .
When using a web site builder, you ’ ll have the option to pick between a absolve sphere and registering your own custom domain.
Using GetResponse Website Builder as an case, this means your page can have the stick to url if you were to use one of the spare domains :
- YourCompanyName.grwebsite.com
- YourCompanyName.grweb.site
now, if you registered your own customs domain, the URL would be a lot simpler and more memorable, like this :
- YourCompanyName.com
- YourCompanyName.org
- YourCompanyName.io
- Etc.
As you may have noticed, when registering a customs domain you can choose which extension you want to use ( for exercise .com ). This is called the top-level knowledge domain ( TLD ) .
The dispute between those international relations and security network ’ thymine only in how memorable a given domain name is. The key things are reputation and the electric potential effectiveness of your market campaigns .
As a business owner, you want your web site and your domain name to have a higher repute. The stronger the domain, the easier it will be for you to drive web site traffic from search engines such as Google or Bing .
now, how one builds domain reputation is another report ( for case citations, link-building ), but the crucial separate is that if you ’ re using a free domain that means your repute is built and shared by everyone else that ’ s besides using the lapp knowledge domain. Although thoroughly for the start, this international relations and security network ’ t an ideal scenario .
It ’ south besides significant to have your own register domain name if you ’ re planning to run e-mail commercialize campaigns. Internet Service Providers ( ISPs ) such as Gmail or Yahoo ! more favorably filter electronic mail communication that comes from registered domains quite than from domains that are widely available for everyone. As a leave, using a custom knowledge domain name can increase your inbox placement rate, ampere well as the chances of converting your audience with your emails .
now the good news is that if you ’ re using a web site builder like GetResponse, you can register a custom-made knowledge domain appoint right field inside the joyride, and you ’ ll besides have an e-mail world set up for you mechanically. That means you don ’ t need to play around with the technical settings ( like SPF or DKIM ) to build high deliverability, a solid sender repute, and have an overall solid on-line presence .
7. Add your content and customize the layout
Add your content and customize the website templates to match your branding. Image: GetResponse Website Builder. now that you ’ ve done all the frame-up sour, it ’ randomness time to start putting the pieces together .
In your web site builder, you should have three options like the one in GetResponse :
- Pick a ready-made template and customize it to your liking
- Use an AI tool to create a website based on the information you provide, like your website goal and industry
- Build the entire website from scratch (using a blank template)
If it ’ s the first prison term you ’ re building a web site, I highly recommend that you go for one of the beginning two options. It ’ ll aid you get started more promptly and the drag-and-drop editor will give you all the flexibility you need to adjust the web plan and pages to your wish .
Within your web site builder, you should be able to :
- Add new pages and remove the ones you don’t want to see
- Fill in your own content (text, buttons, images, links, videos, etc.)
- Add contact forms and subscription forms
- Add social media icons
- Customize what goes into your navigation menu
- Manage the website and individual page settings (title, description, favicon)
- Integrate external tools, like Google Analytics or Facebook Pixel
- Add an online store and payment processors (coming soon in GetResponse)
- Create membership sites and limited-access pages
On acme of that, you may besides have access to extra tools that ’ ll avail you quickly migrate your existing web site ( coming soon ) and create color palettes based on your caller logo .
When it comes to the types of pages you can include on your web site, the choice will largely rely on the kind of business you ’ re run. There are some standard pages that most humble businesses include though, no count if they ’ re running an on-line store, contribution site, or flush a church web site :
Homepage
Every web site needs an receive home page. In most cases, it ’ s the first page your web site visitors will see, so it must make a thoroughly foremost impression and get your consultation hooked. Make sure your home page is well designed, clear, and includes intuitive seafaring because you want it to direct the different kinds of users you ’ re going to attract to the relevant places on your web site .
Homepage example from one of the GetResponse website templates.
About us page
When building a web site, you can ’ metric ton forget to include the about us page. This is where you can share your fib and tell your audience what you and your clientele are all about. This is where you can sell them on your idea, your values, and your mission. If done well, folks who end up on this page will continue engaging with your web site and searching for ways how they can help your induce .
About us page example from one of the GetResponse website templates. You ’ ll find more examples and tips on how to design an effective about us page on our web log .
Contact page
The contact page is essential for every clientele web site. Through this page, you ’ re not only providing a way of contacting you but you ’ re besides building credibility. Some people may want to check where your company ’ randomness registered, or even chat with your team before they choose to buy from you. Because of this, you ’ ll want to ensure your web design builds trust and makes you look accessible .
Contact us page example from one of the GetResponse website templates.
Offers
If you ’ re sell products or services online, you ’ ll want to have an offers page. Through it, you ’ ll want to highlight your put up along with everything that makes it unique and beneficial for your consultation. The offer foliate should besides allow users to either buy your products directly or direct them to your on-line storehouse, where they ’ ll be able to place their holy order .
Offers page example from one of the GetResponse website templates.
A blog
Whether you ’ re running an on-line shop or providing professional services, chances are you ’ d like to have a blog on your web site. Blogs, much like the one you ’ re read right field now, can help you educate your target audience, show your expertness, and help build a number of e-mail subscribers you ’ ll be able to continue sending your contented in the future .
404 or not found page
A 404 page is the page a exploiter sees when the contentedness they ’ ve searched for was not found. It typically appears when person clicks on a link or an ad leading to a page that ’ second been temporarily or permanently removed. While this foliate doesn ’ metric ton provide tons of business respect, many companies choose to design their 404 pages so that they both are playfulness and provide easy seafaring to the rest of the web site ’ second subject .
404-page example from one of the GetResponse website templates. If you ’ d like to explore this type of page in more detail, check out our article where we review some of the best 404 pages we ’ ve seen on the web .
FAQ
The Frequently Asked Questions ( FAQ ) foliate can help you answer common questions raised by your audience. Whether these relate to your pricing, terms of military service, or fair explain your offer – the FAQs can help you inform and educate your audience, and clear your prospects ’ doubts before they choose to do business with you .
Reviews and testimonials
Companies of all types and sizes can benefit from including reviews and testimonials on their websites. Got happy customers that have already used your services or bought your products ? Highlight them here and benefit from the social proof that ’ ll provide. It ’ ll increase your web site conversions and make your business more credible .
GetResponse automatically connects your website with all the marketing tools inside the platform. When you build a web site, you ’ ll most likely want to connect it with other external tools and platforms .
For case, by connecting your web site with Google Analytics, you can learn many things about the people who visit your web site, like which pages they visit the most, how long on average they ’ rhenium staying on these pages, and what their demographics are .
On the early handwriting, by connecting Google Tag Manager, you can set up alleged events. With these, you can track person interactions with your web site, like clicks on particular call-to-action buttons or form submissions .
And suppose you connect your web site with an e-mail market chopine. In that sheath, you ’ ll be able to collect newsletter subscribers directly from your pages, send automated e-mail campaigns in real-time, and even retarget users who don ’ triiodothyronine finish a particular action ( for case, they abandon their patronize cart ) .
now depending on the tools you ’ ra using, connecting your web site with individual platforms may require that you either install external plugins or paste lines of code into your HTML code .
however, if you ’ re using GetResponse Website Builder, connecting all the different tools is super easy .
Out of the box, GetResponse comes amply equipped with :
- Facebook & Instagram Ads
- Google Ads
- Email marketing
- Marketing automation
- Live chats
- Webinars
- Web push notifications
- Conversion funnels
- Surveys and forms
On top of that, you can connect Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager by plainly providing your User-ID – no coding skills needed .
And if you ’ d like to use the web site created inside GetResponse with external platforms, you can do sol via over 100 ready-made integrations and through Zapier .
9. Preview and publish
Preview your website both on desktop and mobile devices before you publish it. Image: GetResponse Website Builder. Before you launch your web site, you ’ ll want to double-check that everything looks good, you ’ ve filled in all your capacity, and your contact forms and signup forms are working well .
once you ’ ve confirmed that and your web site ’ randomness OK, go ahead and publish it. Congratulations, your web site is survive !
immediately you can start sharing the connection to your newly created web site with your friends and family to ask for their public opinion. Let them test your page thoroughly, play around with it, and see what it looks like on unlike devices .
After they ’ ve provided you with their feedback and you feel you ’ re ready to share it with your target audience, you ’ ll privation to do two things .
first, in your web site settings, make surely that the web site is indexable and that your audience will find it when using search engines .
And second, add it to your Facebook foliate, Google My Business page, and all the other sociable media profiles you ’ re actively using to promote your business .
Summing up
As you ’ ve now experienced, building a web site from strike is not all that difficult .
even though it may seem like the procedure is a snatch drawn-out, with the correct creature, you ’ ll be able to build a web site and partake it with your audience in good a few short moments .
Want to see how it works in carry through ? just watch this video recording walkthrough below and build your site using GetResponse Website Builder for free today.
