[A]re you ready to get your business website built? If so you are probably excited but not sure where to start. Building a website takes a lot more time and effort than you may realize so you should be prepared for what you are going to need and what is involved.
To begin with the decisions below are the two most important critical decisions to make before you even start thinking about design, logos and hosting.
#1 W ho will build the website? Will it be you or will you hire someone?
#2 Who will write the content?
In this post I am going to provide a few tips about you building your own website instead of hiring someone like us to do it for you.
Should you build your website?
It is completely possible for just about anyone to build their own website but do expect it to take a steeper learning curve then you can likely imagine. However, if you are adventurous and love to learn new things and have the time, do not let that frighten you away from the concept.
I remember when Renee and I built our very first website for FunCitySocialMedia. We had no clue on how to build a website or what we were getting ourselves into. We just knew that the guy who was going to build it left the company right as it started and that it needed to be done.
I wish that I had a picture of that first website to show you here. It was terrible but it was ours and we were proud. Of course, looking back now I am grateful that we did that instead of hiring someone. That process got Renee and I hooked and we loved everything about the process and could not stop adding too and changing that website. Now you are reading this blog post on DFW Website Designers because that love is what led us to this point. We no longer focus on Social Media and instead focus our time on our love of building blogs and building websites, but I digress.
How can you build your own website and save money?
So you want to do it yourself and save money but are not sure where to start? Here is where I would recommend:
#1 Decide on a Platform.
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WordPress
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Joomla
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Weebly
We build all of our blogs and websites on WordPress. We did a ton of research and in the end made what we believed to be the perfect choice for us and because of that fact the rest of this post will assume that you too chose WP.
#2 Choose a Design.
There are thousands of designs to choose from. There are an overwhelming amount of free WordPress themes and you may find one that you think is perfect for your business.
We build all of our designs on premium themes and choose between Thesis Theme. Note: The choice is yours but as a quick note premium themes often have cleaner code and better SEO tools built right in.
#3 Who is Going to secure My Hosting?
To build a website you will need two components above all. You will need a domain name and a hosting account. When searching for hosting make sure and confirm that they work well with WordPress. Not all hosting companies are created equal but as a general rule, you get what you pay for.
#4 Choose a Domain Name.
You can generally buy your domain name from the same company that you buy your hosting from. This may not always be the cheapest option but I will tell you now that it is the easier option and I highly recommend it.
These are the first few steps that I would urge you to consider if you are going to build your website on your own. In future posts will discuss the next steps which will be all about preparing content. Content is the heart of a website and is generally an after thought but I urge you to put it above the build of the site.
Have you decided to build your own website? If so what are you current challenges and areas of difficulty?
Image courtesy of suphakit73 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net