Anyone who wants to start their own business or start their own business needs a good website so that customers can find them. In addition to important social media platforms, having your own website is essential. Therefore, in this article, we want to give you some tips on what you should consider when creating a website.
1. Choose the type of your website
First of all, you need to be aware of what type of website you would like to build. There are roughly four different types that you can choose between.
SIMPLE HOMEPAGE
The simple homepage consists by and large of only one page. All important information you want to convey to your customers or readers is bundled on this single page. For example, brief information about who you are, your services, and all-important contact details. Also, the data protection declaration and the imprint should not be missing here. The point here is to provide your readers with all the important information in a nutshell – without any gimmicks.
SIMPLE WEBSITE
A simple website goes a bit beyond a simple homepage. This does not only consist of a single page but is divided into various sub-pages. This website type is more likely to be used to introduce your company or yourself as a person. For example, references, picture galleries, contact forms, the company’s history, and job offers can also be incorporated here. This type of website comes into play, especially when you plan to attract customers online.
MORE COMPLEX WEBSITE
The more complex website goes one step further than the simple website. It is actually larger and therefore consists of even more sub-pages and often offers visitors many more technically advanced functions. This can be, for example, a comment system, a forum, a member’s area, newsletter functions, or various interfaces to other services. Thus, the more complex website is suitable for you if you want to win customers online or earn money with the website itself.
THE BLOG
Blogs are now much more than just simple pages on which you can write down your thoughts. These are now also more complex websites that sell products and attract customers. This is again about the blog’s look since the visitors should ultimately be convinced to read through the contents of the blog. A blog is also characterized by the fact that the content is presented in chronological order.
2. The right tool for building your website
If you have now decided on a variant, you should now think about how you want to create your website. There are basically three variants:
- A website builder
- A content management system
- Program yourself
HOMEPAGE BUILDER
The easiest way to come up with your own website is with a website builder. Here you basically get a package in which everything important for creating a website is included. In other words, with such a kit, designs, editors, hosting, domains and support are managed by one provider. The provider also takes care of complicated technical tasks himself. This makes the website builder ideal for beginners, but not only. Depending on what you want for a website, such a kit can basically be suitable for anyone who wants their own website. Possible providers of such kits are Wix, Jimdo, or Squarespace.
benefits
- The website is easy to use
- Suitable for beginners
- Technical support from the provider
- No software required
disadvantage
- Functions are available to a limited extent
- You have to rely on the provider
- More complex functions are often not available
CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
The content management system is a bit more complex, but it can also be suitable for beginners with a little practice. It is very similar to the modular system but is a little more complicated to use. The appearance of the homepage essentially depends on so-called templates, which specify the rough structure and structure of the website. The best-known content management system is WordPress, but also systems like Joomla! and Typo3 are popular. In comparison to the other two, WordPress is still relatively easy to use and is, therefore, one of the most frequently used. Here you select a certain theme, install it and then customize the display and design yourself.
benefits
- The hosting can be chosen freely
- There are few technical restrictions
- Your own website can be expanded using plugins
- Can also be used well for blogs
disadvantage
- No extensive support
- Design options linked to the respective theme
- There are additional costs for certain plugins
- More complex than a website builder
PROGRAM YOURSELF
The last option is to program your own website. This, of course, assumes that you have extensive programming knowledge. Of course, you can also get someone to help do the programming – but that costs money accordingly. If you wish to try despite having less knowledge, you can start on sites like Codeacademy or SELFHTML. Here you will find numerous tutorials that introduce you to the topic bit by bit. Nevertheless, it can lead to a lot of frustration, especially at the beginning, if you try to program yourself. But you have the absolute freedom of design.
benefits
- Unlimited possibilities in terms of designs and functions
- Hosting very cheap
- no provider restrictions
disadvantage
- Very complex
- Costs are difficult to estimate
- No support available
3. Choose the right domain
The domain is the Internet address at which your website will be found. A normal domain usually costs between 8 and 15 dollars a year. But here, it depends on the ending of the domain. An ending in .de or .co.uk is cheaper than .com.
With a modular system, there are also subdomains available, which then run through the respective provider.
That can be quite sufficient for a private homepage. However, if you want to use the website for business purposes, it can quickly appear unprofessional. Here it is advisable to resort to a fee-based tariff for the modular systems, in which the addition of the provider can be switched off.
4. Plan the design of your own website
Now that all formalities have been dealt with, we are now approaching the implementation phase. It may be advisable to first come up with a concept for the website. In this way, it can be determined exactly which areas are important for the website, what customers should learn about you, and how the whole should look like. To plan the site, you can do the following:
- Look at other websites and think about which ones you like and what you want to take over from them.
- Write down everything you would like to have on your site and what these functions are important for.
- Come up with a list of the pages you want your website to have. Here you must write down every page, as many pages can come together. And you will find it difficult to remember this.
- If you want to attach importance to search engine optimization, you should think of a suitable keyword for each of the pages, including which one you can optimize the page.
The following pages are recommended to have on your site:
- Home page
- Contact page
- About us page
- Imprint
- Data protection
5. On to the implementation
Since you have now planned everything important, you can now start implementing it. Here you should work through all the important things during the creation step by step so as not to forget any important step. The creation process should contain the following points:
- Sort all ideas in a mind map and consider what content you need for your website.
- Choose the ideal tool for you and your project.
- Create text and images for all pages.
- SEO-optimize your content if desired.
- Get your site up and running, and it’s best to advertise if you want to generate with this reach.
Conclusion
Creating a website always takes a lot of work – no matter which tool you use to approach this project. It always takes lots of planning and preparation time to be sure in the end what kind of website you want to have. So you should say goodbye to the idea of ​​wanting to create a website “just quickly.” If you want a professional site, you have to invest time in it. However, if you pay attention to this and deal intensively with creating the website, you can create your own website with simple means.
