Anyone can launch a website these days. Anyone with a decent-enough camera, some knowledge of design software, and a payment processor who doesn’t mind taking money from an absolute amateur. As long as you don’t mind the world knowing that you have no idea how to market your site or ensure it gets traffic—and that you just wanted to dabble in this thing called “digital marketing” before deciding on something more lucrative. So what does it take to design a website that stands out from the rest? And how can you go about doing it without spending thousands upon thousands of dollars or hours upon hours agonizing over every pixel? Follow along as we guide you through designing your own site from start to finish.
Step 1: Set a goal and why you’re doing this
Before you can design a website, you need to know what you want to achieve. Why do you want to start a blog, or make an online course, or set up an eCommerce store? What is the goal of your site? Before you can design a website, you need to know what you want to achieve. Why do you want to start a blog, or make an online course, or set up an eCommerce store? What is the goal of your site? Once you know that, you can design the rest of your site around it. Your site should have a goal, a purpose, and a reason behind it. If your site serves no purpose but only looks pretty, then it’s not doing its job.
Step 2: Understand your audience
Who are you designing your site for? The answer to this determines the content you should include, the type of product you should sell, and the tone of your site. There are a few ways to approach this, depending on your resources and what you want to achieve. - Demographic — You can find out the demographic makeup of your target audience using online tools, like Google’s Keyword Tool, or Wordtracker. Once you’ve got an idea of who your audience is, it’s easier to create content that appeals to them and create products that they’re interested in. - Psychographics — Demographic data is great, but it doesn’t tell you much about your audience. In order to understand your audience’s psychographics, you need to look at the way they behave and their interests. To do this, you can use an online tool like Marketo, or you can get creative and build a survey-based site. - Audience reaction — Understanding your audience’s reaction is the most important thing you can know about your audience. If you understand the emotions they’re feeling while they’re on your site, you can design content that helps them cope with those emotions.
Step 3: Find out what you know about your audience
Once you’ve got a general idea of who you’re designing your site for, it’s time to start finding out more about them. The best way to do this is via surveys and in-depth interviews with your target audience. Surveys are a great way to get a quick overview of your audience’s demographics and psychographics, as well as to get a sense of their attitudes towards certain topics. You can also use them to get an idea of what sort of products and content your audience might be interested in purchasing or reading more about. In-depth interviews are great for getting a deeper understanding of an audience’s motivations and challenges. You can also use them to find out what kind of products your audience would be interested in buying or reading about.
Step 4: Research your topic and incorporate that knowledge into your site
Once you’ve got a general idea of who you’re designing your site for, it’s time to start researching your topic. You can start by researching your topic using Wikipedia, Google Scholar, or using tools like Marketo, Keyword Tool, and Yahoo Keyword Suggestion. Taking the time to research your topic will help you understand your audience better, as well as inform your content and product choices. The more you know about the topics your audience is interested in, the better your site will be. Next, it’s time to start diving into the nitty-gritty of researching your topic. Start with the most general topics and work your way down.
Step 5: Define your goals for your site and come up with an idea
Now that you know who you’re designing your site for, it’s time to start defining your goals. What do you want your site to achieve? What do you want your site to look like? What do you want your site to feel like? The best way to come up with these goals is by using a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. A SWOT analysis will help you define your goals for your site, as well as determine what you need to improve on and how you can do it. Start by asking the following questions: - Where is the opportunity for your audience? Where is there a gap in the market? Where are your audience’s needs going unmet? - What is the threat to your site? What is going to stop your audience from visiting your site? What could be done to prevent this?
Conclusion
Building a successful website takes a lot of time, effort, and creativity. It’s important to remember that you can have a successful blog even if it’s not optimized for search engines or has no audience. However, if you want your site to be more successful, you have to follow these steps. The key to success is creativity and having an original idea that people want to read. When you’re designing your website, remember to keep your audience in mind and think carefully about the content you’re including.