How To Design a Website From Scratch [Ultimate Guideline For 2019 and Beyond]
In this article we will go over the essentials of how to design a website from scratch. Designing your own website is one of those things you want to do now but you have no idea where to start. With all the professional designers, companies and website platforms, it’s hard to know hit the ground running when you have little to no experience. Trust me, I’ve been there. Our website guideline will show you how you can build a website from scratch – with a few important tips to keep in mind. This will ensure you get started in the right direction without confusion.
If you’re willing to invest time, effort and energy, you can create the website you’ve always wanted.
A lot of people think building websites is rocket science when it’s really not. You need to realize we live in a time where you no longer need to know how to code a website like you did 20 years ago. Platforms make it easy to design what you want. Whether you want to create online store, a website for your business or a personal blog.
Educate yourself on the basics
When I got started back in 2015, I took a course online to learn the lead generation business model, which lead me to finding my passion which is website design, search engine optimization and online advertising. The course I took was great and got my foot in the door to new opportunities but there was no focus on design whatsoever. I seen people replacing their jobs with this skillset of generating leads for other businesses and I knew I had to learn it. At the time I was currently doing well in the car industry as a car salesman but I was still looking for a way out. A way that I could build something of my own, without huge overhead, something that I could do from home. I didn’t just want to jump into anything. I wanted to have a real business where I could actually bring value to the lives of my clients.
Imperfect action creates success
The course focus was to slap up simple weebly or wix websites and to focus on backlinking, SEO and Google Maps. It served me great over the years and set the foundation of where I am today. One of my first ever websites started cranking out 60 to 80 plumbing service calls per month 5 months after I created the website. I was blown away with the results and I landed my first deal with a plumbing company paying me $1000 per month for all service calls directed to the owners cell phone from my tracking number and my lead gen website.
Understanding Google to an extent
With Google Algorithm changes, google maps updates, this method no longer works like it use too. The lead generation websites served me great over the years and set the foundation of where I am today. Today websites are a lot more advanced then they were 5 years ago and they keep getting more advanced. Don’t get me wrong lead generation websites still work and I still do this for clients that specifically just want leads. Although most clients I deal with want their own company websites, branding and leads so that’s what my team and I have come to master. We optimize for conversions that our clients want. Which brings us to our guideline of what you need to keep in mind when designing your website.
In this guideline we will go over the essentials for having a great website foundation in 2019 and beyond. The reason design and structure is more important than ever before is because customers are becoming smarter. They are looking at more advanced websites now and if they see a website that is unattractive or has no education value to get their questions answered, they will just leave. This applies to any business. Whether you own a brick and motor business, local service based business, or you have an online store, the foundation and structure of your website remain the same.
1. Deciding on which platform you want to design with
Just understand that 34% of websites online today are WordPress websites. So it makes sense to use wordpress right? It does but hear me out. WordPress is a great platform that allows you to build anything you want from a blog, business website, online store but I can honestly say that when I got started with wordpress I was very confused and overwhelmed.
Designing your website with WordPress
If you’re the person who can commit to learning and mastering wordpress, then I recommend using wordpress because the possibilities are endless. I just need to say you’ll need to go through our tutorials and our wordpress website design course when it comes out if you are a complete beginner. Not saying that you need a course but it will help you. If not our course, find a course to teach you the basics. Over the past 4 years I have taken many different website courses and I can say it’s a lot easier to learn that way than to watch a youtube video on every single thing you get stuck on. Which tends to happen a lot with wordpress. That being said if you’re tight on a budget, watch youtube tutorials.
Understanding that you need plugins to extend the functionality of your website
When learning wordpress the difference is you need to install plugins that integrate with the theme you are using. All themes are different and come with different options. The plugins you install are also free unless you decide to buy premium plugins or the paid version of the plugins. Plugins are simple and they extend the functionality of your website. If you want to add a contact form, you add a plugin like contact form 7 or wp forms.
Drag and drop website design solutions
If you want to build a website using a drag and drop page builder you would add a plugin like elementor, or beaver builder. Some themes do not support and work well with some plugins. This is when wordpress will tell you your theme does not support this plugin. Your wordpress dashboard may also give you tips on what plugins to install that are recommended for the them you picked. All in all I recommend wordpress over anything else. On a scale of 1 to 10 I give it a 9.5 because it’s simple to use once you understand it and gives you the ability to create anything you want. It’s also Free to use and it’s trusted by some of the biggest names and brands in the world.
Here’s 6 brands and names you’ve probably heard of using wordpress.
- Forbes
Forbes has a simple full width menu at the top of their website followed by the header section which promotes ads. People pay using google display ads to be promoted in the top section of the forbes website because of the traffic they receive. The rest of their homepage is a blog layout showing their latests posts and popular post on a sidebar widget.
2. Acorn Stairlifts Alberta
Acorn stairlifts is a wordpress website and it is actually one of our big name clients. They’ve installed over 600,000 stairlifts worldwide. Their website is designed to align with their commercial ads you see on TV. This design is simple, yet effective for getting the leads they want and helping the elderly stay in the home they love.
3. Usain Bolt
8 times Olympic champion Usain Bolt’s website is a wordpress website. It’s a clean website that our company could design with ease. It’s got a nice full width middle menu, logo and social media icons on the top of the page. Followed by a slider of Usain Bolt’s accomplishments and upcoming news. Below this section on the home page is full post of previous blog posts.
4. Justin Bieber
Justin Biber’s website is a wordpress website. It’s got a simple menu at the top of the page with a sign up for updates section. Next is a website slider in the header section followed by his latest news.
5. Ford Canada
I use to work at Ford Canada and their website is a wordpress website. It’s got a simple top bar with their logo, menu, find a dealer and a sign in link to your ford account if you are a ford vehicle owner. Next is them displaying their promos on a slideshow followed by simple sections designed by a page builder plugin.
6. Awrey’s Marketing Solutions
If you’re on this blog post I’m sure you know about my company Awrey’s Marketing Solutions. On our company website there is a ton of very advanced moving sections and slides. I have a strategy call form at the top of my website for those who want to hire us to take care of their website and marketing services. Our services are dedicated to businesses who want professional website design, social media marketing services and search engine optimization.
WordPress is my number one recommendation and those are just 6 big names and brands you’ve most likely heard of.
Weebly
Weebly is probably in my option the easiest platform to use to simply slap up a website fast. If you’re looking for fast instead of the best and you just want an easy drag and drop solution. I would first recommend Weebly. With weebly you by the pro website builder for your domain which costs about $10.00 per month. This is ongoing because weebly has their own hosting. Where as with WordPress you need to get hosting with Bluehost or Hostgator.
Wix
Wix is another drag and drop website design solution for those that just want get get something up fast. You really don’t need much experience or knowledge at all to use wix which makes it simple for those just getting started.
Shopify
Shopify is by far my favourite platform for building online stores. Although you can build an online store in WordPress, I like shopify and their support team. Not to mention oberlos fulfillment app making it so easy to fulfill orders. This is the website platform I use for our online stores and it works really well! Shopify makes it easy to get purchases on your website. Keep in mind you still need to drive traffic to your store using paid advertising. We use Google Shopping ads, Facebook ads and Instagram ads to get sales on our shopify stores everyday. If you’re just getting started and you are on a tight budget shopify offers a 14 day free trial so you can literally start getting sales before you are billed.
