Designing Websites

Thinking of designing a website but don’t know where to start? Then this guideline would be a stepping stone for you.

You might think you have to be a professional designer. But the good news is that you can be a beginner and still create a great one following a few easy steps.

Here in this article, we’ve shown 8 steps to design your very first website on your own. Let’s get started.

How to Design a Website in 8 Simple Steps

Here are 8 simple steps that will help you start the designing process.

1. Define the site’s strategy and purpose
2. Research the recent wed designs
3. Choose a platform
4. Select a theme or template
5. Decide the brandings
6. Optimize and add in the contents
7. Publish the site
8. Analyze your website

Let’s dive into the details step-by-step.

Step 1: Define the site’s strategy and purpose

You need to clear your strategy and purpose before designing your website. So, you must emphasize your unique selling point (USP) other than understanding the industry and creating a content strategy.

Also, a website and brand are interlinked, so you should make it engaging and authentic.

“An organization’s ‘culture of purpose answers the critical questions of who it is and why it exists. They have a culture of a purpose beyond making a profit.” – Punit Renjen, Deloitte

What do you want to achieve?

After you’re clear with your purpose, you should start focusing on what you want your customers to do on your website. If you wish to display information, sell something or get sign-ups, it should be clear.

The final look of your website will depend on your purpose. For instance, in an ecommerce website, the landing page would grab your customers’ attention.

Advice from Experts

Different landing pages have different purposes and visitors. You have to tailor products and offers individually. You can call this process’ customer segmentation.

Understanding your users is essential to the success of any business. You can customize and improve the experience you deliver and better serve their needs. Doing that has a direct impact on the bottom line.

Moreover, segmenting your traffic to provide a more relevant experience is your first step on the journey to a personalized user experience and the business success that comes with it.

Step 2: Research the recent web designs

You will see that web design changes quickly, and the differences are very prevalent, which helps you learn. However, you should understand just because a web design is on-trend, it might not be right for your business.

Around 59% of people state that design is the most important category for a website. Therefore, you should invest your time in finding what your competitors focus on. Every sector has a different style, so it would be best to decide to disrupt or fit in.

Get Design Ideas

There’s a whole load of stuff in terms of color theory – which colors suggest certain emotions and how they place you in a feeling. It depends on whether you’re trying to disrupt or fit in.

If you’re trying to disrupt, you want something completely different from what the sector offers. But if you’re trying to fit in, there are clear patterns.

For example:

If you’re a tech company, you’ll probably have some blue in there, whereas you might have a really vibrant, hot color if you’re a startup. The same goes for your font. You’ll want a really clean, simple design and a lot of whitespaces.

You will get a better idea about the colors in the upcoming ‘Branding’ category. However, here are some prominent trends on the internet: