How to Build a Website
Having a website is a must for any modern business, and there is a ton of evidence out there to prove it. But knowing you need one and building one are two different things. Because, as soon as you sit down to start, you quickly realize that you’ve opened a can of worms—and you’re not exactly sure how to handle it. So today, we wanted to walk you through the steps and answer your questions about how to build a website. Whether you are working hard behind the scenes to launch your wedding planning business or are rebuilding a website as a part of a rebrand, here are the steps you need to follow (and then get found on the internet).
Decide on a platform
The very first step to take when you are researching how to build a website is to decide which website platform you are going to use. Why? Because this decision impacts some of the future ones you have to make. And, even if you are thinking about hiring a website designer to take care of most of the project for you, you should find a designer who works on the platform you want to build your website on—not the other way around.
There are quite a few user-friendly website platforms (or content management systems) to choose from, but here are the popular ones we see being used by wedding planners and professionals most often:
Squarespace | This is our personal favorite platform, and it’s what the Sourced Co. website is built on. It’s easy to set up, you can make updates yourself, and it has all the built in features you could need.
Showit | This is a newer platform that has gained a lot of popularity over the past few years. It makes it relatively easy to create beautiful websites (but we say “relatively” because there is a bit of a learning curve). Want to hire a Showit website designer or purchase a template? We cannot recommend Kelly and Andra of With Grace and Gold, Davey and Krista or Ashley Ferreira enough!
Wordpress | This is the most powerful platform on the list, but it is also the most complicated. You can invest the time into learning how to work within it, but we wouldn’t recommend it unless you are pretty technically savvy.
Wix | Similar to Squarespace, Wix is an easy-to-use website platform. And, while we don’t have a lot of personal experience working with it, we’ve heard great things.
The bottom line? Pick a platform that you feel comfortable working in (it’s your website and you should be able to make changes when you want) as well as one that can grow as you do.
Buy a domain
Even though you don’t need a domain to start building a website, it’s smart to purchase yours as soon as possible because they can be hard to get—especially if your business name is more common than not. When you are researching domains, be sure to do a Google search for them in addition to your search on the registration site. This will help you see what might be similar and already out there (which you want to avoid).
Pro-tip: Many of the website platforms allow you to purchase a domain through them, but we love using Godaddy.com since you can easily purchase additional domains under your account. And don’t spend very much on your domain—certainly don’t spend thousands of dollars!
Do your keyword research
You might think the next step would be to start building your website, but it’s not. Before you build your first page or write your first bit of copy, it is imperative that you do your keyword research. Why? Your SEO keywords need to be incorporated into your website copy as well as several places on your website—it’s best to figure them out first rather than going back to fit them in.
You can use tools like Ubersuggest and Answer the Public to start your search (they are free if you are just doing a few searches a day). You’ll want to find the keywords and phrases with the highest monthly search volume that are related to what you do and where you do it. For example, if you are starting a wedding planning business in San Diego, some of your main keywords might be:
Wedding planner in San Diego
San Diego wedding planner
Get married in San Diego
How to plan a wedding in San Diego
Open a word document or an excel sheet and start your list—which can grow as you start to do more research! Ultimately, you should find 1-3 unique keywords to use for each of the pages of your website.
Write your website copy
Which brings us to everyone’s least favorite part of building a website—writing the copy. Now, we could go on and on with tips to help you write your website copy, but instead, we’ll share just our top copywriting tips:
Start by defining your brand voice (which is really just an extension of your personality). Make notes about words you use, words you don’t as well as how your tone should sound in certain circumstances
Create an outline for your copy that corresponds to the different pages (and sections on each page) of your website. This will help you wrap your head around what needs to be written, for where, it’ll also help you organize your story
Make sure you are writing for your reader! You do this by centering them as the subject and not writing about yourself too much
Write about what your potential couples struggle with (and be specific!). You don’t have to go overboard, but you need to write copy that helps them know you understand their problem and, therefore, the solution
Don’t forget to use calls to action (CTAs). This helps you direct people where to go next and eventually ask for the sale or inquiry
Want more? Head over to our girl Tayler’s blog! She has a great post outlining what should be on the home page of your website to get you started if you are writing your own.
Build or customize your website template
And here we are—we made it to the part where you actually start building or customizing your website! This part is definitely a process that can take a bit of time (anywhere from a day if you are customizing a simple template to months if you are hiring someone to do a custom design). Regardless, there are a few things you should keep in mind as you figure out how to build a website:
Create an outline of the pages and sub-pages you’ll need to build. This will help you stay organized—we promise
Design your website around your copy and not the other way around
Go through your portfolio and pull the images you want to use. If you don’t have a portfolio yet or need something to supplement it, our stock photo shop is always open and there are thousands of styled stock photos for you to choose from
Test everything! Click on every link, every menu item, every button, and test every form
Make sure your design looks as good on mobile as it does on a desktop
Ask a few friends to proofread and test it for you as well
Optimize it for SEO
When you’ve gotten to this point, you’ve put a ton of time and energy into building your website—so do not skip this step! Because, if you haven’t optimized your website for SEO (Search Engine Optimization), it’s like you didn’t build a website at all. Again, our girl Tayler has a great article on her blog that spells everything out for you—click through to learn all the basics of SEO. Then check out our blog post to learn how to optimize images for SEO.
