Today, website creation is similar to building a house. You can buy a ready-made apartment in a new building, or you can build your own house from scratch. But what if you’ve never held a brick in your hands? Let’s figure out how to make a website without unnecessary headaches.
A website is no longer a luxury, but a necessity. Even a local bakery has its own page on the Internet, not to mention serious businesses. However, creating a Google website using a website builder is just the tip of the iceberg. Real web development requires an understanding of the processes that take place “under the hood.”
Over the years, we have seen many projects fail due to poor planning. Website development is not just about beautiful pictures and trendy colors. It is a whole complex of technical and creative solutions, each of which can affect the success of your project.
The statistics are relentless: 38% of visitors leave a website if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. 57% of users will not recommend a business with a poorly designed mobile website. And 75% of people judge their trust in a company based on the design of its website. These figures show how critical it is to approach website creation professionally. Next, we will look at the basic steps for creating a modern website.
Step one in creating a website: defining your goals
The biggest mistake we have observed in clients is the desire to immediately discuss the design of the website. “I want it to be like Apple’s, only in green” is a typical phrase at the initial meeting. Stop! First, you need to understand why you need this website in the first place.
How to create your website correctly? Start by analyzing your needs. Do you require an online store to sell products? A corporate business card to represent your company? A blog to share your thoughts? A portfolio to showcase your work? Different types of websites have their own specifics.
Creating Google Sites can be a good start for beginners. Google Sites allows you to quickly create a basic structure without programming. But don’t forget, it’s like riding a bike with training wheels. Sooner or later, you’ll have to switch to “adult” tools.
The basis for website creation
- Conduct competitor research. See what others in your niche are doing. Not to copy, but to understand user standards and expectations. If all car dealership websites have a car catalog with filters, then you should have one too.
- Define your target audience specifically. “All people” is not a target audience. “Women aged 25-40 with children who buy children’s clothing online”, now that’s a target group. For them, you need to create convenient navigation, large buttons, and clear product descriptions.
- Technical planning includes choosing a domain and hosting. A domain is your address on the internet. It is better to decide a short, memorable domain name. Hosting is where your website “lives.” Don’t skimp on hosting! A slow website will scare visitors away faster than poor design.
- Creating a sitemap helps structure content and improves search engine indexing. It is a schematic representation of all the pages on the site and the links between them. Many beginners ignore this step and then wonder why their pages don’t appear on Google.
- Budgeting should also be considered at this stage. The cost of creating a website can range from free builders to tens of thousands of dollars for complex corporate portals. Realistically assess your capabilities and needs.
The second stage of website creation: design that works for your business
Website design is not art for art’s sake. It is a tool for achieving business goals. No one requires a beautiful website design that does not bring in customers. Start with wireframes. What are they? Imagine an architectural plan of a house, it shows where the rooms, doors, and windows will be. A wireframe is the same plan, but for a website.
Modern websites must be responsive. This means that they must look good on all devices, from a huge monitor to a small smartphone. Over 60% of users browse websites from their mobile phones. If your website doesn’t work well on mobile, you’re losing over half of your potential customers. The basics of design for PCs and phones:
- The color scheme should match your brand and evoke the right emotions. But don’t overdo it with colors, it’s better to use 2-3 main colors.
- Typography is also important. A complex decorative font may look beautiful on a poster, but it will make reading difficult on a website. For the main text, it is better to choose a simple, clear font.
- User psychology plays a key role in design. People scan pages with a Z-shaped eye movement: first the upper left corner, then the right, then diagonally to the lower left corner and back to the right. Place the most significant information according to this pattern.
- The “three clicks” principle states that a user should be able to find any information in a maximum of three clicks. Although recent studies show that the number of clicks is not as critical as ease of navigation, the general idea remains relevant.
Creating a Google site through a builder limits customization options. If you need a unique design, it is better to contact a professional web developer or use more flexible platforms.
Step three: the technical magic of website creation
Now the real web development begins. The design layout needs to be turned into a working website.
- The frontend is what the user sees. HTML creates the structure of the page, CSS adds styles, and JavaScript makes the website interactive.
- Backend is the server part. It is responsible for the logic of the site, data storage, and sending emails. PHP, Python, and Node.js are popular languages for backend development. The choice depends on the tasks and personal preferences of the developer.
- The database stores the site’s information. Blog articles, online store products, user data, all of this is stored in the database. MySQL and PostgreSQL are the most popular solutions for web projects.
- A CMS (content management system) can greatly simplify the creation of a website with a limited budget. WordPress powers a third of all websites in the world. Drupal is suitable for complex corporate portals. Joomla is the golden mean between simplicity and functionality.
- Version control (Git) is a tool that saves you from disaster. Imagine: you’ve been working on a website for a week, made a “small” correction, and everything stopped working. Without Git, you’d have to start all over again. With Git, you can simply revert to the working version.
- Local development means that you first create a website on your computer and then transfer it to the server. Tools such as XAMPP (for Windows) or MAMP (for Mac) allow you to set up a local server in minutes.
- Website security is a critically important issue. Hacker attacks have become commonplace. Regular updates, complex passwords, and SSL certificates are the minimum set of security measures.
- An API (application programming interface) allows different systems to “talk” to each other. For example, integration with payment systems, social networks, or delivery services occurs through an API.
Stage four: testing
Testing is a stage that many try to skip. “Made it quickly, launched it quickly” is a typical approach that leads to problems.
- Check the site’s performance in different browsers. Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, each interprets the code in its own way. What works perfectly in Chrome may look terrible in Safari.
- The mobile version requires special attention. It is not enough to simply reduce the desktop version. You need to think about usability on a touch screen, button size, and loading speed.
- Loading speed is critically important. Users leave a website if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. Optimize images, minimize code, and use caching.
- Check all forms. Are emails from the feedback form being received? Does the newsletter subscription form work? Can orders be placed without errors?
- Website accessibility for people with disabilities is not just “good manners,” but a legal requirement in many countries. Alternative text for images, keyboard navigation, and sufficient color contrast are basic accessibility requirements.
- A/B testing allows you to compare different page options and determine which one works better. For example, you can test two versions of the “Buy” button, red and green, and see which one generates more conversions.
- User testing (usability testing) involves observing real users performing tasks on your website. This can reveal problems that are invisible to developers but critical to users.
- Load testing checks how the website behaves under heavy load. What happens if 1,000 users visit at the same time? Will the server be able to handle it? It’s better to find out before launch than during a sale.
Stage Five: Launch and Promotion
Launching a website is like starting a marathon. It’s long and arduous. Let’s take a closer look at what that means.
- Let’s start with SEO optimization, which is developed during the development stage. Correctly selected URLs, semantic HTML markup, and optimized page titles are all the basics of search engine promotion in a technical sense.
- Next is content. All customers are looking for it. You can’t just write about yourself and that’s it. You need to think about how your customers will see it. They are looking for solutions to their specific problems, not information about the company you have created.
- SEO promotion of the website. The most long-term process of all. You can’t expect results in a week; it takes months. Organic website promotion takes a tremendous amount of time, but it gives you stable traffic in the future.
- And, of course, content marketing, which has become an integral part of web strategy. Company blogs, useful articles, video content, all of this helps attract visitors and build trust. But remember one important rule: content should be useful, not just promotional.
- Social media is now tightly integrated with websites. Share buttons, Instagram widgets, Messenger chats, all of these are an integral part of the modern web experience. But don’t overdo it: too many social widgets can slow down your site.
- Email marketing remains one of the most effective communication channels. Newsletter subscription forms, welcome email series, audience segmentation, these tools help retain customers and increase sales.
A few practical tips from experience
- The stages of website creation can be adapted to a specific project, but the basic sequence remains the same. Don’t try to skip any steps, it’s like building a house without a foundation.
- Website development costs can range from a few thousand to tens of thousands of hryvnias, depending on the complexity of the project. A simple business card website will cost less than an online store integrated with 1C.
- Should you order a website from professionals or do it yourself? If you have the time and desire to learn, try it yourself. If time is more valuable than money, it is better to entrust the development of the website to specialists.
- We have examined the stages of website creation in detail, but remember: theory without practice is only half the knowledge. Start with a simple project, gain experience, and then tackle more complex tasks.
- Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Every web developer started with simple HTML pages with flickering GIF animations. The main thing is to constantly learn and improve.
- Buying a website as a ready-made solution may be justified for standard business needs. But if you require something unique, you will either have to learn on your own or turn to professionals.
- Different types of websites require different approaches to promotion. An online store requires product page optimization, a corporate website requires information pages, and a blog requires regular content.
- Website development is a creative process that combines technical knowledge with an understanding of business needs. The success of a project depends not only on beautiful design, but also on the right strategy, high-quality implementation, and continuous development.
In conclusion
If you have read this far, you have already taken the first step toward website creation. Planning, design, development, testing, and launch, these stages of website creation will help you avoid common mistakes and create a truly effective tool for your business.
Want to order a website? Our specialists have extensive experience and understanding of all the important factors. Contact us, we will be happy to help you and provide advice. More interesting publications in our blog. You can contact our digital agency by calling 066 389 02 24, 096 81 00 132 or by emailing office@selector.space.
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