How To Build A Website From Scratch: Mastering Best Practices

Step 1: What is your website goal?

Are you creating a website that speaks volumes about your work, or starting an eCommerce business, or build a website from scratch? Start by listing specific website goal like:

The goal is to increase sales

How will you achieve - By effective search engine optimization strategy, well-stated content, enhance the user experience, effective CTA. 

The goal is to bring offline customers online 

How will you achieve - Email marketing, webinars, content specially curated to impress existing customers. 

Goal - Brand launch

How to achieve - By utilizing social media effectively to maximize eyeballs, establishing trust, marking your presence 

Goal - To redo your company website?

When you’re planning a new website, what wastes money is setting generic goals. So list down your goal so that the vision is well aligned. 

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Step 2: How do you want to be known by your audience? That’s your business name.

When building a website from scratch, pick up a well-researched name that consumers love. Users are picky about each and everything so spend time finalizing what your business name should be. Later go ahead with registering the domain name. 

Let me help you with some tips for picking up a name

• Choose a name that’s easy to pronounce and search so that users don’t go on the wrong URLs.
• The name should have some relevance to your niche. Attaching emotions to it will help in your marketing activity.
• Never copy, be original 
• Do choose a name with an available .com domain.
• Don’t go for long names.
• Keep it simple and professional.
• DON’T choose a name that references a specific product or product line.

Step 3: What will be the theme?

The buzz word is a responsive web design when creating a website from scratch

Do you know:

• 61% of consumers are likely to purchase from mobile-friendly sites.
• Over 53% of all website traffic comes from people using a responsive site.
• 94% of people build your brand image after browsing your mobile website.
• Over half of total eCommerce revenue is generated from mobile-friendly sites.

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This theme is clear, communicating what it stands for

Here is a cluttered website, avoid such themes

But how to decide upon which theme to go for?

• Make a list of features essential for the website design. Shopify, WordPress, Magento offer a variety of themes you can go for but if you don't have a list of features ready shortlisting the right theme is not going to be an easy task. Rather if you hire a web design agency they can come with features required for your website through extensive market and competition research.
• Never go for a theme that is cluttered with features as it affects site performance to build a website from scratch.
• Always go for a responsive theme which means it’s super easy to use on any device. Look for features like a fluid site grid and flexible images that can translate to non-desktop devices.
• Research visual platforms like Pinterest, Instagram to look for web design trends, what competitions are using, what people are liking the most, and pull out elements that work best for you. 
• Do keep color in mind that matches your logo.
• You can go for free themes but premium themes come with more features 

Step 4: Create an architecture for your website

Want to know how to build a website from scratch, invest time in creating an architecture for your website.

• The sitemap should include all the pages you plan on creating and how they all connect. 
• Make sure that your site is organized in a way that a visitor shouldn’t have to click more than twice to move from one page to any other page of your site. 
• Add website menu, anchor menu, work on the logo
• An inviting homepage
• An eye-catching gallery displaying your products or services
• An ‘About Us’ page
• A contact section
• A blog
• An informative FAQ page
• A testimonials page

Step 5: Choose A Domain name Sets You Apart

How to make a website from scratch, choose a domain name that is simply your website’s unique online address. It is made up of your website’s name plus the extension. A domain name can help improve your website’s credibility, showing visitors that you’re a professional, trusted brand.

Step 6: Go Ahead Great Website layout

• When picking a template, consider whether the website layout and overall page structure suit your content. 
• Does your content require multiple pages or will you be creating a one-page website? 
• Does the layout match your brand identity? 
• Think Simple, The lesson is to make your layout intuitive. The menu should include common terms, such as About or About Us, Contact or Contact Us, and Blog, FAQ, and Services, for instance.
• Use negative space to drive visitors in the direction you expect, such as your call-to-action.
• Realize that colors matters
• leave the web copy to an actual copywriter. 
• A highly-converting web layout focuses on the actions you want your visitors to take.
• Take a look at other websites operating in the same space. This way, you can manage to take advantage of all the research and testing your competitors may have engaged in.
• Strategically place trust emblems & social proof elements
• Keep testing

Step 7 : Pick the right fonts

Building a website from scratch, pick the right font. Just like colors, typography can also play a key role in evoking certain feelings and bringing up connotations. When choosing the best fonts for your website, there are several things to consider. Look for a font that is simple, sophisticated, and readable. If you’re familiar with CSS, it should be easy to go in and adjust the font, although some free themes might be limited in customization.

Step 8: Add plugins to give your browser additional functionality

Here are some tools:

• Jetpack: This integral plugin enhances your site security, performance, marketing, and design capacity. Site speed, image serving, and SEO are just a few things it can help you with. 
• All-in-One SEO Pack or Yoast SEO: These SEO plugins help you optimize your site to be found organically in search results when people search for similar products, services, or content.

Step 9 : Work on your site content which includes Pages and posts

Want to know how to create a website from scratch, work on pages for your website, it should be well thought to serve every purpose of your users. Like the home page, search page, about us, policy page, contact us page, payment page. 

The post includes your blogs or individual pieces of content.

Write down some questions and research before creating the web pages and posts.

• What will be the main pages?
• What kind of blogs are trending concerning your product?
• How about subpages and what they will be?
• What my content is going to offer the users, will it solve their pain points?
• Is my content aligned to the media I will publish it on
• What will my visitors want to do on my site? What will be less useful to them?
• What information do my visitors need to trust me? 
• Prepare all leaders, taglines, product copies, call to action.
• Keep updating the content
• Research your website content

Step 10: Take care of the site loading time

When building a website from scratch work on reducing the site loading time by optimizing images, exclude unnecessary page elements. It’s critical that you understand how your different page elements are used by the users because it makes it easier to determine which elements can be removed to improve performance. If you are still not sure whether investing in a more robust server setup is worth the additional investment, consider this: 

Google uses page speed as a ranking factor and there is a correlation between the time to first byte (TTFB) and search rankings. On top of that, every extra second it takes for your website to load will cause a 7% decrease in your conversion rate.

Step 11: Don’t Forget The Content management system

To build a website from scratch, look for a robust content management system, most often referred to as a CMS, that allows individuals and businesses to edit, manage, and maintain existing website pages in a single interface without needing specialized technical knowledge. 

When contracting a web design company to build a website, be sure that it is being built in a common CMS system, such as WordPress or HubSpot. This will allow your employees to make small content changes and will allow the web design company to make layout and design changes more quickly and cost-effectively. 

In addition to streamlining workflow for designers and writers, content management systems also give businesses even more functionality for their websites. Plugins are tools developed for WordPress and other CMS platforms that help your business accomplish more than you thought possible. These tools can help with business functions such as:

• Lead generation and management
• Email marketing 
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Social media

Step 12: Get Linked With Social Media

Take advantage of social media marketing by encouraging your site visitors to share your content across social networks. It’s easy, free, and an effective way to spread your name across the World Wide Web.

Step 13: SEO Optimization Will Sail You Through

Your website has to receive traffic in order for purchases to happen, that’s the whole motive of creating a website from scratch. The key to generating traffic? Search engine optimization. By incorporating SEO keywords into your product titles and descriptions, your site is more likely to rank higher in search engine results. The increased visibility is the key ingredient for greater site visits and more conversions.

Train yourself about every aspect of SEO, or get a dedicated person to do that for you. An effective SEO strategy will pour you leads, a high social presence, regular followers thereby optimizing your conversion rate.

Step 14: Keep testing and improving

Even after you have to build a website from scratch,  make it a habit to regularly test different aspects of your eCommerce website that you know could be improved. Use data to make smart future decisions instead and never stop trying new things. Test to lift conversion rate in tiny increments over time and you will end up with a whole lot more sales.

Being Professional Matters!

A website gives you the edge to look professional and determined. 84% of today’s consumers think a website makes your business more credible than companies that only have social media profiles. Your website speaks volumes about your works, any certifications, achievements, and much more. 

Also, remember to use a professional mail id. This answers how to make a website from scratch.

Get Maximum Reach Through Visibility on Google

By being visible on Google and utilizing tools effective to highlight your website you get tremendous customer attention. Users love clicking on anything new and relevant to what theory they are searching for. Adding new users increases your pipeline and thereby the conversion rate. Several free SEO tools make it easy to optimize your website without any prior training.

No better way to showcase your product(s) & service(s)

It's an unlimited platform, display your vision! You can showcase all your products and services with high-resolution images, videos, great product copies, product reviews, customer testimonials to develop trust among the audience. 

Display your best reviews & testimonials prominently on your website

No better way to develop trust, credibility by showing what your customers have to say about you. Display testimonials, best reviews prominently on your website to establish social proof. If your business has appeared in articles from newspapers or popular local blogs, you can also feature those.

A website can encourage customers to contact you

A website is a great place to make your contact information easily available to potential customers. You can display multiple contact points making you accessible and highlighting your reach. 

Easily Integrate Google Maps 

Building website from scratch, don't forget to integrate Google Maps with your website and help guide your users on how to reach you. A website lets you embed maps directly into your content. 

Get known by your competitors, industry experts

Establish yourself as a leader in your field by building a high-quality website first, build a website from scratch, and let your competitors know you well. Also connect with peers, industry experts, other vendors through your website.

Easy to create a website

It's no more the same that you have to be technically sound, know to code for building a website from scratch . Use platforms like Shopify or hire a web design agency and get your task done. 

Achieve success in the long run

In 2020, almost 4.54 billion people (59% of the global population) use the Internet, and more and more people are getting online. How will you be visible to these people? Using your website is a great investment to achieve success in the long run so learn every minute detail about how to build a website from scratch.  

Cost-effective to create a website

Building a website isn’t just easier than it used to be; it’s also more affordable. 

How much should a website cost, though? It completely depends upon the features required, timeline, tools needed, resources, template, website builder, and other things. 

Hope we answer your question “how to build a website from scratch” but being a beginner you might have to face certain challenges while creating a website from scratch.

Clearly Defining Your Goals

How to make a website from scratch, the answer is to know your goal first. If your goal is not properly defined how will you go about creating the structure for your website? It all starts with your vision for your app. That affects everything that follows. It requires extensive research to set the tone of future processes. If you collaborate with an experienced web designing agency they help you understand every aspect related to the trade and how your goal is denied and how much is achievable. They get into every detail like: 

• Who are your intended users? 
• What experience do you want to give them by creating a website from scratch?
• What can be future challenges?
• What are your must-have design features?
• What are your technical requirements for building website from scratch?

You Need the Right Tech Stack

There are a set of technologies a website development agency uses to build a website from scratch. However, you can create a website easily on eCommerce platforms like Shopify but in the long run, getting one of your own will need the right tech stacks.

UI & Simplistic Design

Great UI design certainly makes your application visually appealing, but it goes beyond just simple aesthetics. The aim is to make it simple and accessible for the user. Getting a great UI and web design needs through planning.

Performance & Speed

You cannot compromise on performance and speed to build a website from scratch. No one likes to wait. If your site is slow you are missing on review every second. Managing performance and speed will need to dedicate resources and continuous monitoring.

Scalability

The challenge of scalability relates to how you want your application to develop over time. You need to know how to shape in the future. How will you do it? Extensibility is when an application is initially designed to incorporate new capabilities and functionality in the future. This can be integrated right from the start of the development process.