Halloween is around the corner. The perfect excuse to scare the living daylights out of yourself about launching your website.
Right? Absolutely not.
Tell the goblins and ghosts to go back to their attics. Take a deep breath. And know that you can create a website that you can be proud of.
Here are easy-to-follow steps for creating a website:
Map out the information.
Every good website starts with a plan. Remember when you learned how to create an outline for a high school paper? Creating a site map is no different. Identify the key sections of your website by listing out the name of each page. At Brand Genie, we recommend keeping the list sweet and simple. Generally, we recommend the following pages: Home, About, Services (or Products), Blog, Contact. You can also add in a testimonial page, or you can sprinkle testimonials throughout the site.
Ask yourself some basic questions.
Once you have your sitemap, you can start figuring out the content for each page. But don’t feel like you have to sit down and write it all out to get started. An easier way is to ask yourself key questions for each page and then write down the answers in bullet point form. Examples of questions you could ask yourself for the home page are:
- What do I do and why does it matter?
- Who’s my ideal customer?
- Do I have a free something to offer to entice visitors to take the next step?
Write one paragraph at a time.
This is the part that most people dread: writing the copy. I get it. Even writing this blog post is feeling a little painful. But here’s what you do: you pull out your sitemap, you look at your bullet points, and you write one paragraph at a time. Remember that thing called baby steps? That’s exactly what writing copy is all about. The good news is that each page really only needs about three or four paragraphs. So before you know it, you’ll have your copy.
Find the photos that inspire you.
Now it’s time to pull in the pretty pictures. Ideally, you’ll hire a photographer who can snap some awesome pictures of you both inside and outside. But if you can’t afford a custom photo shoot, no worries. The first thing to do is to visit stock photo sites to find the photos that say what you do in a visual way. We recommend Unsplash. The images are taken by real photographers who really care about their craft. And, the images are free. The stock images are great for your home page, services page, and contact page. For your about page, you’ll definitely want a photo of you. Sift through your candids and find the one that shows a relaxed, confident you.
Hire a website designer or find a platform that works for you.
Way to go! You’ve got the raw materials for creating a rockin’ website. To actually have your site go live, you’ll want to hire a website designer who can “code” the site for you, or you can check out the myriad of ready-to-go website platforms. If you feel like you can handle this on your own, we recommend Weebly as a DIY website builder. If you want a helping hand (that doesn’t break the bank!), you might want to take a closer look at our Brand Genie website offer. It’s a fun, easy, and affordable process for creating a website that brings your passion and personality to the world.
So there you go. Now you’ve got the makings of a decidedly not-so-scary website plan. Happy Halloween!