Here are some important tips for creating a successful site.
Designed for desktop and mobile devices
A mobile-friendly site automatically adjusts images, text, and design elements to display quickly and well on mobile phones. According to Google Analytics statistics, more than 60% of traffic in the US is mobile, so it's important that your site is mobile-friendly.
Most modern site builders are mobile-friendly, but even when they are mobile-friendly, they may not be 100% perfect. Be sure to preview your design on both desktop and mobile screens of different sizes. If you notice an error, you can adjust your design by resizing elements or removing certain elements at specific screen sizes.
Consider pre-built templates and themes
The terms theme and template are usually used interchangeably. These are pre-built page designs that typically include the most common pages (home, about, contact, blog), a header, and menu navigation with a footer. Most themes include sample images and text that you can replace with your own content. In many cases, you can also customize global templates to suit your needs.
Most site builders offer a variety of free and premium themes to choose from. These will get you up and running with a well-designed site much faster than building one from scratch yourself. That said, not all themes are created equal. When adding content, be sure to preview all pages to ensure there are no inconsistencies or errors.
Add SSL certificate
A Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate is a file that encrypts data transfer to and from a website. So when someone visits a secure website or enters information into fields on the site (forms, usernames, passwords, credit card details), an SSL certificate keeps that data private. It will be maintained. It's important to keep your site secure for your end users, and getting an SSL certificate can also improve your search engine rankings.
Monetize your website
There are multiple reasons to build a website. For informational purposes, to drive local traffic to your brick-and-mortar business, to build your brand, or to sell products or services. If you want to make money with your website, there are many ways to do so.
e-commerce
One of the most obvious ways to make money online is to sell products on your website. If you choose this route, you'll be choosing one of the best e-commerce platforms or a website builder that offers e-commerce templates and a built-in shopping cart. Third-party plugins provide what you need to build your e-commerce site and sell your products online. You will also need to find wholesale suppliers or producers of the products you plan to sell, as well as ways to market your products and brand. You might also consider selling on marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, and Walmart.com.
affiliate marketing
If you consider yourself to be an influencer in a particular industry and your website works together, you may want to consider affiliate marketing. You can use affiliate links to review products and services and recommend your favorites on the site. Companies with affiliate programs pay for clicks and sales of their products and services.
sell online courses
Another popular way to monetize your website is to sell online courses or digital products. Entrepreneurs often offer courses, e-books, and guides at low prices as a hook to prospects and sell larger packages, such as tickets to in-person conventions or multi-course classes. This works well if you are an expert in your field and can educate and mentor others in your industry.
Alternatively, you can offer site membership for ongoing advice and courses. When choosing a membership option, be sure to choose a website builder that allows you to create password-enabled pages and process payments online.
provide advertising space
Selling space on your site for banner advertising becomes more viable as your site matures. Before advertisers pay a lot of money for real estate on your website, you need to increase viewership and page views. There are automated platforms that advertisers can use to offer advertising space to bid on, and they can also sell site space directly to businesses.
Migrate your site to the new website builder
Whether you've outgrown your current website builder or found a better deal elsewhere, you may need to transfer your domain name and website to another provider. The simplest site migration solution is using a commonly supported content management system (CMS), such as WordPress. Many website builders offer site migration services that move your entire site to their server.
Manually transferring your website from a DIY site builder is likely to be a pain and may require you to recreate your site from scratch using a new template. For example, if you built your website using Squarespace, you can't migrate your existing site and design to something like Wix.
To transfer your site to the new website builder, follow these steps:
- Sign up with a new web hosting provider or website builder
- Download backup files (sitemaps, images, etc.).
- Make a list or take a snapshot of your website designs for reference.
- Find similar templates or design your website from scratch with our new site builder platform.
- Transfer your email (if applicable) and domain to the new server and get it up and running.
It's important to note that domain transfer can take several days or even weeks. During this time, your website will be offline. Be sure to give your website visitors plenty of notice about this downtime and keep in touch with them through your social media channels. If you want to increase traffic to your rehomed website, you can turn your relocation into a bit of a grand opening.
Need a website builder?
If you want to create a website but have no coding experience, the easiest way is to use a website builder. Another option is to build her website yourself, but this will require coding knowledge or you will need to hire a professional. The advantage of hiring someone is that you have complete control over the appearance of your website.
When using a website builder, you may run into design challenges that the website builder doesn't support. For example, let's say you want a drop-down menu, but the theme you're using doesn't provide that functionality. Sometimes you want to use a particular template, but you can't change the color theme.
Each website builder and each theme within it has different limitations, and you often only learn what those limitations are when you use them. If you don't need full creative control, you'll find that the best website builders offer more than enough features to build a professional website.
Other web building essentials
Forbes Advisor has compiled a list of other services you need to get your website off the ground and succeed. For more important information, please refer to the following guides:
