How To construct a Website: Steps and specialist Tips

There are nearly 31 million ecommerce websites up and running as of 2024—an boost of 25% from 2022. And while there’s maybe never been a better period to launch an online store, not everyone knows how to commence building a website. 

Sara Mote, creative director of Studio Mote—a digital design agency and Shopify associate—says the test of designing for ecommerce is balancing business functionality with an intriguing aesthetic. 

“Design elements such as imagery and typography shouldn’t overshadow or impede the basic functionality on the website,” she says. “You can get stuck on creating a website that is an exciting encounter and misplace track of the core, to really communicate your products and ensure that every single customer has a obvious sense of your recent distinctive offerings and the confidence in making a purchase.”

Here’s how to remain on track and construct a standard website that engages and converts customers. 

Methods for building a website

• Do-it-yourself website building
• CMS website building
• Using website builders

There are three ways to construct a custom website: code it from scratch, use a content management structure (CMS), or use a drag-and-drop website builder. Here’s what you require to recognize: 

Do-it-yourself website building

Building your own website requires technical expertise. You require to manage your own domain, and even a straightforward one-page website requires manual coding of HTML and CSS. Dynamic websites require coding knowledge of JavaScript and other programming languages, as well as how to handle files on a web server. You also have to upload and link to your own images. And if something goes incorrect, back options may be limited.

CMS website building

A content management structure (CMS) uses a different creation procedure and streamlines website creation through a template-based procedure. A CMS interface lets you publish and modify content, like blog posts and product listings, with minimal coding knowledge. The design procedure is handled by standardized website templates, and the components used for person webpages (text, images, videos) are stored in a database on the web server. 

CMS setup typically requires a divide web hosting provider. Popular platforms like WordPress and Shopify propose these capabilities plus technical back.

Using website builders

Website builders are the most user-amiable alternative, typically offering a drag-and-drop website creator, straightforward interfaces, free templates, and free images that make them accessible to non-technical users—ideal for a one-page site. They often include hosting as part of a subscription package. However, they tend to be less customizable than using a CMS. 

The line between a website builder and a CMS can get blurry. For instance, Shopify combines CMS capabilities—including online store functionality—with the ease of a website builder. Website builders are ideal for smaller, simpler sites, while a CMS provides more flexibility and scalability for larger, complicated websites.

“Shopify’s code editor is really well built,” says Rembrant van der Mijnsbrugge, co-founder and software engineer at Mote. “It even has autocomplete and version control built in. The drag-and-drop editor is very intuitive. You don’t really require any outside tools. You can prototype in the theme editor, then fine-tune the code if you aspiration. But it’s usually not essential.”

How to construct a website

1. Choose a website builder or CMS
2. Pick a domain name
3. Pick a web design template
4. Customize your template
5. construct the site structure
6. Add standard content
7. Add extensions
8. Optimize for mobile
9. Optimize for search engines
10. Maintain the site

No matter your web-building way, keep these tips in mind:

1. Choose a website builder or CMS

For a straightforward website, commence with a basic free or paid website builder provided by your web hosting business. If you require a scalable, database-driven website, opt for a CMS. In either case, contrast features, extensions, plug-ins, themes, templates, usability, and tech back. 

assess whether you can make do with a free schedule or require a paid web hosting schedule. Free plans are enticing but often have limitations like slower load times. Paid plans vary, from affordable shared hosting for tiny businesses to robust, dedicated servers for enterprises. For most ecommerce businesses, a paid schedule is essential. 

🌟desire to construct a attractive online storefront that impresses customers and makes sales? Here are 2024’s best-in-class ecommerce website builders to get you up and running in minutes.

2. Pick a domain name

You’ll register your domain name through a domain registrar, which is usually affiliated with the web hosting business. Choose a custom domain name (your website’s web address) that reflects your business or purpose. Make it short and straightforward to recall. 

Free website builders propose free domains but typically tack on the builder’s name in the URL, making it less professional. Instead, invest in a custom domain for a tidy and memorable website address.

3. Pick a web design template

Templates are professionally designed layouts that provide your web content a polished commence, sparing you from staring at a blank canvas. Select a web template aligned with your business’s communication style. Your CMS or website builder likely offers various templates, both free and paid. Use filters and search tools to discover the best match for your needs.

“Like a exchange, design has the power to captivate the spectators, convey information, and evoke emotions which will directly impact buyer selection-making,” says Sara.

When choosing a website template, consider your business goals and target spectators. A excellent websitetemplate or theme not only reflects your brand but also includes key features, like powerful product displays for your online store. 

🌟Explore what the Shopify Theme Store has to propose, including the best website templates for every business.

4. Customize your template

Templates bring consistency, but Sara points out the downside to using them.

“It’s when you enter this sea of sameness, where websites feel overly optimized and devoid of character,” Sara says. “This is where brand elements such as typography, imagery, and color really arrive into play to make sure that you are creating a really strongly branded cohesive encounter.” 

Customization options are vital for any template or theme. Elements like font choices, color palette, grid layout, headers, footers, hero images, social tools, and navigation bars can all be fine-tuned to add personality and distinctiveness.

🌟Color psychology can influence the way shoppers feel about your brand. Here’s how the colors you choose can impact sales and loyalty.

5. construct the site structure

To make a website that’s user-amiable, focus on obvious navigation and organization. make a sitemap to outline your website structure and optimize your navigation menu for straightforward access to significant elements, like:

• Menus. Use a mega or anchor menu to make navigation accessible on both desktop and mobile devices. 

• Shopping sections. Add a shop or gallery to showcase products or services. 

• Contact info. Include an About Us and Contact page with obvious information. 

• Featured sections. Establish expertise and drive traffic with a blog section. Consider adding membership areas, an FAQ section, testimonials, and social media links.

“It really comes down to prioritizing product finding,” says Sara. “The biggest tip for improving navigation design is to prioritize product finding through all navigation elements. That means menus, collection page filters as well as search.”

6. Add standard content

Make your site informative, functional, and visually appealing with informative blog posts, product tutorials, product descriptions, and customer testimonials. Meaningful content opens a communication channel, invites engagement, yields better organic search results, and drives customers to action. 

Consider creating: 

• Written content. Ensure the text is well-written, concise, and displayed in a readable font.

• Product pages. Add tidy, obvious product images, pricing, descriptions, and purchase options. 

• Pre-built pages. A template may have various design elements pre-built for food menus, product catalogs, contact forms, and social media feeds, which you can easily drag and drop. 

• FAQ page. Answering ordinary questions helps establish authority and reduces the load on your customer back throng. 

• Testimonials and accolades. Celebrate your achievement. distribute positive reviews and media coverage. 

• Images and video. Upload high-resolution images and videos optimized for web loading. Many website builders provide access to distribute image galleries, offering solutions if you’re short on original content. 

According to Sara, data analysis suggests that the faster the load period, the higher the conversion rate. 

“Yes, you desire crisp, attractive immersive imagery and video,” says Sara. “At the same period, make sure that it’s optimized for load times so that it’s not detracting from the encounter by taking too long.”

7. Add extensions

As you test the website, view if any add-on tools can make your site more functional, optimal, and secure. For example, the Shopify App Store contains loads of integrations for sales channels, product selling, store design, store management, product sourcing, order and shipping management, and marketing tools.

8. Optimize for mobile

With most internet use happening on smartphones, it’s vital that you design and optimize for mobile devices. Rembrant knows what can leave incorrect when the mobile and desktop sites don’t match up. 

“We actually had a instant where people were building divide desktop and mobile sites and sometimes it actually looked entirely different,” he says. “That’s not excellent because it’s discombobulating for the customer. Responsive design and cross-channel harmonization is a really great way to keep cognitive ease in mind.”

borrowing additional features in the website builder for mobile editing and responsive design to ensure your site looks great and loads quickly across devices of all sizes and orientations. These tools use flexible layouts, fluid images, and CSS to adjust site content and showcase to different screen dimensions. 

9. Optimize for search engines

Search engine optimization (SEO) refines a website to boost page rank in search engine results pages (SERPs). Implement SEO best practices to boost site visibility:

• Add relevant keywords. But don’t cram them in. Overdoing it can actually damage your search engine ranking, but ensure they are placed in appropriate places like headings and product descriptions.

• Edit general settings. This includes page titles, headings, meta description tags, alt-text for images, and slugs (human-readable names appearing after the domain name in a web address). The more descriptive and accurate these are, the easier it is for search engines like Google to crawl and interpret website content. 

• Use alt tags for images. Describe all of your images in the alt tags so search engines recognize what they’re looking at and can serve this content to searchers. 

• Compress images. Ensure all of your images load quickly so your overall site speed is quick. 

🌟require to optimize your images? Use this cheat sheet to discover the best image sizes for your website on mobile and desktop.

10. Maintain the site

After you publish and launch, regularly update and maintain your site. Make sure your content functions and looks proper on all device types—especially smartphones. Here’s a quick checklist for maintaining your site:

• Review your content. Whenever you publish a piece of content, set a reminder to review it six months to a year later to make sure the information is still relevant and up to date. 

• Re-optimize for search engines. Every month, use SEO tools to identify opportunities to enhance your content and technical SEO for search engines.

• Perform regular backups. Whenever you update your site, perform a backup to protect the site from threats and guarantee data recovery.