How to Design a Website in 2025 | 10 Easy-to-Follow Steps

Updated Aug 6, 2023.
How to Design a Website - 10 Easy-to-Follow Steps

Today, a website is not just a nice-to-have. Any business that wants to thrive in today’s hypercompetitive world needs to have a website. Not just any website, but a well-designed website that does exactly what it was built to do.

Most entrepreneurs assume that building such a website requires them to spend thousands of dollars on a web designer, and hundreds more on all manner of tools and plugins.

Sure, if you have a huge budget to blow on a website, you can hire a designer to do everything for you.

However, if you are just starting a new business and don’t have thousands to spend on a website, it is still possible to have a well-designed website for your business – by doing it yourself.

Wait! Is that even possible? Can you build a website when you have no technical or design skills?

Yes, it is possible for anyone, regardless of technical and design skills, to build a properly designed website, and in this guide, we’re going to show you exactly how to do that. Let’s dive in!

1. Set Your Goals

Before you start thinking of the tools you’re going to use to build your website, what you’ll name your website, or even what kind of content you’ll put on it, the first thing you need to ask yourself is why you are building the website. What do you want to achieve from the website?

The answer to this question will inform and guide all the other decisions you’re going to make concerning your website.

If you are building a website so that you sell products through it, you need to build an online store.

If you are building a website with the aim of sharing your knowledge with the world and building an audience that you can monetize, you need to build a blog.

If, on the other hand, you want to create a website to showcase your expertise and capture the attention of potential employers, what you need to build is a resume website.

There are several other different types of websites, and building each type requires different tools, different content layouts, different functionalities, different design principles, and so on. This is why you have to be very clear about what you want to achieve from your website.

Therefore, before doing anything else, start by asking yourself the following questions:

  • Why do I want to build a website?
  • Who is my target audience? What kind of people do I want to visit my website?
  • What will my audience gain by visiting my website?
  • What action do I want my audience to take on my website?
  • What is my idea of a successful website?
  • Do I intend to make money from this website at some point?

While everyone will have different goals and objectives for setting up a website, most of them can be classified into three broad goals and objectives:

Building Your Brand

You are building a website that you’ll use to build your brand and establish yourself as an authority in your field. If this is your goal, your website should focus on regularly publishing informative information related to your field.

Generating Leads

If this is your goal, you are building a website with the aim of catching the attention of potential clients or customers.

For instance, let’s say you are a plumber, and you want people looking for plumbing services to find you through your website.

In such a situation, you can build a website that is optimized for the keywords that people looking for plumbing services search for, allowing them to find you and hopefully get in touch to hire you.

Affiliate marketing websites are another example of websites that are built with the aim of generating leads. The website basically tries to attract traffic and convert it into leads that you can then sell to.

Selling Products

If this is your goal, you will build an online store or ecommerce website that allows visitors to buy products or services directly from the website. Such websites will naturally require more functionality and security features.

2. Choose Your Website Builder

Once you’ve determined why you are building a website and what you want to achieve from it, the next step is to choose the best website builder for your needs.

What exactly is a website builder?

Every website is written and run using code. However, not everyone is conversant with coding. So, how does the average Joe build a website with zero knowledge of code? That’s where website builders come in.

Website builders are DIY no-code platforms that allow you to build a website using a simple drag and drop interface.

When you drag and drop the elements you want on your website, the website builder generates the background code needed for these elements to run properly on your website.

By eliminating the coding aspect of website building and providing users with a drag and drop graphical user interface, website builders make it possible for just about anyone to build a website.

Website builders also come with ready-made themes, templates and demo sites that you can apply on your website to instantly achieve a specific look and feel.

With these templates, you can have your website ready in a matter of minutes. All you need to change is the content, colors schemes and a few other things.

Most website builders also handle other aspects of website building, such as domain registration and hosting, making the process of building your website as simple as possible.

There are lots of website builders to choose from out there, and the most suitable for you will depend on the kind of website you are building. That said, here are six of the best and most popular website builders:

1) Wix

Wix is one of the most popular website builders for anyone

With over 110 million users, Wix is one of the most popular website builders, and the best for anyone without any prior experience building a website.

There are several things that we love about Wix. First, it comes with the Wix Editor, which is highly intuitive and amazingly easy to use.

Wix also has a unique feature known as Wix ADI (artificial design intelligence), which asks you a series of questions about the kind of website you want to build, and then automatically comes up with a suitable, ready-made design based on your answers. This is a great feature for people with absolutely no design experience.

Other things we love about Wix include their high level of customization options, flexible pricing, their range of professional tools, over 500 professionally designed templates, and their excellent customer service.

2) Shopify

Shopify comes with a wide range of features that make it easy to use

If your aim is to build an online store to sell your products, Shopify is your best option.

Shopify comes with a wide range of features that make it easy to use, even for beginners, while providing the kind of advanced functionality that is required for online shops. At the moment, Shopify has over 1 million active users.

Shopify comes with hundreds of online store templates to choose from, a drag and drop interface for building or customizing website elements, and an integrated payments solution that supports over 100 payment gateways.

Shopify also comes integrated with all the other necessary tools for running an ecommerce store, including advanced marketing tools, inventory management tools, an advanced analytics platform, and the ability to integrate your Shopify store with third party platforms, such as WordPress and various social platforms.

3) Squarespace

Squarespace is a great option for building magnificent websites

If you are looking for an easy, simple way to build a jaw-dropping website with stunning design, Squarespace is your best option.

What makes Squarespace such a great option for building magnificent websites is the fact that they provide hundreds of beautifully designed demo websites to choose from. Simply find one that you like and start editing, adding your own content and changing key visual aspects.

Squarespace also has a powerful blogging module for those looking to set up a blog, as well as an ecommerce plan that allows you to build an online store.

Most successful websites usually work in tandem with other apps, such as social platforms, various online tools, and so on. Squarespace understands this, which is why the platform is compatible with a ton of other online tools and platforms, including Google Maps, DropBox, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Xero, Unsplash, Zaper, and so on.

Squarespace also understands the importance of search engine optimization. The platform comes with a collection of SEO tools that all work together to help your website rank higher on search results.

4) BigCommerce

BigCommerce is a website builder for those looking to build a fully responsive ecommerce website

BigCommerce is another highly effective website builder for those looking to build a fully responsive ecommerce website.

BigCommerce is a fully hosted ecommerce solution, and has several in-built ecommerce tools to help you build a small ecommerce website and scale it as your business grows.

From site backups and updates to site security and speed, BigCommerce handles everything for you, giving you enough room to focus on growing your business.

Despite having a set of advanced ecommerce tools, BigCommerce comes with a simple drag and drop building environment that ensures that anyone can build a powerful ecommerce website using the platform.

A well-designed ecommerce website doesn’t mean much if customers cannot make payments easily on your site. To help with this, BigCommerce is compatible with a wide range of payment gateways, including PayPal, Stripe, Square, Amazon Pay, ApplePay, and many others.

BigCommerce also comes with a great set of conversion optimization features, such as a simplified product search feature and a cart abandonment feature that tracks and sends reminders to buyers who did not complete their purchase.

Finally, the platform offers a powerful analytical dashboard that helps you to track your site’s performance and identify opportunities for improvement.

5) Weebly

Weebly is a great choice for those looking to quickly build and launch a small business website

Weebly is a great choice for those looking to quickly build and launch a small business website. Due to its ease of use, Weebly has rapidly grown in popularity and currently boasts over 40 million subscribers.

Like all the other website builders in this list, Weebly comes with a drag and drop editor that is quite easy to use. You also get access to over 60 professionally designed templates to choose from.

For those looking to start a blog, Weebly has a fully featured blogging module that gives you access to all the tools required to run a blog. In addition, it has an ecommerce module for those looking to set up a small ecommerce store.

Weebly comes with both Android and iOS apps that allow you to make changes to your website on the go. They also have a very competent and responsive customer support team.

Weebly has free and paid plans, giving you the flexibility to choose a plan that works for you based on your needs and your budget.

6) WordPress

WordPress is a content management system (CMS), rather than a dedicated website builder

Unlike the other platforms covered in this list, WordPress is a content management system (CMS), rather than a dedicated website builder.

WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS, powering over 450 million websites, or just over 40% of all websites available on the internet.

While WordPress allows you to build your website using code, it is not an absolute necessity. This is because WordPress gives you access to over 31,000 themes that you can install and customize to come up with your own unique website without writing a single line of code.

In addition, there are over 54,000 WordPress plugins that you can use to add all sorts of functionality to your website, most of which do not require knowledge of code.

The greatest benefit of WordPress is that there are no customization limitations. If you know your way around WordPress, you can build just about any kind of website you can think of.

What’s more, unlike the other platforms covered here, building a website using WordPress is free – technically.

The downside to using WordPress is that it has a steeper learning curve compared to the other website builders covered here, and you’ll have to handle things like domain registration and web hosting on your own from a separate web hosting provider. While WordPress itself is free, you’ll have to pay for these.

Choosing The Right Website Builder

With so many website builders to choose from, determining the best one for your needs can sometimes become a herculean task. To help you make a decision, here is a breakdown of the key factors to look at when choosing a website builder:

  • Ease Of Use: There’s no point in paying for a web builder if using it will be difficult as building a website from scratch. Therefore, check the builder’s interface and ensure that it is intuitive and easy to use, while offering powerful editing and customization tools and options.
  • Cost: As a general rule of thumb, always go for a website builder that offers all the features you need at the most affordable price. You should also read the fine print and check reviews from others users to ensure that there are no hidden costs.
  • Features: Make sure that your chosen website builder gives you access to all the features you need to build the kind of website you want. Remember to check for features that you might need in future as your business grows, even if you don’t need them now.
  • Compatibility: As your website grows, you might need to integrate it with some third party tools and platforms. Make sure that your chosen site builder is compatible with the most popular third party tools to avoid being forced to switch platforms down the line.
  • Customer Support: Sometimes, you might run into problems and challenges when building or running your site. In such situations, you want a site builder with a reliable customer support team who can help you resolve your issue as quickly as possible.

3. Select A Template Or Theme

It is possible to build your website from scratch, but it involves a lot of work. You have to think about where menus will go, which widgets will go where, which elements to include and where to place them, and so on.

All this, plus the actual work of adding all these elements can take a significant amount of time.

An easier approach is to use themes or templates. Themes, sometimes referred to as templates depending on the platform you are using, are professionally designed website layouts that you can use to quickly build a website.

Once you pick a theme and install it on your website, you can then make it your own by changing the content, colors, fonts, buttons, widgets, adding or removing some pages, and so on. This makes it possible for different people to have unique websites despite using the same theme.

Most website builders will give you hundreds of themes to choose from, so all you need to do is to browse through the available themes and find one that looks suitable for the kind of website you want to build.

To help you get the best theme for your website, here are some pointers to keep in mind when choosing a theme:

Pick A Theme Built For The Kind Of Website You’re Building

Most website builders provide different theme designs built for different kinds of websites.

For instance, you’ll find restaurant website themes, picture gallery website themes, ad agency website themes, consultancy business website themes, ecommerce website themes, and so on.

While most themes and templates can be customized to suit whatever kind of website you want, it is advisable to go for themes that are already designed for the kind of website you want to build. For instance, if you are building a website for your restaurant business, go for a restaurant website theme.

This way, most of the features you need will already be built, which means you’ll have less work to do to get the website where you want.

Avoid Bloated Themes

Some themes come with dozens of features, glitzy graphics, and unconventional site structures. While such features might look cool, always consider how they affect the user experience.

Do they make things easier or more difficult for your visitors? Do they increase page load times? Do they make your site harder to use on mobile?

Generally, you should always go for a simple theme and avoid any flashy features unless they add something useful to the user experience.

Go For Responsiveness

Responsive themes are easy to use and automatically adjust themselves to display your website content properly regardless of the device your website is viewed from.

These days, with the majority of internet traffic coming from mobile devices, most themes and templates are responsive, but it is still important to confirm that your desired theme is responsive before settling on it.

Search Optimization

You want to build a website that will be easily found by potential visitors, so it is important to make sure your chosen theme is optimized for search, with features like easy navigation, fast load times, and solid page hierarchy. You should also ensure that your chosen template is compatible with popular SEO tools.

4. Register Your Domain Name

Now that you’ve settled on an elegant looking theme for your website, it’s time to register a domain name for your website.

A domain name is the unique address that visitors input into their web browsers when they want to access your site. A domain name look something like this www.mydomain.xyz

In most cases, your domain name also doubles up as the name of your business and the foundation of your online brand, so you need to be very careful when choosing a domain name.

Many web builders offer domain registration as part of the package, meaning you’ll seamlessly register your domain directly on their platform.

With others, however, you’ll need to register your domain with an independent domain registrar. Some of the best domain registrars include Bluehost, Domain.com, Namecheap and GoDaddy.

Below are some tips to help you choose a great domain name:

Pick A Brandable Name

A brandable domain name is a unique name that people are likely to remember and easily associate with nothing else but your website or business.

For instance, if you hear the name Amazon, the first thing that comes to your mind is the world’s largest ecommerce website. Similarly, you should come up with a brandable name that can easily stick in people’s minds.

Choose A Name That Is Easy To Pronounce

The harder your domain name is to pronounce, the more likely people are to forget it. It also makes it more difficult for your site visitors to tell other people about your site.

Therefore, before settling on a domain name, try saying it aloud and get a feel for how easy it is to pronounce.

Keep It Short

Generally, the shorter a domain name is, the better it is. Short names are usually easy to remember, easy to share, and easy to type into the browser.

In addition, with a short domain name, you won’t have to worry about your domain name getting shortened when you share links on social media and other platforms.

Go For An Intuitive Name

We recommend that you pick a domain name that gives people an idea of what your website is about, even if they’ve never heard of your website before. This small thing can lead to an increase in organic traffic, because people can easily tell whether your website is related to what they are searching for.

5. Create Your Website Layout

Once you’ve registered your domain name, it’s time to start the actual website design. The first thing to do at this stage is to create the key pages that you want your website to have, and determine how you want the content on these pages to look.

Below are some of the key pages that every well designed website should have:

Homepage

This is your website’s main page, the one that your visitors will see first when they enter your site’s URL on their browsers.

The homepage is meant to make a good first impression on your site visitors and gives them a clear idea of what they should expect on your website. The homepage also contains a navigation bar to help your visitors navigate through the rest of your website.

A good homepage should be clean and well-organized, with a clear CTA. Here is an example of a well-designed homepage.

A good homepage should be clean and well organized, with a clear CTA
Source: Chania Honey

About Us Page

This webpage tells your brand or business story. This is basically where you tell your visitors what you do, and why you do it.

Your about us page can also give your site visitors a peek into the team behind your website or business. The aim of the about us page is to make an emotional connection with your site visitors.

Here is an example of a well-designed about us page.

Doomtree is An example of a well designed about us page
Source: DoomTree

Contact Page

This is an important page that helps your site visitors get in touch with you. The most popular way of doing this is by adding a contact form on this page.

Your contact us page should also provide your contact details, including the physical address, phone numbers, email address, links to your social media accounts, and so on. Here, you want to make it as easy and convenient as possible for your visitors to get in touch with you.

Here’s an example of a great contact page.

Atlassian is an example of a great contact page

Products And Services Page

If you are using your website to market some products or services, you also need to include a products and services page giving your visitors a breakdown of all the products and services that they can get from you.

A good products and services page should combine great visuals, relevant information about the product or service, and pricing information.

Here is an example of a well-designed products and services page.

Apple is an example of a well designed products and services page
Source: Apple

Other pages you might want to have on your website include a blog page if you intend to regularly share new information with your visitors, a testimonials page for social proof, and a FAQ page.

Once you’ve created the necessary pages for your website, it’s now time to think about the layout of your content on these pages. Below are some popular website layouts:

Single Column Layout

This is the simplest website layout. All the content is arranged in a single, vertical column, with no distractions on the side. This layout is simple to navigate around because visitors only need to scroll down to see more content.

Here’s an example of a website with a single column layout.

Cooking.nytimes is an example of a website with a single column layout

Split Screen Layout

This layout is perfect for when you want to give two pieces of information equal attention on a web page. This layout is perfect for websites serving two drastically different types of users.

Here’s an example of a website using the split screen layout.

Get2knownoke is an example of a website using the split screen layout
Source: Get2knownoke

Alternating Layout

This is a very popular website layout consisting of two columns of content, with alternating blocks of text and visual content.

The alternating layout works particularly well when you want to explain the features or benefits of a product.

Here’s an example of the alternating layout on the Peugeot website.

Peugeot is an example of the alternating layout on the Peugeot website
Source: Peugeot

A Grid Of Cards

This layout presents bite-sized previews of information in a grid of clickable cards. This layout provides information in an easily-digestible manner, allowing site visitors to easily make decisions.

They also have the option of clicking on the cards to get more information about each card. Here’s an example of the card-based layout.

Codio is an example of the card based layout

There are several other website layouts to choose from, and it is even possible to combine multiple layouts on the same web page.

Below are some basic website design principles to keep in mind when choosing a layout for your website:

  • Keep it intuitive: Your website layout should immediately make it clear what you want your site visitors to focus on. They should not have to ask themselves what action they need to take on your site.
  • Visual hierarchy: Your layout should give prominence to the elements on the web page based on their importance. The most important information needs to be the most visible.
  • Mobile-friendly: Your chosen website layout needs to work well both on desktop and on mobile devices.
  • Information accessibility: A good website layout makes it easy for site visitors to easily access the information they are looking for on that page.
  • Make it skimmable: Most people don’t read everything on a webpage. Instead, they skim over the content looking for relevant information. Therefore, you should use a website layout that makes it easy for your visitors to skim through your content.

6. Add And Optimize Your Content And Pages

At this point, you have all the pages you want on your website, as well as a good idea of the kind of layout you want on each page. It’s now time to start adding the actual content to your site and optimize it for your site visitors and search engines.

The first content you need to think about is the copy or text that will go on your website. You can either write the web copy by yourself or hire a freelancer from the top freelance websites.

Here are some tips on how to create awesome web copy for your site.

Optimize If For Your Audience

Before you write any word for your website, ask yourself who you are writing for. This will inform not only what you want to say, but how you say it.

For instance, if you are creating a site targeted at teenagers, you won’t use the same kind of language you’d use on a site targeting middle-aged people.

Therefore, start by thinking about your target audience. How old are they? What are they looking for on your website? What is their level of experience in your field?

Create a user persona that perfectly describes your target audience, then create content that is relevant to and resonates with this persona.

Keep It Simple

A lot of people like using jargon and difficult words because they think it makes them sound smart and knowledgeable.

Here’s the thing, however – most of the people you are writing for do not have the same level of knowledge as you. They come to your website because they want to learn.

By using big, difficult words, you are making it harder for them to understand the information you are trying to pass. This can be frustrating and confusing for them and can lead to a high abandonment rate.

To avoid this, always use simple language on your web copy. According to Mighty Citizen, great website content should be written at the 8th grade level.

Address Your Readers Motivations And Objections

When people come to your website, they do so because they have a problem they want to solve. Therefore, instead of focusing on the features you offer, address your visitors’ motivations by highlighting the benefits your product or service offers and how these will help them solve their problems.

You should also be aware of the objections that keep your visitors from buying your products and services, and then create web copy that helps them overcome these objections.

For instance, if prospective customers are afraid of purchasing your product or service due to the price, highlight the value they get from your product or service, and give them options like free trials and cash back guarantees to reduce their risk as they try your product or service.

Focus On Quality Over Quantity

When creating copy for your website, don’t focus on having plenty of material. Having a full page of text means nothing if people are not going to read it.

Instead, you want to focus on creating the highest quality content you can, even if it means having just a few words on a webpage. Sometimes, a few words can communicate better than paragraphs of text.

Images

Adding images to your website is a great way to complement the text on your website and easily communicate abstract concepts while at the same time making your website more beautiful and engaging.

When it comes to adding photos to your website, you can either take the photos yourself if you have some photography skills, or get photos from stock photo sites like Pixabay, Shutterstock, or Unsplash.

It’s very important to make sure that all the images you use on your website are of very high quality. Fuzzy and pixelated images can easily make your website look unprofessional and untrustworthy.

You should also avoid adding images to your website just for the sake of it, or just because they look good. Every image you add to your website needs to have some meaning and should help you communicate something to your visitors.

7. Design Your Website Elements

In this step, you’re going to come up with the elements that give your website its own unique look and feel, while at the same time making the website functional.

This step is all about making your website engaging and easy to use, while at the same time enhancing your brand.

Here are the different elements you should design at this stage:

Website architecture

Website architecture refers to how the information and pages on your website are organized. Good website architecture makes it easy for your visitors to find whatever they are looking for and easily access different pages on your website.

Good website architecture design involves adding things like an easily accessible navigation menu, proper use of internal linking, and use of breadcrumbs and sitemaps.

With proper website architecture, your site visitors should be able to access any page on your website with just two clicks at most.

Menus are a very important web design element. Menus allow your site visitors to easily jump from one page to another, and to easily return to your homepage.

There are several different menu styles to choose from, so it’s all about choosing a style that suits your brand and the feel you want to create on your website.

When designing a menu for your website, make sure it is easily accessible and position it where your visitors expect to find it (usually somewhere at the top of your website).

In addition, make sure that the menu is available on every page on your website, and avoid having too many options on the menu, since this makes your website look cluttered and makes it more difficult for your visitors to make a decision.

If you need to have several options, you can use something like a drop down menu, which keeps the top level options at a minimal number, while providing access to multiple options under the top level menu.

Colors

The colors on your website have a huge impact on the visual appeal of your website and are therefore an important consideration.

A good thing to keep in mind when choosing your website’s color scheme is to avoid using too many colors, since this can be distracting.

Ideally, you should use about three colors at most – a primary color that covers most of your website, a secondary color to complement the primary color, and an accent color to keep your website from looking boring, and to bring attention to elements like call to action buttons.

Apple’s website provides a great example of the three-color scheme. Here, black is used as the primary color, white as the secondary color, and blue as the accent color.

Apple’s website provides a great example of the three color scheme

It’s good to note that colors affect more than your site’s visual appeal. Colors also affect your site visitors’ mood and behavior.

Therefore, don’t just choose colors that make your website look good. You also need to make sure that the colors on your website evoke the right kind of emotions in your visitors and subliminally encourage them to take the kind of action you want them to take on your site.

Typography

This refers to the types of fonts you use on your website. Generally, you want to make sure that your fonts are easily legible on all kinds of devices. This is achieved by using fonts that are not too fancy, using font colors that have high contrast compared to the background, and using the right font size.

Font size should also be used to establish content structure and hierarchy. For instance, headings should always be bigger than body content.

Favicon

If you look at the tab on which you’re reading this article on your browser, you’ll notice a small Founderjar logo. This is what is known as a favicon.

A favicon is a useful branding element because it helps users to easily locate your website when they have multiple tabs open on their browser. You can easily create a favicon from your website logo by reducing the dimensions to the right favicon dimensions.

The header and footer are important elements that influence your website’s design.

The header, which appears at the very top of your website, is typically used to hold other elements like the menu and the website logo. You can even add a CTA to your header, such as the one shown here.

Header and Footer Elements for Website Design
Source: Neilpatel

The footer, which appears at the bottom of your website can be used to share information such as your contact details or to provide links to other important pages on your website.

White Space

Whitespace is a website design element that is achieved by removing other elements from your website. Whitespace basically refers to the “blank” areas on your website that do not have anything on them.

Using lots of white space on your website enhances the content on your website and makes your website feel less cluttered, which contributes to a better user experience.

Visual Effects

These are special effects that are used to give your website the “cool” factor and make it more attractive and engaging. They include things like hover reveal, animations, scroll effects, parallax scrolling, subtle drop shadow, and so on.

While these effects can help catch your site visitors’ attention, you should be careful not to overdo them, since this can make your website bloated and lead to increased page load speed.

8. Publish Your Website

At this point, your website is fully functional and ready to go live. However, before hitting the publish button, you need to make sure that everything is working properly. You don’t want to give your very first visitors a bad first impression with some pages not loading or some elements not working as they should.

Go through your website like your typical user would and check that everything works. Ensure all the pages are loading and that the content on them looks good, check the internal links, buttons, contact forms and so on and make sure that everything is working.

If your website allows visitors to make purchases, check whether your shopping carts and gateway payments are working. Perform a test purchase to make sure every element is working.

You also need to try your website on different browsers and different devices to make sure that everything is rendering properly.

Once you’ve confirmed that everything is fully functional, you can now go ahead and publish your website. Once you’ve published the website, anyone who keys in your website URL into their browser will be able to access your website, provided they have an internet connection.

9. Pick The Right Tools To Grow Your Website

Once you have built and published your website, the work doesn’t stop there. You now have to focus on bringing traffic to your website and growing your business.

To do this, you need to find the right tools to help you with various aspects of managing your website and business, from driving traffic and promoting your posts to handling interactions with customers.

Below, let’s check out some of the different kinds of tools you’ll need to grow your website and ensure it operates seamlessly.

SEO Tools

Most people find websites through search. Actually, organic search traffic accounts for 61% of all web traffic.

Therefore, if you want to drive traffic to your website, you have to invest in the right SEO tools that help you improve your site’s search rankings.

Here are three of the best SEO tools you should consider investing in to boost your site’s organic search traffic:

  • SEMrush: This is the best all-purpose SEO tool for improving your site’s search rankings. You can use SEMrush for keyword research, competitor research, content analysis, traffic analytics, and so on.
  • Ahrefs: Ahrefs is a great tool for those looking to understand how their competitors are performing on search engines and learn from their competitors’ SEO strategies. You can use Ahrefs for rank tracking, backlink checking, keyword research, and so on.
  • Yoast SEO: This is a very powerful plugin that everyone running a self-hosted WordPress website needs to install on their site. Yoast SEO is a technical tool that helps you improve your on-page search optimization.

Email Marketing Tools

If you want to build a profitable online business and keep your customers coming back, you have to invest in email marketing. To do this, you need a tool that connects with the lead capture forms on your website and allows you to automate your email marketing campaigns.

Some of the best email marketing tools you can use to grow your business are…

  • ConvertKit: This is the best email marketing platform for creators such as bloggers and authors, as well as marketers.
  • Constant Contact: This is an easy-to-use email marketing tool that is aimed at small businesses and people without lots of experience with email marketing.
  • Sendinblue: If you are looking for a great platform that allows you to create beautifully designed emails that are highly persuasive, Sendinblue is your best option.

Webinar Tools

Webinars are one of the best ways to build a connection with prospects and convert them into paying customers.

Actually, 95% of marketers believe that webinars are a crucial component in their digital marketing strategies, while 61% are already using webinars as a content marketing strategy.

Statistics On Webinars
Source: Outgrow

Here are some of the best webinar tools you can use to attract and convert customers…

  • WebinarJam: This is the best overall webinar marketing software. It comes packed with tons of sales and marketing features, and works best for webinars that are aimed at driving conversions.
  • Demio: Demio provides a great collection of webinar features while keeping their interface simple and intuitive. It is perfect for those who have no prior experience with webinars.
  • WebinarNinja: This is a very powerful webinar software that puts great focus on delivering a delightful user experience, both to you (the webinar host) and your audience.

Live Chat Software

Today, customers want to be able to reach your customer support team quickly and at their own convenience, which is why you need a live chat feature on your website.

Some of the best live chat platforms you can use on your website include…

  • LiveChat: LiveChat is an effective live chat tool that is very simple to install and use, works perfectly on both desktop and mobile, and is available as a free WordPress plugin. It also has an amazing feature that allows you to see a customer’s message even before they hit the send button.
  • ChatBot: This is an AI-powered live chat tool that responds to customer questions around the clock, even when there’s no human support personnel available. ChatBot also provides powerful analytics and is compatible with lots of third party tools and platforms.
  • LiveAgent: This is yet another great live chat tool that comes with a ton of features like social media integration, multilingual support, voice call option, automated ticketing and so on, allowing you to turn customer support into a simple task.

10. Analyze And Improve

By this point, you have a well-designed live website that is accessible to your audience, you have the right tools to help you grow your website, and everything is now running smoothly. As a smart entrepreneur, however, you shouldn’t relax.

If you want your website and business to continue growing, you have to start looking at your site’s performance and identify opportunities for improvement. To do this, you need access to your site’s analytics.

One of the best tools for tracking and monitoring your site’s performance is Google Analytics, which you can easily install on your site for free.

Once you have an analytics tool set up on your website, you can now start looking at metrics like…

  • The number of visitors your website is getting
  • The pages attracting the most traffic
  • How long your visitors are spending on each page
  • The number of people abandoning your site without taking any action
  • The number of site visitors who are converting into leads or customers
  • The number of visitors returning to your website within a certain period of time

With these metrics, you can easily identify areas that need some improvement.

For instance, if one page is attracting 10,000 views a month, while another page is only attracting 200 views, find out what you’re doing right with the first page and replicate it on the second page.

Similarly, if you are attracting tons of traffic to your website, but having a hard time converting them into leads, this is a sign that you need to optimize your website for conversions.

Go through each of the metrics your analytics tool allows you to track and find out if there’s something that can be done to improve your site’s performance. Keep doing that and you’ll be able to quickly grow your website and turn it into a successful business.

How To Design A Website FAQ

How Much Does It Cost To Design A Website?

The cost of designing a website will vary depending on factors like whether you are doing it yourself or hiring someone else to do it for you, whether you are self-hosting or using a hosted website builder, whether you are purchasing any premium tools and plugins, and so on.

Designing your own website is the cheapest option. When doing everything for yourself, you can expect to spend anywhere between $100 and about $2,000.

If you are hiring a professional designer or agency to do it for you, the costs will go higher. You can expect to pay between $10,000 and $30,000 depending on the complexity of your website. 
For big websites with advanced functionalities, the costs can sometimes exceed the $100,000 mark.

Should I Hire A Web Designer Or Do It Myself?

The decision to hire a web designer or do it yourself depends on how skilled you are, the kind of website you want to build, and your budget.

If you have the technical and design skills to build the website by yourself and the time to do it, then it makes sense to do it yourself. However, if you don’t have the skills to build the kind of website you want, you are better off hiring a web designer.

Similarly, if you are working on a tight budget, it is more advisable to do it yourself, since hiring a web designer can be expensive. 

However, if you need a complex website and have the budget to hire a web designer to do it for you, there is no harm in having a professional do it for you.

Should I Use WordPress Or A Website Builder?

This depends on your technical skills, as well as your future plans for the growth of your website. 

If this is your first time building a website, using a website builder provides you with the easiest option for getting your website up and running within the shortest time. Since web builders are targeted at beginners with no technical skills, they can be used by just about anyone.

If you have the technical expertise, or if you are willing to contend with a steeper learning curve, WordPress is the better option. This is because WordPress gives you unlimited options. With a WordPress website, you can build just about any kind of website, with no limitations or restrictions to hold you back.

In addition, if you have plans to add more complex functionalities to your website in future, WordPress is the better choice. However, if you need a simple website without any advanced functionality, using a website builder presents the easiest option.

How Can I Make Money From A Website?

There are dozens of ways to make money from your website. You can make money from your website by selling ads, selling your products and services, engaging in affiliate marketing, publishing sponsored product reviews, creating a paid membership area on your website, accepting donations, or even selling the website for profit. You just have to choose a monetization strategy that works for you.

What Is The Best Tool To Design A Website?

There are lots of great tools for designing websites, from CMS platforms like WordPress to website builders like Wix and Squarespace. All you need to do is to find a website design tool that you are most comfortable with and one that allows you to build the kind of website you have in mind.

Is It Easy To Design A Website?

Yes. With the advent of no code website builders and done for your themes and templates, designing a website has become very easy. 

Explore Further

Was This Article Helpful?

5.0
Rated 5.0 out of 5
5.0 out of 5 stars (based on 2 reviews)
Excellent100%
Very good0%
Average0%
Poor0%
Terrible0%

Anastasia Belyh

Editor at FounderJar

Anastasia has been a professional blogger and researcher since 2014. She loves to perform in-depth software reviews to help software buyers make informed decisions when choosing project management software, CRM tools, website builders, and everything around growing a startup business.

Anastasia worked in management consulting and tech startups, so she has lots of experience in helping professionals choosing the right business software.