Introduction
Even if you just want to put up a simple website with some text and pictures, it's still important to have a plan. A good plan will help you to keep your site organized and easy for visitors to use. This is true even if your website has only one page.
Decide the purpose of your website
Decide the purpose of your website.
Ask yourself: What is the goal of your website? How will it help you achieve your business goals? What do you want your website to do for you? What are the most important things that you want your website to accomplish?
Decide what you need
The first step toward building your dream website is to define its purpose. What will you be using it for? Is it going to be a blog or more of an informational site? Will you sell anything online, or just provide information? How much time and effort are you willing to put into SEO (search engine optimization)? Will social media be an important part of the site’s marketing strategy? The answers to these questions will help determine what software and services you will need, as well as what kind of server setup is best for your purposes.
Choose a domain name for your site
The domain name is a unique name for your website. Think of it as the address you give when someone asks where you live. Like a house number, street name, city and zip code, your domain name should be easy to remember and spell. For example, if you have a business called "Moore Million Financial Services" choose mooremillion.com as your domain name instead of mooremillionfinancialservicessssqzsssdfghjklzxcvbnm1234567890.
Determine whether or not it's going to be a subdomain (like a blog), top-level domain (like .com) or country code extension (.us). Also, think about whether there are any other websites with that same exact name in order to avoid any confusion between two products/services—and if so, it's best to try something different.
Decide on a hosting plan for your site that fits the needs of both you and your visitors
Once you've decided which type of website you want to create, it's time to decide on a hosting plan that fits your needs and those of your visitors. If you're just starting out, it might be a good idea to go with the most basic package available at first. As your site grows in popularity, however, it's likely that the services offered by this initial plan will become insufficient for handling all of the traffic and load on your server. In these cases, it is often better to upgrade than suffer from downtime due to technical issues.
If cost is an issue (and if it isn't then kudos), there are several ways in which hosting providers can help reduce costs while still providing excellent service:
Free domain registration - Some companies will offer free domain registration with each hosting package they offer; others charge only $10-20 per year when buying domains through them directly instead of elsewhere (like GoDaddy). This can save money over time because many people choose not to register their own domains in order to save money upfront but end up paying more later as a result.
What will your website look like?
Your website design is an important part of your business, and it's important to get a good one. The reason for this is that your website's design can make or break its success. Here are some things to consider when designing your site:
Make sure it's easy to navigate. This means putting links in places where users will expect them and making sure they're obvious so that people don't spend too much time searching through menus trying to find what they want. It also means using intuitive navigational elements like buttons that lead somewhere else on the page instead of links at the bottom of each page (and vice versa).
Make sure it looks professional and well thought out—because if you put care into how something looks, chances are other people will notice! If someone visits your site as a potential customer and sees something unprofessional-looking about it (like bad grammar), then they might take their business elsewhere—which will have lost you a potential sale. A professional-looking site can boost trust in your products or services by showing customers that you have been around long enough for people who have used them before to feel comfortable coming back again . . . which leads us right into our next point: making sure content is fresh so readers know where/how often new stuff comes out; also helps if there’s something unique about the product itself--examples include social media integration on Facebook or Twitter accounts linked directly from blog posts themselves instead of just having links at the bottom ends each post.
"Wireframe" the layout of your website
You will want to create a wireframe for your website. A wireframe is a visual representation of the layout of your website. It helps you to visualize how your website will look and identify any potential problems with the layout of your website.
Define a navigational structure for your website
It’s time to start homing in on a navigational structure for your website.
This is where you decide what you want your website to do and how it will be organized. You can begin by thinking about the main pages of your site: what do they need to accomplish? What words or images should they use? Will these pages link out to other sections of the site, or are they stand-alone pieces?
As you define these elements, keep in mind that it’s not just about making sure each page has an appropriate content description; it’s also important that each section of content has an appropriate title and link. If there is information related only tangentially to what you want visitors to see first when they arrive at your home page, consider creating separate pages that lead into those deeper topics instead of burying them under a menu item with no explanation as to why anyone would click on it.
"Storyboard" the content of your website
Once you have decided what kind of site you want to create, it’s time to think about the content. This step is really important because it will determine how the website will be structured.
It helps to start by creating a rough outline of what kind of content you can include on your website and where that information should go. The best way to do this is with a storyboard—a series of sketches or notes describing how users will navigate through your site and interact with its contents.
Write the content for each page of your site
When you're writing for your website, it's important to keep in mind how people will be reading. You'll want each page on your site to be as clear and easy to read as possible.
Here are some tips:
Write in a natural and conversational tone. It's easier for readers if they don't have to decipher what you're trying to say. Keep the language simple, use short sentences and paragraphs, and break up text with bullet points or subheadings where possible.
Use images wherever possible; they help break up text and make pages more visually appealing. If you don't have any photos of yourself available (or if they aren't suitable), consider using stock images from sites like Unsplash or Pexel instead — just remember that these photos must be used for commercial purposes only. Many websites also allow users to upload their own royalty-free images from places like Pixabay; this is great because it gives visitors more ways of viewing your work than just through a browser window.
Conclusion
These steps are important to follow, but they’re also just a starting point. Once you have your website up and running on the Internet, then you can start working on improving it. This process of improvement will never stop—even if you get to the point where your site is “perfect”, there will always be something new to learn about how people interact with websites, how technology changes over time and what new trends emerge in online marketing. So enjoy this process as much as possible!