How to Design a Website in 7 Steps [A Beginner's Guide]

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Online presence is the most necessary factor to be successful in today’s world. No matter what you want to do, start your own business or build a strong portfolio, appearing in search results can help you grow in no time. However, the question is how you can come up in Google search results and craft an impressive online presence.

By designing a website that functions smoothly and has an appealing user interface! The good news is, unlike popular belief, designing a website from scratch is not that hard. With the help of a few design tools, you can achieve your online purposes with enough patience and perseverance.

In this article, we want to help you achieve success much faster. Here we’ll outline everything you need to know about how to design a website from scratch, in addition to listing 7 marvelous steps to help you through your journey.

Keep reading!

Can a beginner create a website?

If you had asked me the same question a couple of years ago, I would have told you it’s impossible! Without coding knowledge and experience, no one can design a website from scratch.

However, now many tools and apps can help you build, design, and even optimize your website with almost no effort! These tools are free, even if you want a wallet-friendly option.

So, to answer your question in short, yes. With the help of the right tools, building and designing a website is possible, even for beginners!

Can I get rich by making a website?

Designing a website is not a good idea if you want to earn revenue immediately. That’s why we insisted on having patience at the beginning. Although designing a website is not that hard or time-consuming, attracting enough audience to earn a decent income can take time.

Based on the type of website you want to launch, you might earn around a couple hundred to a thousand dollars in the first few months. But if you keep learning and optimizing your website based on audiences’ needs, you can expect to earn big money from it.

How to design a website from scratch?

Designing a website is not all about creating colourful pages and expecting to attract users. There are many deeper aspects to creating a website. But where should you start? And what to do along the way?

Don’t worry; we’ve got you covered! All you need to do is find the right answers to the question below. And that would be the steps and plans you should follow to start and design your site from scratch.

1. What kind of website is it going to be?

Before deciding how to design a website from scratch and what themes or colours to use, you need to know the site's purpose. Ask yourself, what type of website is it going to be?

Are you planning on launching an online store? If yes, you must learn about the elements and features of an online store to make the buying process as simple as possible. You certainly don’t want to confuse your customers and make them run away.

On the other hand, if you want to design a website to teach people about crypto, for instance, then you’ll have to create clear categories, write informative content, and dedicate some parts to advertising or selling your packages.

If you find it hard to vision your purposes and plan, start by answering these questions:

What goals are you trying to achieve?
Who is your target audience?
How are you plan to earn money?
What kind of brand are you trying to be?
What kind of voice best describes your brand identity?

Sorting these questions in your head will help you have a clear vision of your purpose. Moreover, you’ll be able to define a better strategy to design a unique and visually appealing site in your industry.

2. How are trending websites designed?

Starting any new job requires inspiration. So, if you are a beginner in designing and want to know what a website design should look like, visiting trending websites in your industry helps a lot. In addition to inspiration, visiting your competitors’ websites can provide a clear idea of what your target audience is interested in.

Especially if your target audience is Gen Z, you should learn a lot about trending topics and what they are into. Regardless of the target audience, it would help if you had an eye for details, from simple elements like colours and texts to more complicated ones like animation and layout.

Here are a few resources that can help you out:

Awwwards.com: This site shows the newest websites in different industries. You can see what’s trending and what’s not. It’s the best resource for inspiration.
Similarweb.com: SimilarWeb is the best place to find your competitors and analyze their performance. For instance, this tool will tell you the age range of your competitor’s audience, their gender, how long they spend on the site, and how many pages they visit before leaving.

Assuming you are a beginner without coding experience, you must use website builder tools. Fortunately, these tools will do most of the job for you, suggesting different layouts, themes, and colours.

So, focus on inspiring from these websites and visualizing a brand identity for your business. Website designers and builders will do the rest for you.

3. What tools can meet my needs best?

Now that you have a clear vision of what you want to do and how it should look, it’s time to choose the right tools. As mentioned earlier, if you are a beginner, you can start with website-building tools such as:

Shopify
WordPress
Wix
Squarespace
Weebly

These platforms offer many customizable temples and features to build and design websites in all niches. However, if you are a more experienced web designer, these options might be a bit limiting for creative minds.

As a result, you will need more feature-rich designing software to create more detailed designs. In that case, the following tools can serve you better:

Canva
Figma
Adobe XD
Webflow
Adobe Dreamweaver

It would help if you did more research about designing tools and the features they offer. Make sure to choose the tool that best suits your needs and can facilitate web designing.

4. Which temples or themes best suit my brand identity?

Thinking about brand identity is one thing; planning to indicate that with the right temples and themes is another thing. After choosing a specific brand identity and voice, you must learn how to show them with suitable themes and colours.

Each colour has a unique meaning and symbolizes a specific characteristic. For instance, red indicates warmth, power, and passion in the brand logo. However, if you want to stimulate action on website pages, it’s best to use red when designing the buttons that lead to a sale.

Please thoroughly research the meaning of colours and what each represents when used for different elements. Then, you need to find temples and themes that best align with your business goals.

There are many third-party platforms out there that suggest different site temples for free. You can download these temples, add a theme, and design your website without starting from scratch.

Here are a few platforms that offer ready-to-use temples and themes for websites:

TemplateMonster
Template.net
Themeforest.net
Canva

Typography is another factor that you should pay close attention to when designing your web pages. First, you need to choose an overall font for your site, then decide how to arrange text in each site section. Choose a plain and easy-to-read font. Selecting weird fonts or unusually arranging text will confuse your audience.

Some designers try to be creative and unique by choosing complicated elements. But remember, it’s not an art gallery, and you don’t want users to get lost.

You should always consider all types of audiences when designing a website from scratch and make everything as accessible and simple as possible.

5. What pages should I add?

Now that you have more or less collected the necessary element to build your website, it’s time to customize it based on your goals. Think about what pages you’ll need to have the best-performing site.

Do you need a page to display your products? Or will a landing page and a categorised blog do the trick?

Regardless of your industry, it’s better to have a blog page. Showing your skill and knowledge in the form of blog posts will show you as a leader in your industry and give users a reason to trust your services.

In addition to the blog page, you must have the following pages on your website:

Landing page: The landing page or homepage is the most important part of a website. It’s your only chance to make an impressive first impression. On average, it takes a few seconds before users decide to leave or stay on your site. So, designing an eye-catchy landing page will ensure a less bounce rate and a better Google ranking.
Contact page: Even if you don’t offer any service or product, users need to know they can easily get hold of you. They may have questions about a specific post you shared or to ensure you are a human, not a robot! So, create a contact page and share your email, phone number, postal code, or even social media ID, if you prefer. If you don’t like to share anything personal, create a live chat section so people can contact you directly from the website.
About us: Tell your audience about your journey through launching your business. Your story will help users feel closer to your brand and your team.

Moreover, dedicate a section or your landing page to testimonials if you have any service or product to offer. Let the new visitors know how customers think about your products. Be honest; you can see how fast your business will grow online.

6. How to make the website accessible to everyone?

Of course, you don’t need to do everything a night. This part may take more time and dedication. To attract more visitors, you’ll need to ensure everyone can access your site regardless of abilities. For instance, develop ideas to help people with vision impairment use your site.

In addition, don’t just make your website accessible for desktop users. Mobile-friendliness is one of the most important aspects of designing a site. More than 80 percent of Google users search through their smartphones.

7. How to keep and increase the users’ flow?

The answer is simple, keep your website updated as you go. One way to do that is by asking for your customer’s feedback and making changes based on their experience.

Furthermore, keep yourself updated about new trends in your industry and improve your website over time.

Bottom line

Many think designing a website from scratch requires experience, skills, money, and hard work. Well, except for the last part, it’s not true. In the online world, everything is possible without any background. You need to know the steps required to achieve success. The rest is already provided through different tools and platforms.