How to define the best platform for your website

Are you thinking to build your own business website? Does making the website seems daunting to you? Well, there is nothing more to fear as this article is going to get you a brie guide about building a website by implementing a few simple steps.

A lot of people think that you need to be an expert when it comes to web development, but here’s the catch. Businesses need to focus on ‘What’ the website is offering rather than ‘How’ it is created. To cope up with this, the post describes 7 essential steps that you can have to incorporate in order to stand out from others. Let’s get started!

It is strongly believed that less than half the number of visitors will leave a site if they find it broken or unattractive or breaking down too often. Here’s how you can have a quick fix regarding the issue.

Main Contents

• 7 steps to form your websites
  • Get a clear strategy and goal
  • Gain some extra tips through research
  • Select the correct platform
  • Pick up a theme/template
  • Think upon your website elements
  • Content optimization
  • Publishing your Website
• Best website platforms to choose from
• How to select an appropriate platform for your business

7 steps to form your websites

Get a clear strategy and goal

Sounds very simple and boring but before you leap website designing, you need to clear about its purpose. Rather than concentrating on industry trends, you should give a thought about your Unique Selling Point (USP) and how do you come across it. It is tough to fool people, and so if you plan to earn more profit or simply raise your profile, this can result in a big failure.

Henceforth, it is mandatory to set clear and meaningful goals in order to shift your focus towards the action of the visitors when they land on your website. A perfect landing page is said to be crystal-focused around one product or thought along with the laser-focused CTA (call to action) to accompany it.

Gain some extra tips through research

Web designs use to evolve on a quick basis and depending upon the trends, and you need to learn where the flow if going to attract the number of visitors. Be well conscious regarding whichever trend you follow as the current trends might not suit you and can lead to disaster later.

It is believed that most of the website owners tend to focus more on the website design, and so, it takes some time to check your competitors and trends to pick some of the best ones. For creating the best design, you need to take care of some vital elements that website should be interactive, user-friendly, and chatbot support to help the visitors with everything they want.

Select the correct platform

The very thing that strikes in your mind when building a good website is the best professional agency. Although top companies do a great job themselves, other alternatives are website builders and e-commerce platforms. Both are a kind of DIY (Do It Yourself) tools that allow you to create and design your own website without having little to no coding knowledge.

Wordpress is one of the top brands when it comes to building a website within the budget. You can also try to check some of the premium platforms that are specialized in building a great business or individual websites. There is a wide range to select from and again that can confuse you which one to go for. To resolve this, you can select from popular names like Magento, Wix, Squarespace, BigCommerce, Shopify and similar ones to get the alluring website.

Pick up a theme/template

To make your website look simple yet attractive, you can try to choose a specific theme or a premium template that is unique from others and also match the vibes of your product or services. Templates or themes help you to get a framework for your website, which offers a coherent canvas to display your site content.

You can design it according to your website without any need to hire a designer. Themes and templates depict from the color scheme to how your homepage header and menu bar looks like. No matter which website builder you are choosing, they have a pile of design templates to choose from as per the different categories.

Think upon your website elements

When opting for web designing, you are required to look upon all the crucial elements that have a significant impact on your website. This includes a color scheme of the site, content font-style, and visualization, to check if anything is missing out for the better appearance of your website. Firstly, the color scheme is a big tool for communicating with the users because there is a psychology behind every color. To this, the font style matters a lot as any user will look a the site content while visiting the site.

Content optimization

So now, you are aware of how to add magic elements to your site. Along with the better design and visualization, the website content is also very crucial as it is the key element to attract your potential customers. An appropriate content helps to get the extra number of visitors if the positioning and optimization are also taken care of. Content optimization is important as this process can decide your website ranking on search engines like Bing or Google. With the content, an eye should be kept on the images used for the background or any type of pictorial representation. Images are generally in large files and therefore containing multiple images can result in website slow down. This can also lead to bouncing off the page and leave an unwanted impact.

Publishing your Website

After you are done with incorporating all the elements on your website, its time to launch the website for the public. Check every single element discussed above before you go live! You can ask all of your family members, friends and colleagues to get it to review upon and find if anything seems wrong or inappropriate. After publishing the site, you should check whether all the links are working properly and direct the users to the right page. Your site should look great across mobile, tablet and desktop.

Best website platforms to choose from

 

	Price	Pros	Cons
Magento	Unmanaged hosting - $10 per month Managed hosting - $250 per month Magento Cloud commerce - $499 per month	Attractive freemium themes and plugins Easy to install Mobile friendly and high scalability Highly compatible with extensions	Costly Themes Can’t Be Ported
Shopify	Shopify Lite - $9 per month Basic Shopify - $29 per month Shopify - $79 per month Advanced Shopify - $299 per month Shopify Plus - $2000 per month	Easy to Use Good option for dropshipping No transactions during payments	Budget-friendly Not an easy option to export blog
BigCommerce	Standard: $29.95 per month Plus: $79.95 per month Pro: $249.95 per month	Easy integration with third-party payment gateway Built-in product review feature Great SEO functions	Extra payment for availing abandoned carts Puts limit on annual online sales
WordPress	Premium theme: $175	Site maintenance and Security Best option for ecommerce sites	Cannot handle Large and Complex websites
Wix	Combo: $13 Unlimited: $17 Business & eCommerce: $20	Attractive templates High flexibility Add powerful animations Solid App market Wix ADI	A bit expensive Cannot change templates
Weebly	Starter: $8 Pro: $12 Business: $25 Performance: $38	Easy to use User-friendly themes App Center Team Management	Less design flexibility Multi-language websites
Squarespace	Personal: $12 Business: $18 E-commerce (Basic): $26 E-commerce(Advanced): $40	Designs and Templates Supports blogging Mobile apps	Editor usability Sub-navigation only Page Speed and SEO
Jimdo	Pro: $10 Business: $20	Easy to use SEO  High support	Template flexibility Online store
Duda	Basic: $14.25 Team: $22.50 Agency: $74 Site for Life: $299	Multi-language websites Personalization tools Drag and drop editor Backup and Restore feature	Too costly No app store

How to select an appropriate platform for your business

It is often confusing to choose the right platform for your business. Website builders are a boon for individuals as well as small to large businesses to start their own website without hiring a developer. It is recommended to note down what your requirements and goals before comparing to the top website builders. If you still feel unsure regarding your website needs then you may sneak into your competitors or other ones for inspiration. Here, we have listed a brief guide about how you can select the right tool according to your business type.

 

Business Type	Features	How to Choose a Platform	Best Available Options
SMBs and Startups	Multi-vendor version Multilingual  Payment gateways In-built analytics tool	Having a Mobile-friendly platform Provides Startup Package	YoKart Magento Shopify
Cloud-based	SaaS solution	Boosts Conversion rate	VTEX Shopify
Ecommerce	Easy to use shopping cart Reaping SEO benefits	Offers Scalability	WordPress Magento BigCommerce

Wrap Up

Here, we come to the end of the article. We hope you have understood the basic requirements of building a website from scratch. Furthermore, after getting your site live, you can keep a check on it and improvise according to the reviews and feedbacks. Till then - keep learning!

Author Bio

Olivia Diaz is working at eTatvaSoft, an Enterprise level Web & Mobile Application Development Company. Being a tech geek, she keeps a close watch over the industry focusing on the latest technology news and gadgets.