These days the way we learn about people or organizations is usually through their online presence, be it their social media account or website. So, the need to develop a way to present yourself online is essential. Whether your goal is to advance in your career or just share your story with the world, building a website will help you to establish yourself in the preferred field. This way, you can partly, if not entirely, control the way others perceive you. Some of the best website building platforms include WordPress.org, Constant Contact Website Builder, Wix, Web.com, and more.
If this is all true, then why waste more time? Let’s go ahead and learn how to make a personal website from scratch
This step-by-step guide will cover everything from defining your message to designing and running your website.
Ready?
Go!
Step 1: Determine your Message
The first thing you should consider in creating a personal website is determining your goal and the key message. You won’t be investigating domain names just yet; instead, you’ll begin by determining what your site’s main message will be. What’s your name? Who are you attempting to entice? What do you want your website to communicate to the rest of the world?
Here are three questions to ask yourself that will help you think about and clarify what your website is all about.
- What kind of first impression do I want someone to make of me after spending 30 seconds on my website?
- What will my website do to make me stand out?
- What is my “superpower” — the one quality that sets me apart from the other candidates?
It may not appear so, but this is the most critical phase in developing your site because it establishes the groundwork for everything you’ll do after that.
It will assist you in deciding what information to include and what information to highlight. It will have an impact on the way you position your material. It will also have an impact on your design.
Step 2: Look for Inspiration
Look for ideas on the internet before starting your own personal website. You can seek people in your business who you respect and check what kind of material they provide on their websites.
When looking for ideas, pay attention to the website’s appearance as well as the content.
Make a list of your discoveries and store any relevant screenshots in a folder. You’ll be able to refer back to them when you are creating your own website.
Step 3: Decide the Structure
If you were building a house, you wouldn’t just show up with a hammer and nails on the first day and start working—you’d first prepare a detailed plan. Otherwise, things are unlikely to fit together as well as you had hoped. The same is true for your website, so you’re going to lay down the blueprint today.
Doing some doodling is the simplest method to accomplish this. Start by jotting down everything you want to put on your website with some pencils and paper. Is it better to have a short, snappy bio or a long, detailed one? Is it better to take one photo or several?
Do you want a comprehensive portfolio or links to all of your work? What are your contact details and social media handles?
After you’ve recognized all of the jigsaw pieces, you can begin figuring out how they go together. Create sample “pages” containing placer boxes for the data you want to include.
Should your pictures and writing be on two different sites or on a single “Portfolio” page?
Should you have your contacts in the “Home” page? Should you have a separate bio on the “About” page and more similar questions.
In case you need more guidance in coming up with the best structure for your website, you can find specialists on this site to help you out.
Step 4: Add your own Content
You should now have a clear understanding of why you’re developing a personal website. It’s time to think about how now that you’ve chosen a template to get you started.
While certain things are best accomplished on the spur of the moment, creating a website from the ground up is not one of them. Determine the content your personal website needs before you get too deep into web design.
Make a list of all the content your site should have with a pen and paper. This will depend on your area of expertise as well as the type of place you’re building. However, there are a few components that should be present on practically any personal website:
Step 5: Customize Design
Your website’s design is just as vital as the content it contains. Visitors will click away from your site without giving your important material a second opportunity if it doesn’t look the part.
Make sure your website has a clearly defined visual language in addition to selecting an expertly designed template that speaks with you and your own brand identity.
This means that the tone and appearance of your entire website, from the call-to-action buttons to the footer, should be consistent. The following are the factors to consider:
- The color design has a significant impact on mood and tone. Look into color psychology to come up with a palette of colors that elicit the desired emotion.
- Font selection: Just like colors, typography plays a role in conveying various moods and feelings.
- Website layout: Ideally, you’ll have already chosen a template that fits your content, so you won’t have to make too many changes to the layout of each page.
- Your logo is an important aspect of your branding strategy.
Step 6: Ensure your website is Mobile Friendly
With mobile phones accounting for an increasing portion of internet traffic, the finest websites should be pixel-perfect on all devices. Furthermore, since Google implemented mobile-first indexing, websites are primarily prioritized in search engine results based on their mobile versions.
Wix’s mobile editor will automatically optimize your design for both desktop and mobile when you create a website. You can alter the design if you want to make any further changes, but make sure your text is still legible and that visitors can easily navigate through your personal website.
Step 7: Optimize for SEO
Designing a personal website is one thing; optimizing is another. Optimizing your website for SEO is a crucial step toward achieving your goals of achieving a successful website.
From social media to email marketing tools, there are various ways to advertise your website. Preparing your site for search engines, on the other hand, is something you can – and should – do early on in the process of developing your personal website.
A number of search engine optimization (SEO) methods might assist you to increase your search engine rating. For example, you should research your website’s keywords and use them throughout your written material, as well as choose a domain name that tells Google what your site is about.
Step 8: Promote your Website
Your own website is now live, thanks to all of your hard work. However, you don’t want it to be lost and alone in the Internet world. There are numerous successful techniques to advertise your website for free, in addition to optimizing it for SEO. Here are a few methods for increasing the number of visitors to your website:
Use the power of social media marketing to promote your website by sharing it on your social media platforms. You can use your profile to link to your website and to keep your friends and followers up to date by posting about your new creation.
Create valuable newsletters to distribute to your subscribers using email marketing. You can keep them up to date on new blog posts, fill them in on a lecture you’re giving, or email them links to inspiring articles or industry leaders’ lectures.
In your email signature, include a link to your website and social media accounts. This easy internet promotion approach means that any email you send will automatically include these links, increasing the likelihood that people will visit your website.
In addition to starting a blog, reach out to other bloggers in your field and propose that you write guest pieces for each other. This win-win scenario can benefit both parties by increasing exposure and bringing possible leads to your personal website.
