Website Starter Guide
*This post may contain affiliate links. I may receive commission through purchase from these links at no charge to you!I had a client recently not realize what all she needed to do for her business when we started her web design just by looking at the questionnaires I gave her to start off her project. This was just the beginning not much into the website part and her eyes became wide open on what all she was missing for her business.
So I decided to create a Website Starter Guide with 6 steps on what you can do for your business to help you with your website and your marketing. I hope this information helps you and your business as well!
Starting my own journey as a business owner and being in the industry of website design I have found that businesses know they need a website, but they just don’t even know where to start. I was in the same boat when I started working on my own website, which is also how I found my love for website design and development. However for some people they don’t have the time to waste on googling what is going to work, but they also don’t have the income to spend thousands of dollars on a designer or developer at this point in their business. This is where I want to help out!
In my Website Starter Guide we go full into detail on the 6 steps you can take when thinking about starting your own website.
You can download the guide with videos and questions with fillable answers to get yourself started, but let’s dive in and talk about these 6 steps!
Step 1: Thinking about your ideal client
If you’ve read any business blogs or listened to any business podcast then you have heard the common expression you need to find who your ideal client or target audience is and you need to speak directly to them. So let’s dive in shall we?!
Think back on the type of people you worked for that you absolutely loved every minute of your experience together or think of who would be a dream client to work for and create a fictitious person in your mind. This is going to be the one person you want to relate with and impress with your work.
In the Website Starter Guide there is a questionnaire for you to fill out to really get inside the mind of your ideal client/target audience to get you thinking about how you can get in front of them, and attract them to your own business.
With your ideal client in mind we move on to Step #2!
Step 2: Brand Creation
It is branding time! You should have fun with this!
Your brand should reflect you and your business while also keeping your ideal client in mind.
Remember that fictitious dream client you created well imagine you were that person. What type of colors do you think they will connect with? This is where you want to hop on Pinterest and start creating a mood board.
You want your mood board to reflect the feel and aesthetic you are going for that will attract your ideal client/target audience.
For me personally this is how I come up with my color palette. I reflect on the common colors that come across the images I’ve chosen and create a color palette that I love and I know my ideal client/target audience will connect with as well.
Note: Make sure you are not only doing what you like. You want to make every branding decision you make make sense to your ideal client/target audience.
Once you get your mood board done and have established a color palette you want to create a simple logo. Let me just make this as clear as possible: a logo is NOT going to make or break your business. This is not as serious as you may think.
If you are just starting out and don’t have the funds to hire a designer then hop on the website Creative Market and find something easy you like. If you have to go with Canva that is fine, but I would not recommend this because from my experience Canva logos have bad quality on websites, and you don’t necessarily own that logo design.
Just doing something easy like I did for this client of doing a text based logo with a nice flower element. There are also some brand studios that offer logo templates you could use as well, until you have the funds to update to something you really love.
So you have your color palette, your logo, now let's talk about fonts!
When thinking about fonts you want to choose a heading, subheading(optional) and paragraph font. To keep it simple I highly recommend just using Google Fonts. They are free and if you use a platform like Squarespace majority of Google fonts are already programmed into the platform.
If you already have Adobe Creative Suite you can take advantage of Adobe Fonts. If you decide you want a paid font you can use websites like Creative Market or My Fonts.
When creating your brand it helps to create a mood board for your business. You can do this by easily just going into Pinterest and typing in keywords that you want your brand to express. Within the Website Starter Guide there is a helpful video showing you ideas on how to create your own mood board on Pinterest.
Step 3: Factoring in the added costs that will go into creating a successful website.
The number one thing I have noticed with clients is that they don't realize the extra costs that come along with building a website. Especially if you want a successful and professional website.
There are some costs you absolutely have to pay for and there are others that are completely up to you if you want it for your website or not.
The main additional costs you will need to factor in will be buying your subscription to your content management system (CMS) a.k.a website builder of your choice. This can be a monthly or yearly subscription. (I go over this further in Step 4.) You will also need to factor in your domain purchase, and your privacy policy.
I get the question a lot. Do I really need a privacy policy? The question is if you collect any type of information (like emails) or collect analytics (like google analytics) then you are legally required to have a privacy policy on your website. (For more info view my Privacy Policy post here).
For the optional additional costs you want to factor in are terms & conditions (not legally required but still very important to have) email provider (there are free options), booking system and any other third party integrations will always cost extra.
In my opinion everyone should be taking advantage of an email provider, but the rest are optional depending on your business needs.
If you are looking at email providers I use ConvertKit and love it! They also have a free subscription as well!
Step 4: Choose a content management system that will be best for you and your business
This is the big question everyone gets stuck on. What CMS (content management system) or in easy terms, website builder should I use? I had the same problem when I first started and especially choosing web design this meant I did a LOT of research on this topic.
I ended up choosing Squarespace, because I was thinking of my ideal client in mind. They were someone that didn’t have time to do their website, but wanted to manage everything all in one place and be able to edit their website themselves with ease.
I have used other website builders and am currently expanding into Shopify, Showit & Wordpress as well, but still for my current ideal client Squarespace makes the most sense. So with that being said let’s dive in.
Instead of looking at the different platforms how about we take a different approach.
Let’s look at the type of person and business owner you are or want to be.
Is this you?
You want everything all in one place for you to access easily.
You are a smaller e-commerce company that needs everything all in one
You don’t want the hassle of different plugins you no nothing about
You don’t want to have to pay for monthly maintenance on your website.
You want to be able to easily go in and edit yourself, without accidentally messing up the original design?
If this is you then you are going to love using Squarespace as your website builder.
This website builder is an all in one platform and is super easy to navigate. With the way Squarespace editor is laid out it is also easy for you to edit without messing up the original design.
Is this you?
You value the design above all else on your website.
You want the ease of editing your website yourself, even the design.
You are planning on doing heavy blogging.
You don’t mind having a few easy plugins to deal with for your website.
If you plan on selling products, you don’t plan to sell a lot
Easily customize mobile view to be different from your desktop view
If this is you then you are going to love using Showit as your website builder.
Showit was originally created for photographers, but a lot of service based businesses are making the switch. When using the blogging aspect you are actually using Wordpress, so they both go hand in hand.
The appeal of Showit is the ease of editing the design of your website. It is almost like using Photoshop or Illustrator and makes it super easy to place things wherever you want on the page. You can also customize your mobile view in a completely different way.
Note: The only thing to be careful with when using Showit is to make sure you don’t get design crazy on your website. Keep it simple and be careful not to overwhelm your audience with too many design elements.
Is this you?
You are in the e-commerce industry
You plan on selling a lot of products
You need custom features that are tailored to the e-commerce industry
There is not much to this one, because it is plain and simple Shopify is the go to website builder for ecommerce.
If you plan on having a robust inventory then Shopify is your best choice. This platform was made specifically for the e-commerce industry. There is a learning curve with Shopify, and if you have the funds it is best to have a designer create your website for you. If you do not have the funds you can easily buy a theme and create your shop yourself. I will say personally I don’t think it is as much of a learning curve as Wordpress.
Is this you?
You don’t mind having and managing plugins for your website.
You don’t mind having to pay for maintenance for your website.
You feel Wordpress is the only way to go.
You want more design control when creating your website.
You don’t mind a learning curve if you decide to DIY.
If this sounds like you then go for Wordpress my friend.
If you are the type of person that wants Wordpress, but you want everything in the same place as well, the best option I have found is called Weeknight Websites. They are Wordpress, but they also have your hosting and theme builder all on one platform which is very nice. They have the plugins you should need already added for you which is very convenient.
Note: Do keep in mind that if you decide to DIY your Wordpress website there is a big learning curve on the backend. I am a website designer and Wordpress backend gives me a headache haha, but that doesn’t mean you can’t handle it.
Is this you?
You are a course creator or creating memberships.
You want your website, courses and membership all in one place
You want something easy to edit yourself
You don’t mind paying for the luxury of having everything in one place
If this is you then you want to use Kajabi as your website builder.
Kajabi allows you to have a website, courses and membership all within the same platform. If you don’t want to be all over the place then this is your best option. While I don’t have much personal experience with this platform I’ve heard that it is very easy to edit and design a website you can be proud of.
Don’t let this overwhelm you. Think about your business and where you want to be in 5 years and just make a decision. You can alway switch platforms if you need to in the future (with just a little bit of a headache haha) or you can always hire a designer in the future to up-level your website through the same platform you choose. Don’t worry about which is better for SEO. As long as you use the common SEO guidelines you will be good with either platform.
Here is a simple rundown if you are still lost:
Squarespace - for small e-commerce businesses, service providers and people that want a website they can easily manage themselves
Showit - for the creators, if you are selling products you are selling no more than 15 and you love playing around with the design of your website
Shopify - you are in the e-commerce industry and you plan on having a lot of products
Wordpress - basically any industry, but you don’t mind a learning curve and hiring for maintenance on your website
Kajabi - You are a course creator that wants your website and course all in one place.
So you have decided on your content management system (a.k.a your website builder) and know you are ready to dive into Step #5!
Step 5: Compile your content
Now it is time to get all your content together. This includes your images and copy(text).
This is where you are going to go back and look at your mood board and your ideal client/target audience questionnaire.
When creating your copy you want to think about your brand voice and really deep dive into your ideal client's/target audience’s mind. You want to answer those questions that your clients always ask you and really hit on their pain points and tell them why they need you in their life.
When creating your copy imagine your ideal client/target audience is sitting in front of you and you are having a conversation about your product or service over a drink at happy hour.
For your images if you don’t have any brand photos I recommend taking some. Even if that means having your spouse, friend or maybe some stranger on the street (haha just kidding) take some photos of you with your DSLR. I don’t recommend using your phone for these images, because you want nice clean images. If you are really good at getting amazing images on your phone then more power to you, but remember this is your business and you want to have the best quality to attract those dream clients.
You can also take advantage of websites like Unsplash and add free licensed photos. Just keep in mind your brand colors and make sure the photos represent your business. You don’t want photos that have nothing to do with your business on your website, just because you liked the photo.
Within the Website Starter Guide I have included a checklist with questions that go over things to think about when creating your copy, along with how to find images and optimize them for your website.
We are almost there so let's jump right into the last step of your journey!
Step 6: Buy a template or hire a web designer to turn your dream website into a reality
Once you have everything together it is time to start on your website! If you plan on doing your website yourself then purchasing a template is going to be your best option.
There are plenty of great template shops out there, but I want you to know you will still have to edit those templates yourself. If you have already checked off steps 1-5 then editing your template to match your business will be a breeze!
For the people that don’t have the time to DIY, hiring a web designer is going to be your best bet. Depending on the needs of your website web designers can be pricey, but definitely worth it. (Of course I say that as a designer haha) However a designer will help you with things you don’t have the time for or also don’t even think about.
Here are a few of my favorite website template shops to help you out!
Squarespace: Bigcatcreative, Squarestylist
Showit: Tonic Shop, Davey & Krista
Wordpress: Davey & Krista
I hope this has been very helpful to you, and if you want the Website Starter Guide to help guide you a little further you can sign up here!
And, yes it’s FREE!