How To Make a Website in 10 Easy Steps (Ultimate Guide)

With the rise of social distancing and the work-from-home economy, more businesses are moving online and building their websites.

There are nearly 1.5 billion websites in the world today.

One big reason is that the barrier to entry is low, and there are easy ways to make a business website with no coding knowledge required.

With numerous website builders available, the process is straightforward now, and you don’t need a web developer.

With a business website, you can:

• Announcing news and updates.
• Offering discounts and promotions.
• Providing your address and contact information.
• Giving customers a way to contact you via a contact form.
• Showcasing the services you offer.
• Displaying your products.
• Generating leads.
• And many more.

To help you get started, I wrote this detailed guide to help you create a website in 10 easy steps.

This guide covers making a website with Wix and other alternatives like Squarespace, Weebly, and WordPress.

1. Planning When Making A Website.

As the famous saying by Antoine de Saint-Exupery goes, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.”

It’s pretty simple: you need to have a plan before building your own website.

A proper plan can help you design the essential elements of your website that you can’t afford to forget.

At this stage, you should start brainstorming and thinking about things like:

• The pages and sections of your website that are essential (your sitemap).
• The main focus area of the website.
• The topics you want to cover
• Your design and color considerations.
• Headings and subheadings required.
• Header, footer, sub-pages, and sidebar design.
• Your home page images and messaging.

One great way to approach this planning is to draw mind maps of the entire website-making process.

Here are the steps that can help you achieve it:

1. Write a simple outline of the pages you want to include on your website.
2. Visit and study in detail the website of your peers and immediate competitors. For example, if you want to start a new ecommerce store, search for terms in your niche and find competitor websites. Then take a look at their messaging, layout, and pricing.
3. Open a spreadsheet and take notes about the keywords you want to target, the pages you’ll need, your target audience, and your unique value proposition.
4. Perform SEO research on relevant keywords and how to incorporate them into your website to drive more organic traffic. I cover this in-depth in my ultimate guide to starting a blog for beginners.

Remember, visitors are impatient and need to understand what your website is all about at a glance.

For example, you don’t need much information on your home page.

A strong headline, sub-headline, and call-to-action should quickly give visitors the necessary information.

Being able to build a website fast and start growing it is key in today’s digital world.

Having a professional setup also doesn’t mean spending a fortune.

Zyro is a website builder made to help entrepreneurs and business owners create a professional website in no time so they can focus on growing their businesses.

If you don’t want to complicate the planning and design process, its web design software also offers templates according to the latest trends and best practices.

With Zyro, you can customize your webpage with just a few clicks, adding images, text blocks, or customizing navigation menus to make it look like you want.

You don’t need any prior coding knowledge.

Get started with Zyro.

2. Choose Your Domain Name and Logo.

Your website needs a name and brand identity. According to a Nielsen study, there are more than 500,000 brands worldwide in over 2000 product categories.

It’s challenging to stand out among the competition.

Businesses must create a space in the consumers’ minds using unique brand elements and value propositions.

To that end, a unique domain name and logo can help immensely.

The good news is that many website builders can help you add brand elements easily.

Take Wix, for instance. It takes care of both your domain name as well as logo requirements.

You get a personal domain name with all the Wix plans except the free one.

Every premium plan offers a free domain voucher upon purchase.

Once you log in to your Wix account, you need to enter your credentials to opt for a domain name.

Sometimes, the domain name that you desire may not be available.

In that case, you’ll need to choose a different domain name.

Once you find an appropriate domain name, you’ll see a button that says ‘Get it.’

Click on it to start using your domain name right away.

You can also use a third-party domain name that you already own from a company like GoDaddy.

A personalized domain name generates trust and confidence in your customers. It also helps you establish the authenticity of your brand.

For example, an email address that says yourname@business.com is far more trustworthy than one that says yourname@gmail.com or yourname@yahoo.com – simply because the latter two may not always be verifiable.

The first quarter of 2020 alone saw 366.8 million domain name registrations globally, which speaks volumes about its importance.

When you register your domain name, make sure that it is:

• Short
• Simple
• Easy to remember
• Professional
• Evocative

Apart from this, Wix also designs business logos within minutes.

A logo is a key brand element and an essential brand differentiator in the marketplace.

To get started, you answer questions about your needs and wants, business focus, and personal style.

Questions are also based on your intended target consumers, your industry, and the media you will use to highlight them.

Besides this, considerations are based on whether you’d like the logo to be transparent or non-transparent and your image size requirements.

Once you answer all these questions, Wix provides a made-to-order logo for your business.

The logo creation process is highly customizable, and you can change the colors, fonts, text, and size to fit your needs.

Moreover, you get full commercial and legal rights to use any logo you create with Wix.

And you can parse through the hundreds of samples and templates of logos provided by Wix.

Some of the characteristics of the best logos are:

• Simplicity – It must be easy to understand and relate to.
• Relevance – The logo must be relevant to your business and the problem you aim to solve.
• Memorable – The logo should impact the customers’ minds so they can identify it in the marketplace.
• Timelessness – The effectiveness of the logo design shouldn’t fade over time. For example, McDonald’s logo remained unchanged over the years.
• Versatility – The logo should command the same recognition and respect, disregarding its size or medium.

Next, businesses can start concentrating on the website’s layout and design.

3. Designing Your Website.

Usually, your website is the first thing your prospective customers see. Poor design is a major turnoff for buyers.

75% of website credibility stems from its design, and 88% of users may never revisit a website after a bad user experience.

Therefore, you cannot afford to compromise on your website layout and design.

As they say, ‘the first impression is the last impression.’

Similarly, a well-designed website positively impacts a potential customer’s mind.

Many website tools exist, so you can build a great-looking website without hiring a web designer.

Here are some of the tips for your website’s layout and design:

1. User-Friendly & Mobile-Friendly.

Your website should be user-friendly and intuitive so customers can easily find what they want.

Apart from this, mobile optimization for your website is equally important.

According to statistics, 74% of all website visitors become recurring if your website is mobile-friendly.

That’s because most people spend around 70% of their time online on a mobile device.

Adding relevant CTA buttons is one way to make your site more responsive.

It also redirects users in the direction you want.

Here’s an example:

2. Customizability.

Another critical requirement of a website today is customizability.

It also helps you differentiate your business from your competitors and stand out.

Over the years, visual appeal on the internet has become just as important as delivering helpful content.

Under a time limit of 15 minutes, 66% of people would rather see something beautiful on the internet than something commonplace.

Hence, the website layout should satisfy the senses and, at the same time, provide crucial information.

3. Fast Loading Time.

One of the problems that websites face today is slow loading times.

53% of users leave a mobile website if it doesn’t load within 3 seconds.

As a result, businesses lose more than $2.5 billion every year.

That’s why your website needs to ensure the fast loading of pages to retain leads and customers.

You can use PageSpeed Insights to analyze the drawbacks of a slow website and provide suggestions to make it faster.

4. Use the Right Visuals.

Businesses must add website visuals to align with the audience’s changing preferences.

According to statistics, customers spend 88% more time on a site with videos.

Adding visuals is a great way to pique the customer’s interest.

It also helps you engage your customers, enhancing your chances of conversion.

Here are some essential tips to look out for when selecting the design of your website:

• Crisp navigation of the website.
• Redirect your visitors to your homepage directly.
• Use whitespace to increase readability.
• Identify broken links and other errors.
• Make it unique.
• Use personal images rather than stock images.

The good news is website builders like Wix come with pre-designed templates.

For instance, Wix offers over 500 website templates that are mobile-friendly and have the option to include videos, animations, and scroll effects.

Overall, Wix helps you quickly build a flexible, customizable, and highly responsive website.

4. Decide Which Pages You Need.

The next step is to figure out the pages that your website needs.

A clear plan of action and clarity on what you hope to achieve with your business is essential.

So how can you identify the pages you’ll always need?

Every business is unique and has a different story to tell.

The pages your business will require may also be different from your competitors.

However, some pages are indispensable and more important than others.

1. The Homepage.

Usually, your homepage is the first thing a user will see on your website.

Research says that most visitors stay on a website for 15 seconds.

They only hang around for longer if they see something exciting or abandon it immediately.

Follow these tips to create an engaging homepage:

• Mention who you are and what you do.
• Make sure the design is compelling.
• Direct your visitors to the necessary pages using a fluid navigation structure.
• The homepage should exude your brand identity.

Apart from this, your homepage should include the most crucial information about your business, like:

• Business name
• Company logo and other brand differentiators, for example, a jingle
• Brand character

Ideally, all of this should be available to the visitors without having to scroll down, increasing your chances of influencing the visitors.

2. Service/Product Page.

Your product page is where you sell your product or service and convince the visitors that you’re better than your competitors.

This is the part where you offer value and nudge the visitors toward the conversion of a sale.

You can follow these tips to create an excellent product page:

• Keep your product URLs clean and concise.
• Use high-quality imagery of products.
• Add real testimonials from satisfied customers. After all, 69% of consumers recommend a business to their peers after a pleasant experience.
• Incorporate succinct descriptions of product and service features.
• Highlight the brand promise to the consumer and what they can expect from your business.
• Make it mobile-friendly.
• Provide a secure checkout process.
• Add social sharing buttons.

Also, be vocal about the shipping of your goods, return policies, damaged goods policy, and your free services.

3. The ‘About Us’ Page.

The ‘About Us’ page is where you talk about yourself. It’s also one of the essential pages of your website.

Here, you can highlight things like:

• How you started your business
• Your mission & vision
• Your core values
• The ideals you swear by
• The problems you want to solve

Here’s a great example of Salesforce’s ‘About Us’ page.

Notice how they added a personal touch by talking in the first person and displaying pictures of their team members.

4. The Contact Section.

Businesses need to make it easy for their audience and clients to reach them.

Thus, your contact section should include contact details like:

• Your phone number
• Email address
• Postal address
• Social media accounts
• And more

Here’s an excellent contact page example:

A ‘live chat’ widget will also help you immediately address customer queries, enhancing customer experience.

The idea is to make yourself readily available to your customers.

5. Blog Posts.

Writing regular blogs on your website helps you rise in the search engine rankings, create your niche in the marketplace, generate your followers, and increase website traffic.

It’s also important that your blogs add value to your readers, help them perform specific activities, and solve particular problems.

You’ll need many other pages and specific links to interconnect the pages.

This varies from business to business.

Thus, conduct thorough market research to understand the essential pages for your business.

You can also evaluate your competitors’ websites to identify important web pages.

5. Using Drag-and-Drop Editors.

Drag-and-drop editors are helpful when you design and customize your website to align with your business.

These editors negate the need for professional website designers or technical knowledge.

They benefit novices with no technical expertise and let them build some of the most beautiful websites.

Take Wix, for example.

It provides a highly intuitive drag-and-drop editor to help you customize the website design.

It also provides complete control to the user so you can mold your website as you want.

The drag-and-drop features make it especially easy to personalize the websites you’re building.

It allows you to tinker with numerous attributes available, get practical experience, and try out various designs before selecting one.

Moreover, the editor is especially suitable if you build your websites manually without any technical knowledge or experience.

It also optimizes the screen display for devices like mobiles, PCs, laptops, and tablets, making it compatible across multiple platforms.

Check out this step-by-step guide to adding content with the drag-and-drop editor:

1. Head over to the left side of the editor and click the ‘Add’ option.
2. You’ll see many ways to add content, like text, images, buttons, etc.
3. Next, click on the ‘text’ option.

1. You can select the type of text you want – themed texts, titles, or paragraphs.
2. You can also choose from multiple choices to drag any text element onto your page.
3. Furthermore, you can edit and manipulate the text easily.

Wix also sets a high character limit per text box (60,000 characters or around 10,000 words).

These editors allow a higher degree of control over the various aspects of your website.

Then there’s Wix ADI which creates stunning websites based on Artificial Intelligence.

You have to answer a few questions, and it will create a tailor-made website for you.

It’s a quicker and more intelligent version of the Editor with advantages.

First, it gauges precisely how you want your website to be.

The questions are related to your desired features, functionality, and the intended name of your website.

After that, it generates the website for you.

The good news is that you still retain some control over the appearance and details of your website.

However, using the Wix editor is a better option because of the drawbacks of ADI.

The ADI relies on a predefined set of questions and your responses.

As a result, the use of templates gets limited here.

There is also a restriction on the number of embeddable apps and features, which isn’t the case with the traditional Editor.

The ADI also curtails your access to the Wix app market.

The Editor also helps you manage specific URL pages, which is impossible with Wix ADI.

The drag-and-drop editor is unbeatable in complete control of the website design and layout.

6. How to Get Free Stock Photography.

You’ll need photographs for almost every webpage.

You need them for the homepage, sub-pages, landing pages, icons, and influencers.

That’s why you’ll need plenty of attractive photographs and other graphics.

Luckily, plenty of websites offer a treasure trove of free stock photographs.

You can use paid sites as well as free ones. Usually, new businesses use free stock photographs to save additional costs.

However, be cautious while using free stock photographs and use only the ones in the public domain.

Otherwise, a legal case of copyright infringement could be against your business.

Here are some of the significant free stock photography sites:

1. Unsplash – It offers some of the best free photographs. The themes usually encompass happiness, love, flowers, and more.
2. Pexels – This website has a wide range of pictures. The common themes include energy, films, sunglasses, relationships, leaves, weight loss, and more.
3. Pixabay offers over 1.7 million photographs for free and explores themes like nature, religions, festivals, people, and relationships.
4. Gratisography – This well-stocked website offers free photographs covering animals, nature, and the rural & urban divide.
5. New Old Stock – It’s a unique website offering particular stock of free photographs sourced from public archives that aim to represent history. It focuses on themes, art, practices, lifestyle, and livelihood of people from the past and has a vintage feel.

You can find plenty of other great websites that have free photographs.

These websites ensure a steady supply of pictures.

A website builder like Wix also provides access to thousands of excellent in-built photographs.

The best part is that Wix gets them sourced from the best websites.

Wix also lets you design and make such photographs in its editors.

Here’s how you can access the images from Wix and add them to your website:

1. Head over to the menu and click on the ‘Add’ button.
2. Select the ‘image’ option and click the ‘free Wix images’ button.
3. Browse through the list and choose one that fits your profile.
4. Add it to your website and make changes as you want.
5. If you want something more unique, you can use Big Stock Photos, which offers paid images. But the clarity and resolution of images make it worth spending the money on.

Apart from the images, Wix also offers videos to influence your target consumers.

To add a video to your website, click on the option that says ‘Page background.’

Wix will add the video to your website automatically without any hassle.

But apart from regular images and videos, some website builders have other photography applications.

Take Wix’s clip art, for example.

Wix has an extensive repository of clip art that you can use to highlight themes like nature, sports, and holidays.

Wix also provides access to fun icons, emblems, and shapes like a banner, ring, star, and more.

These elements are present under the ‘Add’ menu in the Wix Editor, and you can start using them immediately.

7. Website SEO.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most critical tasks of website creation.

Without proper SEO, all the time and effort you put into your site could be for nothing if you don’t get traffic.

You need visibility on search engines to boost your online presence.

That’s why you need proper SEO for your website.

According to statistics, 75% of people never scroll beyond Google search’s first result page.

So you cater to only the remaining 25% of the audience if you’re not on the first page.

Organic traffic is essential for any business since over 90% of all online activity begins with a search engine.

Thus, you must ensure your website ranks on the first page.

However, that’s easier said than done.

Reputed websites with many backlinks usually dominate the first page of search engines.

Try it yourself. Search “SEO guide” in Google and see the results yourself:

If you look at the Moz website, it has a domain authority of 93 and over 18,389 established links.

Moz’s dominance is challenging to break regarding first-page ranking.

So how do you break into the first page?

Here are some SEO tips for doing just that:

1. Long-Tail Keywords.

It’s essential to understand how people search for things online. And according to statistics, over 70% of users search using long-tail keywords.

As you can see, searching with a more descriptive phrase has advantages.

For starters, the cost and risk are low, and the probability of conversion is also high.

Therefore, aiming to dominate long-tail phrases is better than trying to dominate space for short keywords.

Moreover, long-tail keywords are also easier to rank for.

Amazon also leverages this long-tail keyword strategy.

They are effective because they’re more specific than short-tail keywords, which can sometimes confuse the search engine.

2. Local SEO and Market Research.

If you’re a local business, there are specific local SEO tips that you should implement.

These include creating a Google My Business listing, getting Google reviews, and tailoring your content for local city searches.

For example, target keywords on your page could include things like “Best Pizza in Detroit, MI” or “CPA firm Chicago, IL.”

Market research is essential to identify the relevant keywords in your business.

Various local SEO tools, like Ubersuggest, Google Keyword PlannerTool, etc., help you understand the essential keywords.

Finding long-tail keywords that match your customers’ search intent is essential.

For example, the keywords for a business catering to the heavy metal industry aren’t the same as those for the software industry.

That’s why you need to know the keywords specific to your industry.

3. On-page SEO.

There are various techniques to implement SEO on your website.

It’s important to know what factors of the website you can control and tweak to enhance your search engine rankings.

On-page SEO is a process to optimize your web page’s content and your site’s overall structure.

After the market research, you’ll know the essential keyword you need.

A helpful tactic is using this keyword in the heading and as well as in the first paragraph.

It’s also helpful to incorporate the keyword in your URL.

Adding the keyword throughout your website will help you gain the desired attention.

Some experts suggest that at least 0.5% to 2.5% of the site should have the keywords.

The focus must be on having unique descriptions and content for all your web pages and sections.

Otherwise, you’ll only confuse the search engine that won’t be able to tell the difference from other similar content.

Here is a list of some of the essential on-page SEO techniques:

• Publish high-quality content.
• Optimize URL slugs and metatags of your web pages.
• Proper formatting of headings and sub-headings.
• Make your web pages mobile-friendly.
• Internal & External link optimization.
• Optimizing images and other multimedia elements.
• Take care of page load speed.

4. Off-Page SEO.

Off-page SEO is the technique to optimize your SEO via content unavailable on your website.

For example, linking your website to high-authority pages that generate a lot of traffic can help your website increase SEO rankings.

Some of the other factors that can influence off-page SEO are:

• Social media and influencer marketing.
• Guest blogging.
• Brand mentions.

5. Mobile Optimization.

A 2019 study suggests that mobile devices account for over 48% of internet surfing worldwide.

Even Google introduced the mobile-first index, recognizing mobiles as an increasingly important platform for internet activity.

As a result, websites that have mobile optimization have a better search engine ranking.

Here are some of the mobile-first indexing best practices:

• Make it easy for Googlebot to access and render your content using the same robot tags on mobile and desktop sites.
• Your mobile site should have the same content as your desktop site.
• Use correct URLs.
• Use high-quality images that are compatible with your mobile site.
• Verify both the desktop site and the mobile site in Search Console.

6. Technical SEO and Page Speed.

Page speed has been a direct ranking factor in Google’s search engine algorithm since 2018.

Therefore, ensure your website has great loading times and optimum speed.

You’ll also want to ensure you track everything properly by implementing Google Analytics on your site.

With pretty much any WordPress site, online store, website builder, or a web host plan, it’s easy to set up Google Analytics and Search Console.

Ensure you become familiar with different Google Analytics SEO terms like sessions, bounce rate, click-through rate (CTR), etc.

7. Image Descriptions.

Google search engine views images differently than human beings.

While we rely on visual signals, Google looks at descriptions and keywords to display images.

Adding relevant descriptions to your images and incorporating the necessary keywords help Google display them in image searches.

Automated website builders usually make adding a description to every image very easy.

8. Structural Integrity.

Most search engines use bots that search every nook and cranny of websites.

Their purpose is to understand the underlying format and structure of the website.

It helps these bots form an idea of the website’s overall hierarchy.

Naturally, properly structured websites will show up high in any search ranking.

That’s because a structured website also shows a sharp improvement in metrics like the number of pages visited, the click-through rates (CTR), and the average time spent on the site.

In this case, you can take assistance from an automated website builder like Wix.

Wix website templates automatically provide users with a structured website.

Its templates have an in-built, intuitive menu that makes navigating websites easy.

The heading tags get curated so that they get adequately formatted independently.

To any user browsing the sites, it appears organized and hierarchical.

And not just the website structure – Wix takes care of all aspects of SEO. It has many in-built SEO features to improve your site’s rankings, helping it stand out.

Here’s a list of built-in SEO features offered by Wix:

• Rapid load time.
• Mobile optimization.
• Google indexing.
• Secure website hosting.
• Structured data.
• XML sitemap.
• Robots.txt file.
• Canonical URLs.
• Default meta tags.

8. Create a Blog for Your Website.

Your website content is one of the most critical factors in sending ranking signals.

And search engines depend heavily on your content.

If you’re looking to create a website for your small business, make sure to do these three things correctly:

• Make sure that your content is unique.
• Update your content regularly.
• Offer relevant information through your content and provide some value to your target audience.

The more you write, the better your chances of driving traffic to your website will be.

You would have to write more than your competitors to leapfrog them and move up toward the pole position of the SEO rankings.

So how long should a blog be?

All your blogs must be highly relevant and descriptive and add value to the readers.

That’s why a small blog won’t work most of the time.

Your blog should be able to tackle and solve problems head-on.

And for that, you need to be verbose sometimes.

A survey into the optimal length of the most visible blogs proved the same.

So clearly, all the blogs on the 1st page of Google are over 2000 words.

But what should be the characteristics of a great blog apart from being around 2000 words?

Here goes:

1. Actionable.

So how long should a blog be?

All your blogs must be highly relevant and descriptive and add value to the readers.

That’s why a small blog won’t work most of the time.

Your blog should be able to tackle and solve problems head-on.

And for that, you need to be verbose sometimes.

Adding relevant CTA buttons is one of the ways to make your blogs actionable for your audience.

Here’s an excellent example:

2. Use Images.

Humans process images 60,000 times faster than text. 90% of all information transmitted to the human brain is also visual.

That’s why it’s a great idea to pepper your blogs with images to help consumers process information faster and help you convert them into sales.

3. Write Step-by-step Guides.

Website visitors don’t merely want access to raw data or information.

They can gain it from any website.

Most of them want information mentioned in a more practical form.

Writing blog posts with topics like how to perform DIY activities or a detailed step-by-step guide is a great way to grab attention.

As a result, more and more businesses are focusing on content marketing to influence leads and enhance sales positively. When done correctly, content marketing is well worth the effort.

Apart from generating unique content, small businesses should also focus on content optimization, which can result in higher CTR (Click-through rate).

This also helps your website climb the rankings.

Wix, being insightful as ever, makes it easy to start writing a blog and improving search rankings.

Wix lets you create professional blogs for your business quite easily.

Adding a blog section to your website is also pretty easy.

Here are the steps to set up a blog in minutes:

• Step 1. There are hundreds of in-built templates to start writing your blog on Wix. If you use the ADI, you only need to answer a few questions and build your blog.
• Step 2. In the next step, you can tweak the website design to fit the requirements of your business. Simply go to the Wix Editor, and click on the ‘settings’ option. Modify the layout, including the font, background color, and menu design.

• Step 3. Now, rename your blog. Make sure you choose a name that reflects your business objectives. Also, select a unique name not taken by anyone else on the internet. Go to the Wix editor and click the ‘Menus and pages’ option. Next, select your blog and click the ‘Show more’ button. Finally, click ‘rename’ and type the name of your blog.
• Step 4. As soon as you publish your blog, you get free web hosting from Wix. The advantage is that you don’t need to install any software. You also get 500 MB of cloud storage and bandwidth. Another good news is that you can immediately connect your domain to the internet.
• Step 5. Finally, head to the ‘Blog manager,’ and click the ‘create new post’ option. You would need to provide an SEO title since search engines locate blogs by their titles. For best results, ensure the title doesn’t exceed 60 words and includes relevant keywords.
• Step 6. Create a publishing schedule according to your comfort level. Deciding how often you want to address your readers, leads, and prospective customers would be best. You can publish each blog daily, weekly, bi-weekly, or bi-monthly. The aim is to set realistic goals.
• Step 7. Finally, go ahead and publish!

Make sure to check out my detailed guide on how to start a blog in 11 easy steps with Bluehost.

9. Publish Your Website.

Finally, you can publish your website to make it visible online.

Your target audience can quickly enter the relevant keywords and find your website.

Like every other task, Wix also makes it easy for you to publish your website.

However, you would need to publish your website every time you make changes.

Your changes won’t get reflected if you fail to do so.

If you’re satisfied with your website and ready to publish it, move on to the ‘Wix Editor.’

Go to the top right part of the web page, which says ‘Publish.’

After that, click on the ‘View site’ option that will allow you to preview your website one last time before you publish it.

If you’re satisfied, click on the ‘Done’ option.

One of the advantages of Wix is that it lets you publish the website in parts.

On the other hand, most paid and free website builders require you to publish the websites in their entirety the first time.

However, Wix lets you publish segregated parts of your website while you continue to work on other areas.

For example, you may publish the ‘Contact Us’ page a week after you post the rest of the website so you get time to update your contact details.

Just make sure no links lead back to the page you’re still working on.

Wix also lets you hide and unhide these pages as and when you need them.

You can also make changes to the site after publishing.

Click the ‘Edit site’ option on the left-hand side and make the changes.

If you’re not ready for the changes to reflect on your site immediately, click on the ‘Save’ option in the top right-hand corner.

Remember, clicking on the ‘Save’ option doesn’t ensure the reflection on the changes in the website.

That happens only when you ‘Publish’ it.

For existing users, any changes to the site get reflected immediately.

However, if you’re setting up your website and publishing it for the first time, it may take up to 48 hours to appear online.

10. Set Up Your Email Accounts.

Every business has its own set of customers, and there’s a need to communicate with them regularly.

And one of the easiest ways to reach out to your customers is through email marketing.

The first step in this direction is to create a custom email and set up your professional email account.

Here are some of the reasons why you need a custom email:

• It builds trust with the customers.
• The custom email looks professional.
• It strengthens your brand.

Setting up an email account gets decidedly easier with Wix.

Wix allows you access to your professional website and a custom email address.

Plus, it comes integrated with G-suite, allowing your business to leverage the full power of Google.

Moreover, business email addresses available come fully personalized to suit your needs.

For example, if your company’s name is ‘Imperio,’ you can opt for a domain name like ‘imperio.com.’

You can also access other Google products like Google Sheets, Drive, Calendar, and more.

A professional email account is a symbol of authenticity that results in significant brand building and the development of customer trust.

Statistics suggest that sending invoices via professional email accounts has higher click-through and open rates than generic email addresses.

As a result, you’ll get a higher inflow of cash, that’s crucial to any business.

The good is that creating your business email account with Wix is fairly straightforward.

Here is how you can create your business email account with Wix:

1. The first step is to make your website (using the steps and process mentioned above).
2. Once it gets live 48 hours after its publishing, you need to choose a premium plan. Although Wix provides a freemium plan, it doesn’t allow you to have your domain and business email. However, upgrading to the cheapest web hosting service premium plan will give you access to a professional domain name and a business email account.
3. After that, head over to the ‘My mailboxes’ page. Click on the ‘Connect a domain’ option to connect your business domain here. You can choose any number of mailboxes as you want. Simply click the ‘+’ sign until you reach the required boxes.

1. In the next step, add any mailbox prefixes that you have (if any). Now you must choose a subscription frequency, whether monthly or yearly. Finally, select your payment method and click on the ‘Submit purchase’ button.

After completing the payment and purchase procedure, activation takes around 3 hours.

You can start emailing your customers, prospective customers, and leads immediately after the activation.

You can promote your online business and pitch to your prospects.

What Are Some Wix Alternatives?

Website builders are in great demand these days.

Quite understandably, Wix has a lot of alternatives in the market. Some of the best ones are Squarespace, Weebly, and WordPress.

Let’s take a look at them:

1. Squarespace.

Suitable For Personal Sites ($16/Month).

Squarespace provides an all-in-one solution for every business to create a beautiful website.

It creates professional stores, online websites, and portfolios.

With over 100 stunning pre-designed templates, it’s most suitable for creating attractive websites.

More than 37,00,000 websites use Squarespace globally.

The software offers extensive support by hosting webinars, forums, blogs, and help guides.

It makes it easier for you to get used to the interface.

Some of its key features include:

• Customizable templates.
• Free Typekit & Google fonts.
• Custom CSS.
• Drag-and-drop management.
• CDN included for reduced load time.
• Image SEO.
• Image metadata importing.
• Gallery blocks and display effects.
• Audio collections.
• Third-party integrations with finance, marketing & sales tools, and shipping & inventory management tools.
• Dropbox file synchronization.
• Social media integration.
• Smart 3rd Party Service Support.
• Custom WYSIWYG Editor.
• Built-in SEO tools
• And much more.

Squarespace Pros:

• It focuses on DIY website building and offers a wide range of templates.
• It offers excellent 24*7 customer support via emails, email, and live support.
• Squarespace comes with data analytics tools to analyze your customers’ behavior.
• It offers extensive integrations with apps like Zapier, YouTube, Xero, Dropbox, and more.
• Can get a free domain name on some plans.

Pricing:

The pricing plans start from $16/per month to $49 per month when paid annually and are as follows:

• Personal: $16/month
• Business: $23/month
• Commerce(Basic): $27/month
• Commerce(Advanced): $49/month

2. Weebly.

For Professional Websites ($10/Month).

Weebly is another popular website builder.

It has customizable website designs and e-commerce tools to help you grow your business.

Essentially a drag-and-drop website builder, it added numerous essential features over the years.

All its paid plans provide free custom domain and website hosting for a year, saving you a lot of money.

Moreover, its easy-to-use editor lets you design your website as you want without any technical know-how.

Weebly Pros:

• It offers an integrated e-commerce platform.
• Mobile-compatible.
• It has highly responsive professional website themes.
• An in-built suite of SEO tools for maximum customer outreach.
• You can embed existing videos or embed your professional ones.
• It has an excellent free plan.

Pricing:

The pricing plans start from Free to $26 per month when paid annually and are as follows:

• Free
• Personal: $10/month
• Professional: $12/month
• Performance: $26/month

3. WordPress.

World’s Most Popular CMS ($4/Month).

After its release in 2003, WordPress became the world’s most popular content management system.

It powers nearly 34% of the top 10 million websites globally.

WordPress.com has impressive features like built-in Jetpack, SEO tools, analytics & reporting, and social sharing.

In addition to WordPress.com, there is also WordPress.org, which requires you to get your own web hosting when you start building your WordPress website.

WordPress.org is the most customizable option, and you use your custom domain name and hosting provider.

WordPress Pros:

• It’s highly flexible and scalable.
• It comes with over 50,000 plugin options.
• WordPress.com offers an intuitive editor that includes HTML and Markdown support.
• Easily drag-and-drop pictures or embed media on your website.
• Intuitive WordPress dashboard.
• Tons of WordPress themes to choose from.
• You can one-click install WordPress from many web hosts.
• Open-source web development framework.
• Choose any web hosting service.
• Can sell online with plugins like WooCommerce and BigCommerce for WordPress.

Pricing:

Pricing plans start from $4 per month for a basic blog and range to $45 monthly for a complete e-commerce setup and go as follows:

• Free
• Personal: $4/month
• Premium: $8/month
• Business: $25/month
• Commerce: $45/month
• Enterprise: $25,000 yearly

Comparing A Great Website To A Mediocre One

One way to compare a great website to a mediocre one is by looking at the design, content, and functionality.

A great website should have an attractive, user-friendly design that utilizes modern web technologies such as HTML5 and CSS3.

Its content should be well-structured and organized, offering valuable information visitors can easily access.

On the other hand, a mediocre website may only have basic HTML markup, lack structure in its content, and have few functional features aside from simple navigation.

When it comes to design, a great website should have a visually appealing layout with high-quality images and videos.

It should also consider user experience principles like responsive design so that the website looks good on all devices.

Content-wise, a great website should have valuable and relevant articles written in an engaging tone with plenty of internal links for users to explore further.

In contrast, a mediocre website might miss key elements like fonts, colors, or images that make it look amateurish.

Also, its content could be outdated or unorganized without any internal links, making it difficult for visitors to navigate through or find what they want.

Furthermore, the website could lack any meaningful functionality besides providing basic information about the company or service.

Overall, no single factor determines whether a website is excellent or mediocre.

Still, it’s essential to consider all aspects when assessing how successful your site will be in terms of user satisfaction and engagement.

With careful planning and execution, you can ensure your site stands out among competitors while giving visitors value they will love.

Executive Summary.

With buying decisions increasingly moving online, every business needs a professional website.

But many businesses don’t take the simple steps to make a quality website.

38% of visitors stop engaging with a website if its layout and design are unattractive.

88% of visitors don’t return to a website after a bad experience.

And many visitors leave a website if it takes more than 2 seconds to load.

Luckily, many excellent website creation options exist, like Wix, Squarespace, Weebly, and WordPress.

And the steps are pretty simple.

Remember, plan your site, get to know SEO, set up your domain and hosting, build your website, and start attracting customers.

For instance, Wix handles SEO optimization, fast page loading times, an intuitive user interface, and a seamless customer experience.

Why not start a new website today?

Recommended Reading on AdamEnfroy.com: For more help setting up a website, check out my ultimate guide to starting a blog, and my picks for the best web hosting companies, website builders, and ecommerce platforms to use this year.