Naturally, strategic priority projects can take time to execute. So, I also recommend identifying one, two or even three “quick win” projects. These might be more experimental, or they could just be smaller projects that you can pull off in a shorter space of time, with fewer resources. When you use CMS for site creation, you can also install CMS plugins at this step if there’s a need. SEO is the optimization of website elements (e.g., title, description, keyword) that can help your site achieve higher rankings in the search engines. All static web page elements that were designed during the mock-up and layout creation should be implemented and tested.

If you’re concerned about how your site will look on mobile devices, don’t fret. Sites created on these blogging platforms typically include mobile-friendly responsive design versions, so that they’re well formatted for smartphones and tablets. That might be fine for a personal blog, but it will look too low-rent for a business that wants people to trust it enough to pay for whatever it’s selling. Yahoo’s Tumblr is another incredibly popular blog platform that lends itself to shorter, more visual posts.

Things to Do Before You Create a Website

Before launching the website, check for any design-related issues that can affect the viewing experience and test the site’s usability. With half of all internet traffic originating from smartphone devices, mobile-friendliness has become all the more important. Ignoring this aspect in the website design can cost you a sizable portion of potential visitors. If you’re a WordPress user, check out our guide on WordPress accessibility to find out the best practices. One method to ensure easy navigation is to use the flat site structure when you create your website – every page should be reachable within one to two clicks. As a result, the user doesn’t have to open too many pages before reaching their desired destination.

Every single link has to be tested to make sure that there are no broken ones among them. Check every form, every script, run a spell-checking software to find possible typos. Use code validators to check if your code follows the current web standards. Valid code is necessary, for example, if cross-browser compatibility is crucial for you. For this purpose, we prefer to use GanttPRO – a convenient, intuitive project management software based on a Gantt chart and created for online project planning. HTML is the standard markup language for creating websites and CSS is the language that describes the style of an HTML document.

A complete website designing guide

There’s an art to web design; every website requires certain pages to be cohesive and deviating from this formula will most likely put off new customers. For starters, let’s talk a little about how to design a homepage. This is the page most people will land on first when they visit your site, so make sure it’s compelling enough to catch and hold their attention. Don’t forget about your mission statement and, if possible, customer testimonials.

When you drag and drop chosen components onto the visual canvas in Webflow, all that code is written in the background for you. If starting from scratch sounds intimidating, consider taking how to design a website the free Webflow 101 crash course to help you get started on building your first website. Wireframes also force you to consider how site visitors will interact with the content.

There are a number of personal page/site builders, including BigBlackBag and SmugMug, that display your work just as well, or better, than Flickr or Instagram can. Jodi Urquhart’s website, , is formatted for various different types of devices, including mobile. The easy to read format allows visits to collect information and find content that they need without hassle. Typically, an agency will only recommend the language that they have experience in.