How to Design a Website with Your Own Custom Template

Having your own website can be both an amazing and frustrating experience. The difficulty lies in figuring out what you want to say, how you’re going to say it, and then doing all the work necessary to bring your vision to life online. Fortunately, creating your own website doesn’t have to be difficult. Just follow these tips and tricks on how to design a website with your own custom template, and your new website will be up in no time!

Step 1

Research sites that inspire you . If there’s an existing website you admire, research it thoroughly. Figure out how it works, where it gets its traffic from, and how much revenue is generated from each page. Once you know what makes them tick, think about which aspects of your site should follow their lead—and which can be improved upon. When analyzing your target websites for inspiration, be sure to also look at their social presence (on Facebook , Twitter , etc.) and customer service / technical support interactions if applicable. These areas are often overlooked but are critical in building an online brand. Also spend time reading industry blogs and forums where users talk about new tools or services they use on a regular basis—many of these will eventually become mainstream!

Step 2

Choose and Use an HTML Editor : To create your website, you’ll need an HTML editor—software that allows you to work on your website’s code. Whether you use WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) or code view depends on your comfort level. Editing code is daunting for beginners; however, it has many benefits because it gives you ultimate control over your site’s layout and design. It also provides flexibility in choosing stylesheets and scripts. While there are many good choices available for HTML editors, we recommend using one from Adobe: Dreamweaver . This software not only gives you access to numerous features but also allows for integration of other Adobe applications like Fireworks .

Step 3

Start using Squarespace by signing up for an account and/or log in to your existing Squarespace account. You will then be directed to your online dashboard, where you can start building your website. Building a website is as easy as clicking and dragging templates onto your screen and filling in content. Templates are completely customizable and allow you to change everything from colors, fonts, text and images. If you prefer not have full control over every aspect of website design, you can also choose from thousands of professionally designed websites from our marketplace or contact one of our designers (available for an additional cost).

Step 4

What are your key features of your product? Are there anything that make you product stand out against competitors? Add them below in bullet points. (7 things) Now write at least 3 sub-points under each main point. The main points should be main selling factors of your product, while sub-points will give more detailed info about these selling points. Again, make sure you can support each sub-point with third party sites/links. A few more tips: Make sure you have supporting statements for each point on your list as well as relevant examples that illustrate why people need to buy from you instead of someone else. Make sure that when describing any feature of your website builder tool that you don’t just state it but also explain how it will benefit users.

Step 5

Build your platform. Platform is social media presence, website traffic, email list size, business partners and connections. What can you do today to build your platform? Offer a great content piece that people want from your blogging efforts on LinkedIn or Medium. Create another site like one of my virtual assistants did for $2.33 (thanks for sharing Leila!) that shows off your expertise in one area and lets you link back to your main page where people can learn more about you and click through to your site where they can hire you. The big thing I’ve learned by looking at other successful professionals is that no one gets far without doing something now to grow their business/brand/platform in one way or another.

Step 6

Reach Out To Influencers

Step 7

Use Analytics and Optimization Tools to Maximize Exposure and Traffic (11-12 Hours)

Step 8

Content marketing. Conduct market research, develop target customer profiles, and then create and distribute content based on these profiles. This step is so critical, I’ve devoted an entire chapter to it: Chapter 7: How to Use Content Marketing to Grow Your Business.