To build a website from scratch has always been associated with requiring hard-core coding skills. It was assumed for many years that unless you are a web developer by profession and an expert in one or more programming languages, you cannot build a website on your own. Furthermore, when companies would find out how much it costs to make a website through a web developer, they would get overwhelmed and back off from the whole idea.
But times have changed. Many non-technical individuals and small business owners are now coming up with a website for their business without having to hire a website developer or a web development company. They build their website with the help of website builders, which are easy to use because of their drag-and-drop feature. And the most interesting thing about these website builders is that most of them are free to start with.
They usually either have a free plan that’s more than enough to get you started and build a website from scratch or offer a free trial version of their paid plans. This gets the heavy cost burden of paying a web developer off the shoulders of new business owners. Not only that, it also saves the time that they otherwise have to spend in sketching a website design from scratch or paying hefty amounts to a web designer to do the same.
What’s the Purpose of Having a Website?
A website serves many purposes for a business. First and foremost, it serves as a platform where you can get the basic information about the company, the people behind it, and the products or services it offers.
Many websites these days have a blog attached to them, which means there is a lot more content and information available on these sites than just brief product descriptions or company background. These blogs help the company owners establish themselves as an expert in their relevant industry. At the same time, the articles posted on these blogs promote the company’s products through content marketing.
If you build a website payment integration, inventory management and order management mechanisms, it functions as an online store, whereby the business can sell their products directly through the site and receive payments as well. Sometimes when you build a website from scratch, it only functions as a payment collection platform, whereby the business delivers a service to its customers in-person but they make the payment for it through the website.
Hence, a website is multi-functional. In fact, the structure of any business is incomplete without a website nowadays. When someone hears about a company or a brand, the first thing they do is to search about it on the Internet. Even before visiting a shop or outlet that a business has, if any, a prospect would always look for some basic information about the product they’re interested in on the Internet.
Let’s discuss how to build a website from scratch and the steps involved in it.
The Steps to Build a Website From Scratch
1. Choose the Platform
The first thing you need to do to build a website is select the platform or website builder that you’re going to use. There are several factors that you need to consider when making this decision. You need to choose a platform that offers the following.
- Templates for the type of website you need
- A pricing structure that’s suitable for you
- Features that fulfill your business requirements
- Customer support that’s available anytime you need
- Compatibility with your domain
One platform that offers all the requirements listed above is Strikingly, which is why it is a great choice for anyone who wants to build a website from scratch. Strikingly offers various templates that are both resourceful and appealing. Whether you want to build a website to showcase your business, an online store to sell your products, a blog to publish your articles, or a portfolio platform to display your skills and experience, Strikingly has a suitable theme available for it.
Image taken from Strikingly
To get started with Strikingly, you need to sign up for a free account, and then you’ll be redirected to the page that offers options of various templates.
2. Select a Template
The template that you choose to build a website will depend on your personal choice, your business requirements, and the options available. In Strikingly, if you first choose a template and then you like a different one more, you can change it anytime.
The colors of the text, header, footer, background, and buttons can be changed according to your choice. Use the best practices and tips for creating an attractive header. The Strikingly editor makes a website highly customizable, and our customers really enjoy giving their personal feel to the appearance of their site.
The image below shows a Strikingly user’s website for a content creation company. The template they have chosen to build a website from scratch is both appealing and straight to the point. It looks attractive but doesn’t have extravagance in it. This means this company knows how to choose a web design that suits its purpose.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
Let’s have a look at another example of a good template choice. Below is a screenshot from a childcare facility website. They have recorded videos of their customers to prepare testimonials for their business. They are thus using a template to build a website from scratch that’s suitable for embedding videos into their site’s home page.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
Hence, good template selection is important to build a website because it affects the appearance of your site and makes it easier for you to instill in your site the elements that you require based on your business needs.
3. Add Your Web Content
Now that your site’s cover or design is ready, it’s time to upload your images and write down the text that you want to have on it. Depending on your choice, the images on a site could mainly include pictures of your products, screenshots of any customer testimonials, photos of the company team and founder(s), and any other stock images that you want to add to represent your services and values. You can also upload files to your site, such as PDF or Word files.
The Strikingly editor makes it very easy for you to add all the content to your site. You just have to click on the area or section that you want to edit, and start typing there. Make sure you key in good quality content that’s free from plagiarism and grammatical or spelling errors and gives a good impression about your brand. When you build a website from scratch, good quality content is crucial for enhancing the search rankings of your site. When you upload images, make sure you mention the source of each image to avoid any copyright infringement.
Image from Strikingly user’s website
Strikingly also allows you to add videos to your site. If you are building an online portfolio to show your animation skills, your photoshoots, your company’s official explainer videos, or your music album promos, you must be able to add videos on your site. You’ll need to upload your videos to Youtube or Vimeo first, and then embed them into your web pages.
4. Integrate Social Media and Other Third-Party Apps
If you have social media pages to promote your business, it is best to link them to your site. One effective way to do this is by adding social media icons on the footer of your site. This kind of inter-connected marketing across the Internet is good for building a brand image for your business. So when you build a website, don’t forget to connect it to your social media accounts. Below is an example of a Strikingly user’s personal website, with the user's Twitter icon placed on the footer, so that site visitors can connect with the user’s Twitter account. If you build a website from scratch, make sure to link it with social media too.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
You might also want to integrate your site with other third-party apps to enhance its functionality. Such third-party apps include Google Docs, SoundCloud, and free live chat plug-ins. Strikingly offers a built-in live chat feature, which makes it very convenient for your site visitors and prospects to interact with you in real-time. When you build a website from scratch in Strikingly, you don’t need to install the live chat into it as an add-on, as it already exists in all the themes.
Now that you know how to build a website from scratch, why not give it a try? Don’t worry! Our live chat support at Strikingly is always available to help you out in case you get stuck at any step of the process. Thousands of our customers get their issues resolved with us right when they occur through our customer support and thus face no hiccups to build a website to promote their skills, products, or services.
If you are serious about your business and you understand that it is of utmost importance for your business to have an online presence, then sign up for a Strikingly free account today and build a website from scratch.
