If you have no idea how to create your first website, this article is for you…
The first step I always figure out for my clients before I even begin building a website is what their needs are. Most people literally just jump on board with Squarespace because of their great marketing but that platform does not meet all the needs of those who need a website. I’ll break this down to the three most common needs: A standard website on the cheap, an interactive blog on a budget, and a storefront for a business. There are needs of each kind of website that scales from the first to the third.
A standard website needs to be designed well for multiple screen sizes, load quickly, and have acceptable up-time. An interactive blog needs all that a standard website has, but also needs a blog platform to aggregate all the posts, some sort of community aspect like comments, and to be structured for marketing like ads, Search Engine Optimization, and analytics support. A storefront needs all that the interactive blog and standard website has, but also needs an e-commerce platform to add products and/or services with support for encrypted transactions, well designed pages about the company with testimonials, and some sort of system for customer service.
Of course, there are levels between these three common levels of needs but most people in need of a website fall within the area of those three levels. For the standard website, I’d recommend either Squarespace if you have the budget for $12/month or a WordPress hosted website which is free with the domain like digitalwaypoint.wordpress.com and you can add a custom domain like digitalwaypoint.com. For the interactive blog, I’d only recommend WordPress either hosted by WordPress or self-hosted. For the store front, I’d recommend Squarespace for the business plan of $18/month if you are new to creating a website, or WordPress self-hosted if you’re used to creating websites.
In the next article, I’ll break down why I gave these recommendations.
