How to Build a Professional-Looking Website in an Hour or Less

Building a website, no matter the purpose, might seem a bit overwhelming. I can tell you first-hand that building a website has actually never been easier. Today, we have access to countless website building tools. One of the most important and the central enabler is website builders. These platforms have given business owners more flexibility/freedom to create and manage their own websites.

In fact, the process used to take months and could cost well into the tens of thousands of dollars. Now, you can build an entire website yourself, with no experience. All you need is knowledge of your business, to conduct a bit of research on the best website builders, and a vision.

Website builders are essentially tools that allow you to build a website with little-to-no-experience using drag-and-drop editors, templates and SEO tools. The cost of using a website builder is even drastically less than that of a developer and can be as low as a few USD per month.

The turnaround time also has the potential to be a lot faster than waiting for a developer to create complicated code that only they can use to update your site.

For this reason, I want to provide you with three quick tips on building a professional-looking website in an hour or less. So, tie your sneakers, and bring your A-game—it’s time to take your business online in an hour or less.

Choose a Domain Name

Among many advantages, website builders often come with free hosting and the use of a custom domain name. Choosing a unique domain name is the first and most imperative step in building a website.

This can mean the difference between obtaining the domain name www.webcreate.io and www.webcreate.biz—neither is wrong, it just depends on what you prefer. Also note, not all domain names are available but you will have the chance to check to see if the desired name you want is available for use.

If you purchase hosting or domain services separately, you will pay an additional monthly fee to a different provider. Hosting, just like other features, will vary based on the builder you go with in the end, although it is often a standard offering.

Choose a Responsive Template

Next, pick a template. After selecting a template from the website builder’s library, you can begin using the drag-and-drop editor. This will enable you to edit elements of your website like navigation, add text, photos, contact information, optimize your site for SEO and add relevant integrations to your site.

You’ll want to first, edit your homepage, which should include basic information about the company, contact information and a welcome message with a CTA (call to action) button. You can then edit your navigation menu, which will come with pre-populated text such as Home, About Us, Services and Contact Us. Then, move on to subsequent pages, adding text, changing colors and other elements you see fit.

Since the platform is drag-and-drop-based, moving sections on the page should present few complications. After this, add and arrange photos. Next, you can insert content that is concise, clear and informative.

Your homepage should include information about the company in the form of a greeting, along with the desired action you wish for visitors to take—this is called a call to action. You can set up all kinds of CTAs, including a purchase button or a ‘download guide’ button.

Whatever kind of CTA you put, make sure it is relevant. For instance, if someone enters the homepage of your site, they are likely not quite ready to make a purchase, so placing a ‘buy now’ button there, might not be the most appropriate. While writing copy and placing CTAs, keep in mind exactly where someone is in the buyer’s journey based on where they end up on your site and place appropriate information and CTAs accordingly.

SEO Tools

After adding text, photos and CTAs to your site, it is time to tackle one of the most important elements of your website, search engine optimization. This means, refining the text you just wrote for your homepage, and for other pages.

To take it a step further, you can also access SEO optimization tools from within most website building editors and make changes to things like alt text for images and beyond. It is best to explore this section and discover what other elements you are allowed to optimize.

Take a Second Look

Finally, you’ve made all of the modifications possible, and your site is looking great. Now, you should go over your site for errors, bugs and where content and images are placed. In doing this, you will ensure not only a professional site but that there are no blatant spelling, grammatical mistakes and that not an element is out of place.

If your eyes hurt by the end, that likely means you’ve spent a lot of time focusing and therefore may have a more difficult time identifying simple mistakes. For this, it is best to either take a short break and or get a second pair of eyes (preferably someone with a great attention to detail) to take a second look at your site.

After this, your site should be ready to launch. Even though you’ve built a website in an hour, the process is ongoing, and you should always keep up-to-date content on your site as well as optimize it for SEO purposes.

To get traffic to your site you can always explore options like advertising or even other digital marketing campaigns like email blast campaigns.