Building an industrial website is one of the greatest experiences. It is a convergence of creativity, technology, and service. So congratulations on embarking on the journey. Below is a very high level look at the 3 major steps. If you have questions, please let me know.
Creativity
Before you start building you need a plan and a goal in mind. Are you building an informational site, blog, ecommerce, or web software?
Grab a piece of paper and pencil and begin sketching out your homepage. What does it look like? What does it do? What information will be there?
Now think of the architecture or the outline of your site. How many pages will it have? How will the pages be organized.
You will need to think of a domain name. Or the location of your site on the internet like https://bootstrapcreative.com
Technology
This stage can seem overwhelming but don’t worry. You will learn it as you go. Just remember, at a basic level a website is just a bunch of text files that are linked together. So if you can write and organize word documents, you can learn how to do the same with web documents/pages.
- Purchase a domain name and website hosting.
- Learn HTML, CSS, and page layout to build a website
- Begin adding your files to a server using an FTP(file transfer protocol) program
- Enter your domain into a web browser and see your new website
Service
Now that your site is published. You need to think about its utility. Is it useful and helpful to the people using it. Does it achieve the goals you first set out to achieve in the creativity stage? If not, what can you improve?
- Things you might learn in this stage are SEO or search engine optimization, usability, and conversion rate optimization
- You will also need to use Google Analytics to look for ways to improve your website.
- Put on your webmaster hat and make additions, deletions, and improvements to your website over time.
Summary
Learning to build a responsive website is something that will feel impossible but if you break it into smaller steps you will surprise yourself. Learn how to make an ugly site first. Then learn the skills necessary to make your sites more complex and more visually appealing.
I wish you well and don’t give up!
