The Process of Designing a WordPress Site
November 29. 2019
You can’t go without the internet these days. So if you want to have a successful business, then you’d better have a website. A good one, too! Luckily, creating and running a website has been made much easier with the invention of content management systems like WordPress. But that doesn’t mean you don’t still have to put in some effort into your WordPress website design. And although looks are important, we’re not just talking about that. Your website must also be functional for its purpose. So there’s a lot to think about when designing it! This is where you might want to start thinking about hiring WP professionals to deal with this aspect of your business. And that may well be a good idea. But first let’s take a look at the process of designing a WordPress site – it never hurts to learn more about it!
The first step of designing a website is deciding what you want to achieve with it
Before you or a WordPress website design company that offers website design and maintenance services can create a website, you must first know what you’re creating it for. Every website serves a purpose: it represents your business, it spreads information about you and your services, it allows your customers to contact you and attracts new clients. But such generic information is not enough. So before you start to wonder how to create WordPress website, ask yourself this:
- Who is this website for? You and your business partners? New and existing customers? The local community?
- What is the primary purpose of the website? Are you trying to sell something? Teach something? Connect and organize people?
- What should the visitors expect to find on the website? An overview of services? Information about a certain topic?
- Is there a message you want the website to convey and if so, what is it? Is this website going to represent your whole business? Or is it just a part of your online presence and a larger marketing strategy?
- Finally, what will set your website apart from your competitors with similar offers?
Answering these questions will get you closer to designing and building a successful WordPress website!
Do your research and get inspired!
You know what people say: nothing is new under the Sun. No matter how original of an idea you have, someone somewhere has at some point probably thought of something similar already. But this doesn’t have to be a bad thing! In fact, it can be great. Because it means that when you’re wondering how to create WordPress website, you’ll have plenty to draw on. So take a couple of hours to do some thorough research online. Check out the websites of your competitors or businesses with similar products, services, and messages. These can be great sources of inspiration for both what to do and what not to do.
Two paths to a beautiful WordPress website: modification and innovation
The next step is to decide how you want to build your WordPress website. You are essentially choosing between two options here:
- you can select a pre-made WordPress theme and modify it to suit your vision
- or you can design the whole website from the ground up all on your own.
The second option may appeal to you if you want a truly unique website. But it’s worth noting that the first option comes with many perks like tested and functional themes that come with many built-in features you don’t have to spend time developing and a support system of other users. A lot of them are so customizable that creating a unique design isn’t that difficult either.
WordPress website design starts with a sitemap
Every WordPress website design company has its own style and process. But here’s one thing they all agree one: a sitemap is incredibly important. And that’s why you should start there when designing your WordPress website! It provides a great overview of all the topics covered by the website and creates a simple system of navigation. So take all the information you’ve gathered from the previous steps and use it to create your sitemap – it’ll help both you and your users!
WordPress website design and functionality: choosing the right plugins
Designing a website is not all about how it looks. What actually matters more is how it works both for your end-users and for you. And that’s where all the different plugins come in. But you can absolutely have too many plugins! So don’t just dive into the endless ocean of plugins without some planning. Think about what you want to achieve with your plugins, research which plugins are the best for your purposes and then start looking.
Create some attractive content to fill your website with
The skeleton of a website that you will have built by now is, of course, not enough. You have to fill that with some content too! So design some attractive landing pages, write a few interesting blog posts or set up a media gallery – whatever it is that you want to share with your users. Only when you add some meat to the bones will you truly have a good website.
Test your WordPress website design before anyone gets to see it
You want your users to enjoy their experience of visiting your website, don’t you? So you shouldn’t show them a barely functioning work-in-progress. Instead, you want to test out your website before launching it. Check every page to make sure everything works properly. Are there any broken links? Faults in coding? Non-compatible plugins? Tweak all that before you present your website to the public! This is a good habit to get into for the future as well. Any major changes to a running website should also be tested before the users experience them. So while designing your website, consider creating a staging website as well – the perfect replica of your site that you will use specifically for testing.
Launch and maintain your WordPress website for long-term success
The final step of WordPress website design is launching the website. This is, of course, after you’ve confirmed that everything is in perfect working order. It would also be good to drum up some excitement for the launch by announcing and marketing it in other ways (such as newspapers and social media or physical stores if you have them). You want as many people as possible to see your beautiful design, don’t you? A successful launch is, however, not the end. For long-term success, you need to hire WP professionals to maintain the website by updating it, tweaking it, fixing bugs and producing new content. Only then will your website consistently produce the results you want.