How to make the most out of a website builder

Laura Wilson -

There’s a lot of things to think about when it comes to building a website. If you’re using a website builder to do so, there are so many features for you to take advantage of. Everything you do to customise your site all adds to your customers' experience and to how easy or difficult their journey is to buying/interacting with your products and services. 

So to make sure you’re getting the most out of your website, follow this blog post to make sure you include everything at every step of the build process. 

Choose your package

When choosing your website builder package, ask yourself:

  • What do you need from a website builder?
  • How many features, webpages, how much storage, what extra features (like email address, domain etc.)?
  • How much do you want to invest in your site?
  • Do you need an ecommerce site? Do you need a shop for products or are you just an informative site?

Name your site

Already got a name for your business? Great! Try and use your business name in your domain name for consistency. That will make it easier for your customers to find you. If your chosen domain name isn’t available, use some sort of variation or a different TLD. But don’t overcomplicate it with too many numbers, or use any special characters. 

It’s also a good idea to register multiple versions of your domain, to cover for any misspellings or typos potential visitors might make. However, most website builders will include one domain name, so you might have to register separately. 

Pick a template

Your chosen website builder will give you a selection of templates to start you off. This will have a basic layout for a homepage, a certain colour palette, font type and title style. Don’t worry though – you’ll be able to edit everything after you’ve selected it, but it helps to choose a template that’s as close to your brand as possible so you’ve got a good starting point. 

If you don’t already have a brand palette, it might be a good idea to do this first. Think about what kind of impression your business gives, how you’d like your customers to feel and what you sell/do. You could create a moodboard based on this to decide the colours and font style you’ll use, which you can then translate into a website. It would also help to know your tone of voice before you start building, as then it’ll be easier to add content. 

Customise!

Once you’ve chosen your template and built your brand palette, you can apply this to your site. The website builder (like ours!) might save the colours you choose in a separate section on the palette, so you don’t have to go hunting for them or make a note of what colour they are. 

Choose how you want to layout content on each page. Make sure it’s clear and allows the customer to have an easy journey through your site. They need to find the information they want, but want to stay on your website because it looks interesting.

Think about what images you want to include and what will look the most aesthetically pleasing. You may also have the option to choose the size and shape of your images. This will help with placement and making sure it looks nice.

Once you’ve decided on a layout and the finer points, like colours and fonts, you can add your content! This should be a relatively easy step, as you can just add it into the text boxes you’ll have already created on each page. But make sure your pages aren’t too content heavy. Get the message across in the most concise way possible, surrounding it with images, illustrations or diagrams to make it look interesting.

Sprinkle in some extras

There’s a few other little bits you’ll be able to add to your site once you’ve fully designed it and filled it with content. For example, widgets and plugins. These open your site up to extras for your customers, like extra payment options for your shop or new expandable features to click on. 

The website builder you use should include a tutorial on how to add these things and what’s available. 

Create a site and get selling!

If you’re not sure where to start with looking for a website builder, why not try ours? Our Website Builder gives you complete customisation, loads of templates to choose from and a free domain for a year. 

Plus, if you get stuck, our support team is available 24/7 to help. Just give us a call on 0333 0142 700 or message us via live chat.