What I’d tell myself diy-ing my first website…
We’ve all been there as new business owners and the daunting task of creating your first website before hiring an expert in the field. When I made my first ever website for Root & Bloom before she was even called Root & Bloom five years ago I had NO idea what I was doing or where to start. There also wasn’t a ton of education based courses or easily accessed information out there and I really didn’t know where to look with the do’s and don’t of it all!
With all the practicals of sizing, SEO, navigation, etc outside of nitty gritty design elements you have to think about while curating and implementing into your site at ANY stage in the website design game. Let’s dive in, shall we?
No. 1 Always check your mobile version AND desktop! Most individuals look at your site via phone nowadays and mobile version is often neglected but both are just as important.
No. 2 Test your website speed! Anything more than three seconds is too long of a load time so anything lower than three is perfect! P.S. bigger image sizes slow your site down!
No. 3 Text size for mobile should be no smaller than 14pt! Anything smaller than 14 point gets harder on the eyes for your viewers to read!
No. 4 Resize your images to help keep your load speed faster! A good rule of thumb is no more than 150 px! A width of 1500 pixels and 71 ppi a great number for resizing images! The higher the PPI of images the slower your site will be.
No. 5 SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can be scary and intimating as heck let’s be real but it doesn’t have to be and can be a great helping tool for marketing your business and letting your website do the work for you! One way you can squeeze the most of your images is label actual doc (photograph) with keywords for marketing that suits your specific work and locations you want to market and use the keywords that describe your brand, your work, you best! Example may be
minot-north-dakota-wedding.jpg
timeless-modern-north-dakota-wedding.jpg
No. 6 Don’t leave dead ends on your website! Each page should be leading your viewer to the another page on your site beyond the menu bar. A smooth transition to get them clicking to learn more about you and your business eventually leading them to inquire to dive in and wanting more!
No. 7 Juggling all the tasks and more can seem so overwhelming but to our advantage we have many tools to help aide us wear all the hats and balance it all so here are a few softwares that may be a helping out!
Hotjar: record people navigating your website
Google analytics: see traffic to sight, each page, etc.
Jpeg mini: resizing images without diminishing quality of the image(s)
Pingdom: site test speeds (you have 30 day free trial at first)
I’ve learned a TON with diy-ing my site those first few years and I am SO grateful because once I made the decision to hire a professional to achieve the things I couldn’t do on my own I knew who and what to look for and the questions to asking inquiring. I hope this helps some of you guys + gals navigating the website creating world.
Leave my a comment below with what tip you found most helpful!
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