For aspiring website owners that don\u2019t know how to code and don\u2019t have the budget to hire a designer (or would simply rather not spend that money), the best answer is to use an online website builder<\/a>. Website builders are a fast and easy way to get started with a new website or blog. And this is one case where taking the easy route doesn\u2019t mean sacrificing quality. You can create a truly beautiful and effective website with the right website builder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are three benefits to using a website builder<\/a>. Any good website builder you consider will include a number of attractive templates that have been designed by skilled web designers. That means you get to take advantage of their skills without paying top dollar, like you would if you hired them on your own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In most cases, the designers that create templates for website builders will have knowledge of web design best practices and incorporate them into the templates they create. Even if you don\u2019t have a good eye for visuals or website UX (user experience), you can trust that the people who created the template you start with do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n By starting with a good template, it\u2019s easy to build a website that looks beautiful and makes a good impression on your visitors. Coding languages are complicated and intimidating to anyone that doesn\u2019t already know them. And even some people who know how to code find it challenging. But you can skip over dealing with all that completely. Choosing the best website builder for your business<\/a> or site saves you from having to learn to code<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And notably, it means you\u2019ll also never have to deal with coding when making later updates. People that hire a designer to build their website will still have to struggle with HTML down the line when they need to make additions and changes. With a website builder, every future update will be simple. The templates are a good starting point, but you don\u2019t want your website to look just like all the other websites created from the template you chose. Don\u2019t worry. You still have room to add your own style and make sure the end results look beautiful to you, while still being intuitive for your visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can change out colors, add and remove different elements of the page, and move things around with simple drag-and-drop website builder functionality. Starting with a template provides a good shortcut, but from there it\u2019s entirely up to you what you choose to do with it. If you\u2019re sold on the idea of using a website builder, then it\u2019s time to get started. These are the steps to building a beautiful website using a website builder. First things first, you need to choose which website builder to go with. You have a number of options to choose from, and making the right choice now matters. Many website builders make it hard to keep your website if you move to a new product down the line. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When looking for the best website builder for you, consider:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure out what your main priorities are in a website builder and find one that provides everything you need. Creating a website with a website builder starts with a template. Look through the different options available to find one that\u2019s a close match to what you have in mind for your site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u2019t just think about the one you like the look of the best-you can easily change a lot of the visual elements of the template you choose. Think about which one has the closest structure and layout to the website you want to create. That will make bringing it in line with your unique vision easier. So much of creating a beautiful website as a business owner or blogger will depend on the colors you choose. You want to be consistent with the colors you use across the website-if someone clicks from a page that\u2019s green and blue to one that\u2019s red and black, it creates a confusing experience. And you want to make sure you stick with colors that look good together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Creating a color scheme as one of your first steps will help you achieve both those goals. You\u2019ll know which colors to stick with for your backgrounds, fonts, images, and various page elements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you don\u2019t really know how to select colors that look good together, you can find a number of free resources online to help. Browse sites like Design Seeds<\/a> and Color Hunt<\/a> for inspiration. Or check out Canva’s Color Wheel tool<\/a> that uses “color theory” to give you a perfect color combination. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And the tool Coolers<\/a> lets you pick a color you like, and see a wide variety of automatically generated color schemes that include it until you find one you like. All of these resources helpfully provide the color codes for each number, so you can easily find them in the editing tools of your website builder as you work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As with your color scheme, creating a style guide<\/a> for your website early on will help you make sure your style is consistent across the site and everything looks the way you want it to. This doesn\u2019t have to be anything too long or complicated. It can be a basic list of notes on the stylistic choices you want to use on your site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Consider things like whether you want your elements and buttons to have rounded corners or sharp ones. Do you want all the pages on your website to maintain the same basic layout? What coloring do you want to use for backgrounds, text, links, and buttons? What font do you want to use, and if you want to use more than one, what contexts should you use each in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can get some inspiration by looking at examples of other style guides<\/a>, but yours can be much simpler than anything the big brands put together. It should simply serve as a guide you can revisit anytime you\u2019re working on a new page and need a reminder of how to keep it stylistically in line with the rest of the site. While this part doesn\u2019t have to do with making your website beautiful, it\u2019s an important step in creating a website that\u2019s effective. Everyone that creates a website has something they want to accomplish. In order to do so, you need to be strategic in creating a website designed to meet your goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spend some time clearly defining what those goals are. You\u2019ll definitely have one overarching goal-for a business owner, that will be making new sales, for a personal website it could be connecting with people through blog posts ho care about the same things you do. In addition to that, you\u2019ll likely have a number of smaller goals that contribute to your primary one: getting noticed by the right people, gaining traffic, and building an email list are a few possible examples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you approach your website design with clear goals in mind, you\u2019ll do a better job of making a website that\u2019s in line with what you want it to be and do. And you\u2019ll know how to track its success after it goes live. We\u2019ve talked a lot about visual design so far, but the wording you choose will be just as important to accomplishing your goals as the visual aesthetic. The written content you include on your website (called copy in marketing parlance) has to do the heavy lifting of telling your visitors what the website is about and why they should care. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You may find this easier if you take a little time to look at similar websites and see how they describe themselves. They can serve as inspiration to help you clarify your own messaging, while also making clear what\u2019s already being done. Ideally, you want to differentiate yourself from other websites and communicate to visitors what makes yours unique. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Write out your unique value proposition (UVP), a line or two that describes what your website has to offer and how it\u2019s different from any other site. You can put the UVP directly on your website\u2019s homepage, and it will also help guide you in the copy you create for the rest of the site. Another important factor in keeping your website effective is making sure it\u2019s intuitive. You don\u2019t want to overload your visitors with too much information on one page-that\u2019s both confusing and bad for SEO. So figure out how to divide everything you want to share into a number of pages that are each devoted to a manageable amount of information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you have an idea of the different pages you\u2019ll create, think about how to best organize them in a way that will make it easy for your visitors to find what they\u2019re interested in. Figure out a few main categories your different pages fit into. These will probably be your main menu items. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If your website will be fairly simple and only have a few pages, this step shouldn\u2019t be too complicated. If you expect your website to grow into something much larger that has dozens or hundreds of pages, then it\u2019s even more important to define a clear website architecture<\/a> now that you\u2019ll stick with moving forward. Now that you\u2019ve done all the advance prep to figure out what you want your website to look like and say, pull up your template and start making the necessary changes. Make sure you stick with your style guide, color scheme, messaging, and organization plan as you work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It can be easy to get carried away with making changes that look good in isolation, especially when a personal or business website builder makes each little tweak so easy. But you did all the work in those steps for a reason and your website will be more user friendly, beautiful, and effective if you follow the guidelines you created for yourself. When you spend time working on a website, you get too close to it to see it the way someone else will. Before you push it out into the larger world, find a friend you trust to be a set of fresh eyes for you. They may be able to spot minor errors or let you know if the navigation is a little confusing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Listen to their feedback and make any changes they recommend that you trust will make the website better.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"drag](\"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/470x60-Blog-DragNDrop.png\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nWhy Create a Website with a Website Builder?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n1. You can use website templates designed by professional designers.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"choose](\"https:\/\/lh4.googleusercontent.com\/S8oWK8Gaa3c1euyxw-t8QCrO8cCUYBPHK9js-d7M3c1_rFragiPmrDXcLaUtAo01Z1huiRY3jGNSByO3VEkErD_Z6ZRrWy_ZE8ygALXuHUkzpeTjgg1pyR89EC8u9120_k9WZw0V\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n2. You don\u2019t have to learn how to code.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n3. You can make the website your own.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\nHow to Create a Website with a Website Builder<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n1. Choose your website builder.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n2. Select your favorite template.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n3. Choose your color scheme.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"choose](\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/onZcW5jFYwI6o9EQlU-NlPC_nPh4d0fYqaMhDRJmx_kVmUMrphcVmlMeli4u2CWQw2UHx2qF0TXBSxBaVwwM7Q-yqbhddOxYnSxdlneCiPOi2OUqJGGjCOn8_0oxbXsUEPKXJr9h\")
4. Create a style guide for your site.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n5. Define your website\u2019s goals.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n6. Clarify your messaging.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n7. Decide on your website\u2019s pages and organization.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n8. Get to work creating your site.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n9. Run it by someone else to get a second opinion.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\nUnleash Your Beautiful Website<\/h2>\n\n\n\n