What comes up most often in our work is explaining all the steps involved in creating a website to our customers and collaborators. Nothing more normal, in fact. If they knew that, they wouldn’t need us!
Over the years, we’ve developed a very simple pictorial method of explanation that reaches everyone, comparing the steps involved in building a house to those involved in building a website.
A few words of caution before you start: we’re well aware that there are a thousand and one ways to create a website. Although all the parts described here can be found in one way or another on most online sites, the method described here is aimed primarily at :
I’ve summarized the pictorial infographic here, and invite you to click on the links to find out more about any of the steps involved. Enjoy your reading!
URL, domain name, website address… all are synonyms for the location of your online website. A domain name is reserved for a period of time with a registrar, such as GoDaddy, Bluehost, NameCheap or others, and is renewable at the end of your agreement. For example, you can reserve your domain name and renew it annually.
The domain name is what will manage your DNS. DNS controls your e-mail and website hosting. It’s the lifeblood of your online identity.
Entrepreneurial tip
Keep this information safe at all times, since it’s also the most difficult to retrieve.
This is the ground on which you’ll build your site. An accommodation package is also renewable at the end of your rental period. In other words, you can rent your plot for 1 month, 3 months, a year or more.
As a rule, domain name registrars also offer hosting packages. However, not all web hosts are domain name registrars. There’s no need to purchase your hosting package from your domain name registrar; you’ll simply need to point your DNS to your host once your site is online. Did I just lose you? Never fear! Many excellent blogs and vlogs are available online to explain it all!
Entrepreneur’s tip
To improve your site’s response time without having to install additional extensions, do your research and choose a local host. This will ensure better SEO. Contact us if you’d like more information about our hosting provider.
CMS, or Content Management System, is your content management system. Once your website is up and running, this is where you’ll make changes (adding information, writing the blog, adding images, etc.). Like the foundation of a house, it’s the foundation of your site. We also refer to the CMS when we use the term “back-end”. Although companies specializing in website programming often work with a CMS of their own, most of the sites you browse today are generally built on popular CMS such as WordPress, Joomla or even Drupal.
Arcane Evolution specializes in WordPress, but also manages sites hosted and built on Wix, Shopify and other online platforms.
Entrepreneur’s tip
A site built on Wix, Shopify or another e-commerce platform combines hosting and CMS, and sometimes also e-mail and URL management. These are “one-stop shop” platforms. Although they offer ease of creation for web beginners, they are ultimately platforms that are not very malleable in terms of functionality, with SEO that is difficult to control and extensions that are expensive in the end. What’s more, they’re very hard to quit.
Do you have a simple site to make? Go ahead, that’s what they’re there for. On the other hand, as soon as you need to invest a little more, ask yourself if it’s time to move on to something more powerful that will evolve over time.
What kind of home do you want? A log cabin? A modern home? The theme is your basic structure, the type of website you want to have. There are several themes available to suit all tastes, all types of company or project, and all budgets. Some themes are even free!
Themes are available according to the CMS you have chosen. If you’re building your website on a WordPress foundation, for example, you can go to sites like Theme Forest to browse through all the possibilities and make a choice. Once the theme has been chosen, paid for and downloaded, all you have to do is install it.
Most of today’s themes combine built-in builders. For example, the site you’re currently browsing uses the “Hello” theme, designed specifically for Elementor. The best builders on the market at the moment are certainly “x theme”, “Elementor” and “Divi”.
Entrepreneur’s tip
To get a site that represents you as accurately as possible, find ideas online for sites that “turn you on”, even if they’re not in the same industry. This will save you time and, ultimately, time is money!
Do you want your house walls to be blue? Red with yellow polka dots? You will certainly be advised to go and see a designer. The same goes for your website. Although there are an increasing number of programmers who offer combined design and programming services, as a general rule, the designer is the right person to draw up the plans for your site: colors, fonts, structure, design of the various pages, and so on.
Entrepreneur’s tip
For smaller budgets, it’s possible to create a site based on a “template”, which will save the graphic design stage. It’s still important to choose your colors and fonts.
The crucial moment: building the house. After all this upstream work, it’s now time to build the website. This is when everything takes shape. It’s also at this time that it’s important to apply all the current SEO rules so that your site performs well and is recognized by the search engines!
At Arcane Evolution, we make sure to implement the basic rules of SEO to make your life easier!
Ta da!
Any questions? Write to us!
Nathalie 🙂
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