The thought of building and maintaining your own website might sound intimidating. However, having one is a must for any person or business looking to promote their content, products, and services.
There are loads of website building platforms out there, but the Wix website builder is a great fit for most styles, niches, and brands, especially:
- Online stores
- Small businesses
- Restaurants
- Musicians
- Photographers
- Artists
- Bloggers
Though, this doesn’t mean that Wix won’t “work” for anyone outside these categories. In this article, I’ll be walking you through step-by-step as you create your website on Wix!
1. Sign up & create an account
An advantage of Wix is that you can create your site first, and then decide whether you want to pay for any additional features. Otherwise, you can stay with a free setup!
The first step in building your website starts with registering for an account. Go to the Wix homepage and choose Get Started. Then you’ll enter your email address and create an account.
The sign-up process is done once you finish answering a few short questions about your new site.
2. Choose what kind of site to make
You’ve signed up, and now you’ll be asked if you want to make a website via the Wix Editor or if you want to have the Wix ADI (artificial intelligence designer) tool design and build it for you. In other words, you can either build everything by hand, or let the ADI create a website on Wix for you.
Using the ADI option is efficient, especially since you can come back as you please to customize or tweak the nitty-gritty details of your site. You’re not bound to the initial suggestions that Wix gives you.
You might decide to skip the ADI and pick your own template if you want some more control over your website.
Click on Start Now, and, depending on the answers you gave during the sign-up process, Wix will ask you some more follow-up questions to determine the perfect design and site structure that are most conducive to your project.
Be sure to put a lot of thought into choosing the design options you favor the most because the ADI tool will formulate a website based on your answers. Then your site will then open within the ADI Editor.
3. Select your template
If you decide to go by hand with the Wix Editor, click Choose a Template.
You’re able to filter the templates by category and see each template in demo mode by clicking View. When you’ve settled on a template that’s suitable for your project, select Edit.
4. Design & customize your site
Now with your template chosen, you’re able to modify it in the Wix Editor with simple drag-and-drop editing.
Click on an element on the page to do the following:
- Adjust its settings
- Resize or reposition it
- Change colors
- Rewrite text
Plus much more! Any edits made will show in real-time, so you’ll know how visitors see your site immediately.
To go beyond baseline customizations, you’ll use the options in the menu on the left-hand side. Below are some features you can apply to your site.
Elements
Under Add, you can add a wide range of elements to your website pages, including:
- Galleries and images
- Slideshows
- Videos and music
- Clickable buttons
- Forms
As I mentioned, simply use drag-and-drop editing to add the element(s) to your site.
Backgrounds
You’re also able to change background color or image, or display a video background. There’s the option to upload your own media, or choose from Wix’s sizeable selection of free media.
Additional Pages
Create pages for your website on Wix by going under Menus and Pages. This is where you can add more pages as well as rename, hide, or delete them, and move around their order in the menu.
You can find your pages’ Setting options here too. Some of the key tools offered are:
- SEO – Add metadata to each page to boost your SEO rankings
- Social Shares – Add images and text that will be displayed with social media shares
- Permissions – Designate who can view pages; make members-only or restricted content pages
Blogging
Adding a blog to your Wix site is easy! All you need to do is click on the Start Blogging icon. Next, click Add Now to add the Wix Blog app to your website.
Under My Blog, select Create New Post. You can add and publish new blog posts here.
In addition, you have the ability to view and manage your posts by choosing My Blog followed by Manage Posts.
5. Optimize & go mobile
Since so many people are viewing from their mobile devices, it’s important for you to make sure your website looks properly formatted on them. Luckily, Wix is great for this.
The top menu has icons indicating Desktop and Mobile. Switching from Desktop to Mobile mode gives you the option to edit your site’s format for mobile devices.
Any changes you make after you’ve switched to Mobile won’t affect how your site looks on Desktop until you choose to switch back to Desktop.
Tips for making your site look optimal and more aesthetically appealing on mobile devices include:
- Positioning your contact information closer to the top of your page(s)
- Hiding images that aren’t crucial and/or look crowded on mobile
- Emphasizing the main product and/or service that you provide
6. Add functionality with Wix apps
The Wix App Marketplace is full of free and premium apps that can add extra functionality to your website. To access the marketplace, click on the Apps icon, scan through the apps, and find one that you like.
A few of the top apps currently available to download in the Wix marketplace are:
- Online Store – Make an online store for your website
- Instagram Feed – Display your Instagram images and videos
- Wix Stores – Create and manage your events online
To install a free app, click Add to Site after opening the app’s page.
7. Publish your website!
Before you’re able to publish your site, you need to either make your own subdomain, or connect a custom domain.
For a “serious,” or professional, website, you might want to consider connecting your personal custom domain name rather than using a Wix subdomain. It’s important to note that you’ll need to upgrade your Wix account to a premium plan in order to have a custom domain.
Finally, select Publish when you’re ready to share your website publicly! Visitors will be able to access it at the domain name you’ve picked.
Building a website is hard – but it doesn’t have to be! Wix makes it quick and painless to create a website, and now you’re ready to assemble your own.
Good luck!
Additional articles you might be interested in:
- How To Keep Your Website Updated
- 5 Ways To Create A Thriving Website
- 10 Ways To Promote Your Business For Little Or No Cost
- How To Find Your Niche In Blogging
- 10 Tools To Build Your New Blog
- How To Master SEO As A Beginner
- 7 Easy Ways To Get Your Social Media Followers To Your Website
- How To Make Your Blog Mobile Friendly
- 5 Reasons To Make A Website For Your Small Business
- How To Create The Ultimate Business Website
- 5 Reasons Why Your Website Conversion Rates Are So Low
- How To Immediately Capture Interest To Make People Stay On Your Website
- 5 Easy Ways To Optimize Your Website For Capturing Leads
- How To Drive More Traffic To Your Website
- 5 Branding Materials To Build Your Website
- 5 Easy Ways To Improve Your Website’s Load Time
Bridget Baltazar is a blogging intern at LadyBossBlogger. She currently attends the University of Iowa and is studying communication studies, human relations, and environmental sustainability.
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