Learn to Build Your Own Website!

WordPress
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Build a WordPress Website
I can help with any of the steps in building a WordPress website, such as:
Choosing a platform: There are many options to choose from when building a WordPress website, that vary in cost, appearance, customization potential and how much learning is required.
Choosing a domain name: This may not be a difficult decision, especially if you will be using your business name as your URL, but if not, we can discuss options.
Selecting a web hosting package and a theme: If you have read my blog post: Building a WordPress Website: Pre-Build Considerations, you’ll have noticed that I am very partial to using SiteGround for web hosting and Avada for the theme.
Install WordPress and adjust settings: Access your cPanel and set up WordPress, caching, security and other features.
Create Content: Add content to your pages, customize the layout and write blog posts
Install plugins: Add additional functionality to your website by adding plugins

Market Research
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Market Research
Many things can be learned about the market you are in, including: the search frequency for keywords relevant to your business, who is interacting with your website and how, who has backlinked your website, who has backlinked your competition’s website, and much more. Important tools include:
Google Trends: can inform you about how interest in a particular area is changing over time.
Google Keyword Planner: is among the most important tools available to you; it can tell you how many people are searching on the internet for particular words and phrases and what those words and phrases are.
Google Analytics: can be used to track visitors to your site; find out where traffic is coming from (geographically), who is visiting your site (demographics) and how they are interacting with your various web pages, among other things.
Other Tools: There are many other tools available to you, such as Google Search Console, SEO plugins and other free and paid SEO tools.

Search Engine Optimization
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SEO
Building a website is only half the battle, you will also need to draw visitors to your site. Depending on the subject matter of your website and your viewership goals, this can be a very competitive process. Some of the things you may wish to learn about include:
- How Google and Bing rank websites and how you can increase your ranking with them
- On page SEO: creating uniquely valuable information that search engines can understand
- How to register your business so it shows up on Google maps
- How to increase the number of backlinks to your website
- Black hat techniques (such as Private blog networks PBNs,) who uses them and what the risks are
- White hat techniques (such as creating a great blog that generates organic traffic)
- Use of paid advertising
- Other
There are many things to consider and I can help you develop a content strategy that will achieve your goals.

Google Advertising
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Google AdWords
I can show you how to set up an advertising campaign using Google AdWords. Learn how to set up an account, how to research and select good key words, how to set a maximum budget and write your ad.

Shopify
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Shopify
Coming soon: How to build an eCommerce website using Shopify. After researching the various eCommerce platforms, I found Shopify to be the best rated by most users. I have not yet used Shopify, but will be designing a site using this platform soon. If you are hoping to use Shopify, I may be able to work through the process with you (for free), let me know if you’re interested!

Google Sites
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Google Sites (also called Google Apps for Work)
Google Sites is is a little known platform for building websites that may be suitable for those who require only a simple website.
Advantages Include:
- Some eCommerce capability (PayPal simple storefront)
- It’s free. There is an option to upgrade to a $5 or $10 plan, however, the free option will be suitable for most users
- No advertising (unlike the free WordPress option)
- You can use any domain name. Note: by default, your site will have a URL starting with sites.google.com, but if you buy a custom domain name, you can switch to that URL.
- Some limited functionality can be added, beyond static text, pictures and video using Google’s gadgets, which are equivalent in some ways to a WordPress plugin
- Various documents can be made available to your visitors, for download, including PDFs and word files.
Disadvantages Include
- Limited ability to customize and simplistic appearance. Note that it may be possible to mitigate this issue to some extent by purchasing a template. There are several companies offering Google Sites templates for about $50, however, I have not yet tried these and can’t comment on their usefulness.
- Bandwidth cap: if your website’s usage exceeds a certain amount, Google will temporarily block your account. Google does not specify what their bandwidth limitation is, but if you only have a few thousand visitor per month, or less, you should be fine.
- Size cap on your website: you are limited to 500 MB of text, files and photos.
- The mobile responsiveness option is very poor and should probably be inactivated.
Here is an example Google Sites website, which was created in minutes for demonstration purposes.

eCommerce
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eCommerce
There are many ways to add eCommerce capability to a WordPress website. I use WooCommerce, which is the most widely used eCommerce platform for WordPress and it’s great for eCommerce startups. The basic platform is free and additional functionality can be added for a fee.

Graphics
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Graphics
Every website needs graphics, including: stock photos, illustrations, icons and perhaps a logo. You’ll also need to know how to alter images to prepare them for the web. Several modifications are frequently necessary, including: cropping, resizing, saving to new formats and removing backgrounds. I can show you where to find images, or create them yourself. I can teach you how to use PowerPoint and Adobe Photoshop and if you’re really eager to learn how to create graphics yourself, I can introduce you to the very powerful 3D graphics and animation software; Cinema 4D.