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DIYing your own website can be a rewarding and empowering experience. Wix, with its user-friendly interface and versatile design options, is an excellent choice for DIY website building. Whether you’re launching a blog, a service-based business, an online store, or a portfolio, here are some tips and tricks to help you successfully DIY your own Wix website.
Plan Your Website’s Purpose and Structure
Before diving into the design process, take some time to outline the goals you have for your website and what information you need to share with your audience.
Ask yourself:
- What is the main purpose of your website? (i.e.., selling products, showcasing a portfolio or services, blogging)
- What is the one action you want people to take when coming to your site? (i.e., buy products, view portfolio, sign up for a service, read your blog, contact you)
- Who is your target audience?
- What key pages do you need? (i.e., Home, About, Services, Blog, Contact)
Sketch out a simple sitemap to visualize the structure and navigation flow. This will serve as a blueprint for your website and ensure that you don’t miss any critical elements.
If you need help developing the content for your Wix website, check out my 1-Page Website Copywriting Template.
Choose the Right Template
Wix offers a vast array of templates tailored to different industries and purposes. Some of these templates are free and some are paid.
When selecting a template:
- Choose one that most closely aligns with your website’s purpose and target audience.
- Consider the template’s layout and features. Ensure it includes most of the pages or sections that you will need.
Remember, it’s easier to start with a template that’s close to your vision rather than drastically altering a very different one. The more you have to add on your own, the steeper the learning curve will be and the longer it will take you to publish your website.
If you’re looking for more Wix template design options for your website, check out my 1-Page Wix Website Template for your service-based small business.
Customize Your Design
Customization is where you can infuse your brand’s personality into your Wix website.
Here are some design tips:
- Colors and Fonts: This is where having a brand identity is helpful. Use the colors and fonts that are part of your brand. If you don’t yet have a brand identity, choose a color scheme and font combo that will showcase your brand. Pick 2 primary colors and 2 secondary colors for the main portion of your design. Pick one font for headings and a complimentary font for body text. Wix’s design editor allows you to customize these elements with ease.
- Consistency: Maintain consistency in design elements (colors, fonts, button styles) across all pages to create a cohesive look.
- Images: Use high-quality, license-free images that are relevant to your content. Wix’s media library provides free stock photos, but using your own images can add a personal touch. Unsplash, Pixabay, and Pexels also have a large selection of free and paid images to use for your website. Don’t use Google search to find specific images as it is sometimes hard to tell if you’re able to license those images for your use.
- Have fun: Bringing your design to life is the fun part. Try some different design elements to excite your visitors such as dynamic scrolling effects, interactive chatbots, visual effects, and good use of white space. But remember, you’re still creating a website, so it needs to function as users expect it to, otherwise, they’ll leave your site.
Optimize for SEO & Accessibility
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is crucial for ensuring your website is discoverable by search engines. Use the built-in Wix SEO Setup Checklist to ensure your site is optimized for SEO.
Here’s how:
- Business Information: Enter your business name, and location (even if you’re an online service provider), and choose 5 keywords for your website.
- Page Titles and Descriptions: Write unique and descriptive titles and meta descriptions for each page. Incorporate your keywords in a conversational way.
- Headings: Your pages should incorporate a heading structure, where each page only has one h1 heading
- Keywords: Incorporate relevant keywords naturally into as much of your content as possible. It should never be forced, but rather fit naturally into the content.
- Alt Text: All images must have alt text for accessibility and SEO. Alt text describes what is in an image for a person with a visual impairment. These descriptions can further boost your SEO and aid in accessibility if done correctly.
- Mobile Optimization: Don’t forget about the mobile version of your website. Once you complete the design of the desktop version of your site, ensure all of your pages are mobile-friendly. Wix’s mobile editor lets you customize the mobile view separately from the desktop editor.
Utilize Apps & Features for Wix Websites
Wix offers numerous apps and built-in features that can enhance your website’s functionality. They are user-friendly to incorporate into your website and no coding knowledge is needed.
Basic built-in apps and features (there are too many to list here, these are just the ones that I use most often):
- Wix Stores: For eCommerce websites, Wix Stores provides tools to manage products, payments, and shipping. These features are already built-in to your site when you add the Wix Stores app, so all you have to do is add your products, connect your payment collection method, and decide how you want to ship your products.
- Wix Blog: If you’re starting a blog, the Wix Blog app makes it easy to create, manage, and promote your posts across social media platforms or through email marketing.
- Wix Forms: Use forms to capture leads, get feedback, or collect contact information.
- Social Media Integration: Connect your social media accounts to share content and grow your audience.
- Wix Bookings: If you’re a service provider, this app is a must. You can schedule calls, book services, create pricing plans, and set up courses all within this one app.
- Wix Restaurants: Whether you have a sit-down restaurant or food truck, the Wix Restaurant app makes it easy to add your menu and set up online orders for pickup or delivery.
Publish & Test
What to look for:
- Navigation: Check all links in your menu, on your pages, and in your buttons to ensure the navigation menu works properly, as well as all clickable elements.
- Forms: Test any forms to make sure submissions are correctly received. Make sure you have thank you for submitting messages or email automations set up for when people submit one of your forms.
- Performance: Check the loading speed of your site. Make sure you have compressed and sized all of your images so that your site doesn’t slow down unnecessarily. Make sure you’re only using the apps that are absolutely necessary for your site. You don’t want unused elements on your site to slow it down.
- Mobile View: Review the mobile version to ensure it’s user-friendly and looks the way that it should. You may have to re-size or un-hide elements so that everything transitions smoothly from desktop to mobile view.
Once you’re satisfied with your Wix website, hit the publish button again. Wix makes it easy to continually update and make changes to your live website.
Get Hosting & A Premium Domain
While Wix allows you to publish your website for free with one of their domains, you should treat this domain as a temporary domain. You should connect and pay for a Wix Premium plan which comes with a free premium domain for a year.
Connect Premium Hosting and Domain:
- From your Wix dashboard it will tell you that you’re on the free plan, but give you the option to compare plans.
- Choose the Wix Premium plan that will fit your needs. For more people, the Core or Business plans are sufficient.
- Once you purchase your Wix plan you can then connect or get your domain. This will be a name of your choosing, so long as it’s available.
- You may have to try different options before finding one that will work for you.
Connect Google Search Console & Google Business Profile
Google Search Console and Google Business Profile will give you greater visibility in Google Search results online than you would have without them.
Google Search Console is a free service offered by Google that helps you monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your website’s presence in Google Search results. It allows Google to index your pages so that it knows what content you’re putting out and how best to recommend it.
Google Business Profile is a way for you to set up how your business appears in local search results. Having a Google Business Profile allows you to keep accurate and updated information about your business, interact with customers, and attract new customers by showing up in search results.
Monitor & Update Regularly
Launching your website is just the beginning. Regular updates and monitoring are essential for maintaining its performance and relevance:
- Content Updates: Regularly add fresh content to keep your audience engaged and improve SEO. Google likes to see that you’re updating your site at least once a month. The content should be considered fresh and relevant. Depending on the purpose of your website, a blog might be the easiest and most effective way to do this.
- Analytics: Use Wix’s built-in analytics or connect Google Analytics to track your site’s performance and user behavior. What pages and what content are users of your site interacting with?
Building your own Wix website can be a fulfilling project that showcases your unique brand and business. By planning ahead, customizing thoughtfully, optimizing for SEO, leveraging Wix’s features, and maintaining your site regularly, you’ll create a professional and effective online presence. Dive in, experiment, and enjoy the creative process of bringing your website to life with Wix! And if you get stuck, feel free to take a look at my Wix design portfolio to see how I can help you.
