January 1, 2025 • 10 mins
Drawing a parallel between website creation and house building, Chrissy explains the importance of having a solid foundation before beginning construction. She details the four essential building blocks: strategy, content, design elements, and launch planning, providing practical guidance for each component.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:09):
Welcome to Website Success.
I'm your host, Chrissy Rey, andtoday we're going to talk about
what you need to prepare beforeyou start building your website.
And before I get into that, I want toapologize for taking a little break there.
I had a vacation planned, went to Disneyworld, and then when I got back, there
was the craziness of the holidays.
(00:29):
So the last month or so hasbeen a little bit hectic.
I also had to cancel my WebsiteQuickstart Challenge because I had no
voice when I got back from vacation.
I rescheduled that to January.
It's going to be January 22ndis when it's going to start.
And then the build your website in oneday course is going to be on February 1st.
(00:50):
So I'll talk more aboutthose a little bit later.
But back to thosewebsite, building blocks.
Creating a website is kindof like building a house.
When it comes to a house, you'regoing to start with a blueprint.
And then you're goingto build a foundation.
You're going to put up your walls.
You have to do things in a certain order.
(01:10):
And a website is very much like that.
You could start building it in anyorder that you want, but in order
to build a good website, you do needto do things in a certain order.
I recently had a client come to me,totally frustrated because she had spent
three weeks trying to build her website.
And she would start building it andthen she would delete everything and
(01:30):
then she would start building it againand then she would delete everything.
And the reason that she kept doing thiswas because she hadn't really prepared
anything before she started building, shejust jumped right in and started building.
She was trying to make a lot of thedecisions that she needed to make before
she started building, as she was doing it.
It's kind of like buildingthe plane as you're flying it.
(01:51):
You're probably not going to do that.
Or at least you shouldn't do that.
You want to come up with a plan beforeyou start actually building anything.
So I'm going to walk you through thefour, what I would consider essential
building blocks that you need beforeyou start building your website
and you can sort of think of theseas the foundation of your website.
So things that you need toget ready before the actual
(02:13):
building is going to happen.
It's going to make thebuilding a lot easier.
Building block number one isgoing to be a clear strategy
and this actually covers a lot.
You can kind of think of this likeyour blueprint for building your house,
which is why I have a website successblueprint that you can find in the
resources at websitesuccessacademy.com.
(02:33):
And if you don't want todownload my blueprint, you can
just answer a few questions.
I want you to start by askingyourself, what do you want people
to do when they visit your website?
Do you want to, do you want themto book a call, buy a product,
sign up for your email list?
If you don't know what you want themto do, how are they going to know?
I recently had a client who saidthey just want people to look around.
(02:55):
They want them to learn more about themon their website, but when I dug a little
bit deeper, we figured out that what shereally wanted was for people to book a
discovery call with her on her website.
And that completely changedhow we approach the website.
You also need to be crystal clearabout who you're trying to reach.
I always want you to remember ifyou're trying to talk to everyone.
(03:17):
You're probably not reallyconnecting with anyone.
You need to have a specifictarget audience in mind.
And you also need to think about whatare you going to consider success
when it comes to your website?
How are you going to know if what you'retrying to do is actually happening?
You got to think about whatyour goals are for the website.
(03:37):
And they could be things like gettingfive calls scheduled a month, or
maybe selling 10 products a week.
So whatever it is, I want youto define it before you do
anything else on your website.
Now part of your strategy isgoing to include nailing down all
of your technical requirements.
This is kind of like decidingwhat materials you're going to use
(03:58):
when you're building your house.
And yeah, it sounds a little bitscary, but it doesn't have to be.
There are three main thingsthat you need to consider.
Number one, it's going to be your domainname, which is your website address.
You also need to think about whatwebsite builder you're going to
use, which is the tool that you'regoing to use to create your website.
And then you need to consider where yourwebsite's going to live, which is going
(04:22):
to be the hosting for your website.
For your domain name, keep itsimple, make it easy to spell, make
it easy for people to find you.
For your website builder, you need topick one that matches your needs and your
technical comfort level, but also supportsall of the functionality that you need.
So that's a little bitharder, but still doable.
I usually recommend WordPress formost of my clients, but there are
(04:45):
other good options that are out theredepending on your specific situation.
Now for hosting, some of that is goingto depend on which builder you choose.
So, for example, for website builders,like Wix and Squarespace, you've
got to use Wix and Squarespace.
The builder is the host.
But if you're using a builder likeWordPress, you do have a lot more choices.
(05:06):
You need to find a reliablecompany with excellent support.
And if you need any help with that,I have a mini course on choosing a
WordPress hosting provider on thewebsite success academy website.
Building block number two ofthese essential building blocks
is going to be your content.
And this one is probablythe most time-consuming part
(05:27):
of the preparation process.
But it's also one of themost important parts.
You need your written content.
And I don't just mean a fewsentences about your business.
You need to have some compelling copythat speaks directly to your target
audience, which is why you need tofigure out who your target audience
is with building block number one.
You also need good images and notice Isaid, good images, not perfect images.
(05:51):
They do need to be clear and professionallooking, but they don't necessarily
need to be worthy of a magazine cover.
And please don't get stuck onthinking you'd need to hire a
professional photographer beforeyou can launch your website.
You don't.
Yes, professional photos are great.
They're going to be the best, butyou can absolutely start with good
(06:11):
quality DIY photos on your smartphone.
If you've got an Android or aniPhone, you can use that to take
some really nice looking pictures.
You can look on YouTube, but there'slots of tutorials on how to do that.
Building block number three isgoing to be your design elements.
And this is going to include thingslike your color palette, your fonts,
(06:31):
your basic layout for your website.
Remember what I said in previousepisodes about planning your
website and building your website.
Don't get stuck in thatperfectionism loop.
You need to make some decisions beforeyou start building, but do remember
that they are not set in stone forever.
When you're thinking about your designelements, I do recommend choosing two to
(06:52):
three colors, two to three fonts, morethan those tend to make your website look
a little cluttered and unprofessional.
And for layout, look at otherwebsites in your industry.
What do you like?
What don't you like?
What is your targetaudience going to like?
Make some notes about your preferencesand your audience's preferences.
And one thing I do want you to keepin mind about your website layout is
(07:13):
that less is usually going to be more.
I have a recent episode whereI talked with Eve Simon.
She covered this in a lot of detail,but go back and listen to that episode.
You want to make good use of white space.
Don't try to crameverything in there at once.
Sort of break it upinto bite-sized chunks.
Finally, we've got buildingblock number four, which is
(07:34):
going to be your launch plan.
Yes, you do need to think aboutthis before you start building.
You need to think about what you'regoing to test before you launch,
which goes back to what functionalityyou're going to have in your website.
And how are you going toannounce your new website?
Because just because you put it outthere on the internet, doesn't mean
people are going to start coming to it.
(07:54):
I also want you to think about things likewhat maintenance tasks you're going to
need to handle after you launch, what aresome additional features that you're going
to add to your website in the future?
And having all of those thingsplanned out is going to make the
whole process a lot less stressful.
So those are the four building blocks.
How do you get all of those things ready?
I've got good news.
(08:15):
If you've listened to some of myprevious episodes, you already
know about my Website QuickstartChallenge, which I did reschedule
again, it starts on January 22nd, 2025.
So if you're listening to thisafter, then it already happened.
But we will work through the firstthree building blocks together.
We're going to create your strategy.
We will go through and create a simplifiedversion of the website success blueprint.
(08:39):
And you will start working on your contentand making your key design decisions.
Then, if you want to actually build yourwebsite, you can join me for my build
your website and one day workshop, whichwill be on Saturday, February 1st, 2025.
And we'll spend six hours going throughthe building process step-by-step.
(09:00):
I do have some action stepsthat you can take right now.
Number one, start documentingyour goals for your website.
Number two research, somedomain names for your website.
If you don't already have that.
Number three, make a list of all thecontent that you're going to need.
Four, start collecting some websiteinspiration in a Pinterest board.
And number five, sign up for thatWebsite Quickstart Challenge.
(09:24):
The links for both the challenge and thebuild your website in one day workshop
are going to be in the show notes atwebsitesuccessacademy.com/podcast.
If you have any questions about any ofthese building blocks, come and join me in
my Website Success Lounge Facebook group.
I will be happy to help you figure outwhat you need for your specific situation.
And the link for that willalso be in the show notes.
(09:47):
Remember, preparation is the key to asmooth website build, take the time to
get these building blocks ready, andyou will be amazed at how much easier
the actual building process becomes.
Especially if you have experiencedtrying to build a website without
putting those building blocks in place.
If you enjoyed this episode, makesure you subscribe, leave a review
(10:07):
on your favorite podcast platformand come back for my next episode.
Thank you so much as always for tuning in,and I hope to chat with you again soon.
Welcome to Website Success.
I'm your host, Chrissy Rey, andtoday we're going to talk about
what you need to prepare beforeyou start building your website.
And before I get into that, I want toapologize for taking a little break there.
I had a vacation planned, went to Disneyworld, and then when I got back, there
was the craziness of the holidays.
(00:29):
So the last month or so hasbeen a little bit hectic.
I also had to cancel my WebsiteQuickstart Challenge because I had no
voice when I got back from vacation.
I rescheduled that to January.
It's going to be January 22ndis when it's going to start.
And then the build your website in oneday course is going to be on February 1st.
(00:50):
So I'll talk more aboutthose a little bit later.
But back to thosewebsite, building blocks.
Creating a website is kindof like building a house.
When it comes to a house, you'regoing to start with a blueprint.
And then you're goingto build a foundation.
You're going to put up your walls.
You have to do things in a certain order.
(01:10):
And a website is very much like that.
You could start building it in anyorder that you want, but in order
to build a good website, you do needto do things in a certain order.
I recently had a client come to me,totally frustrated because she had spent
three weeks trying to build her website.
And she would start building it andthen she would delete everything and
(01:30):
then she would start building it againand then she would delete everything.
And the reason that she kept doing thiswas because she hadn't really prepared
anything before she started building, shejust jumped right in and started building.
She was trying to make a lot of thedecisions that she needed to make before
she started building, as she was doing it.
It's kind of like buildingthe plane as you're flying it.
(01:51):
You're probably not going to do that.
Or at least you shouldn't do that.
You want to come up with a plan beforeyou start actually building anything.
So I'm going to walk you through thefour, what I would consider essential
building blocks that you need beforeyou start building your website
and you can sort of think of theseas the foundation of your website.
So things that you need toget ready before the actual
(02:13):
building is going to happen.
It's going to make thebuilding a lot easier.
Building block number one isgoing to be a clear strategy
and this actually covers a lot.
You can kind of think of this likeyour blueprint for building your house,
which is why I have a website successblueprint that you can find in the
resources at websitesuccessacademy.com.
(02:33):
And if you don't want todownload my blueprint, you can
just answer a few questions.
I want you to start by askingyourself, what do you want people
to do when they visit your website?
Do you want to, do you want themto book a call, buy a product,
sign up for your email list?
If you don't know what you want themto do, how are they going to know?
I recently had a client who saidthey just want people to look around.
(02:55):
They want them to learn more about themon their website, but when I dug a little
bit deeper, we figured out that what shereally wanted was for people to book a
discovery call with her on her website.
And that completely changedhow we approach the website.
You also need to be crystal clearabout who you're trying to reach.
I always want you to remember ifyou're trying to talk to everyone.
(03:17):
You're probably not reallyconnecting with anyone.
You need to have a specifictarget audience in mind.
And you also need to think about whatare you going to consider success
when it comes to your website?
How are you going to know if what you'retrying to do is actually happening?
You got to think about whatyour goals are for the website.
(03:37):
And they could be things like gettingfive calls scheduled a month, or
maybe selling 10 products a week.
So whatever it is, I want youto define it before you do
anything else on your website.
Now part of your strategy isgoing to include nailing down all
of your technical requirements.
This is kind of like decidingwhat materials you're going to use
(03:58):
when you're building your house.
And yeah, it sounds a little bitscary, but it doesn't have to be.
There are three main thingsthat you need to consider.
Number one, it's going to be your domainname, which is your website address.
You also need to think about whatwebsite builder you're going to
use, which is the tool that you'regoing to use to create your website.
And then you need to consider where yourwebsite's going to live, which is going
(04:22):
to be the hosting for your website.
For your domain name, keep itsimple, make it easy to spell, make
it easy for people to find you.
For your website builder, you need topick one that matches your needs and your
technical comfort level, but also supportsall of the functionality that you need.
So that's a little bitharder, but still doable.
I usually recommend WordPress formost of my clients, but there are
(04:45):
other good options that are out theredepending on your specific situation.
Now for hosting, some of that is goingto depend on which builder you choose.
So, for example, for website builders,like Wix and Squarespace, you've
got to use Wix and Squarespace.
The builder is the host.
But if you're using a builder likeWordPress, you do have a lot more choices.
(05:06):
You need to find a reliablecompany with excellent support.
And if you need any help with that,I have a mini course on choosing a
WordPress hosting provider on thewebsite success academy website.
Building block number two ofthese essential building blocks
is going to be your content.
And this one is probablythe most time-consuming part
(05:27):
of the preparation process.
But it's also one of themost important parts.
You need your written content.
And I don't just mean a fewsentences about your business.
You need to have some compelling copythat speaks directly to your target
audience, which is why you need tofigure out who your target audience
is with building block number one.
You also need good images and notice Isaid, good images, not perfect images.
(05:51):
They do need to be clear and professionallooking, but they don't necessarily
need to be worthy of a magazine cover.
And please don't get stuck onthinking you'd need to hire a
professional photographer beforeyou can launch your website.
You don't.
Yes, professional photos are great.
They're going to be the best, butyou can absolutely start with good
(06:11):
quality DIY photos on your smartphone.
If you've got an Android or aniPhone, you can use that to take
some really nice looking pictures.
You can look on YouTube, but there'slots of tutorials on how to do that.
Building block number three isgoing to be your design elements.
And this is going to include thingslike your color palette, your fonts,
(06:31):
your basic layout for your website.
Remember what I said in previousepisodes about planning your
website and building your website.
Don't get stuck in thatperfectionism loop.
You need to make some decisions beforeyou start building, but do remember
that they are not set in stone forever.
When you're thinking about your designelements, I do recommend choosing two to
(06:52):
three colors, two to three fonts, morethan those tend to make your website look
a little cluttered and unprofessional.
And for layout, look at otherwebsites in your industry.
What do you like?
What don't you like?
What is your targetaudience going to like?
Make some notes about your preferencesand your audience's preferences.
And one thing I do want you to keepin mind about your website layout is
(07:13):
that less is usually going to be more.
I have a recent episode whereI talked with Eve Simon.
She covered this in a lot of detail,but go back and listen to that episode.
You want to make good use of white space.
Don't try to crameverything in there at once.
Sort of break it upinto bite-sized chunks.
Finally, we've got buildingblock number four, which is
(07:34):
going to be your launch plan.
Yes, you do need to think aboutthis before you start building.
You need to think about what you'regoing to test before you launch,
which goes back to what functionalityyou're going to have in your website.
And how are you going toannounce your new website?
Because just because you put it outthere on the internet, doesn't mean
people are going to start coming to it.
(07:54):
I also want you to think about things likewhat maintenance tasks you're going to
need to handle after you launch, what aresome additional features that you're going
to add to your website in the future?
And having all of those thingsplanned out is going to make the
whole process a lot less stressful.
So those are the four building blocks.
How do you get all of those things ready?
I've got good news.
(08:15):
If you've listened to some of myprevious episodes, you already
know about my Website QuickstartChallenge, which I did reschedule
again, it starts on January 22nd, 2025.
So if you're listening to thisafter, then it already happened.
But we will work through the firstthree building blocks together.
We're going to create your strategy.
We will go through and create a simplifiedversion of the website success blueprint.
(08:39):
And you will start working on your contentand making your key design decisions.
Then, if you want to actually build yourwebsite, you can join me for my build
your website and one day workshop, whichwill be on Saturday, February 1st, 2025.
And we'll spend six hours going throughthe building process step-by-step.
(09:00):
I do have some action stepsthat you can take right now.
Number one, start documentingyour goals for your website.
Number two research, somedomain names for your website.
If you don't already have that.
Number three, make a list of all thecontent that you're going to need.
Four, start collecting some websiteinspiration in a Pinterest board.
And number five, sign up for thatWebsite Quickstart Challenge.
(09:24):
The links for both the challenge and thebuild your website in one day workshop
are going to be in the show notes atwebsitesuccessacademy.com/podcast.
If you have any questions about any ofthese building blocks, come and join me in
my Website Success Lounge Facebook group.
I will be happy to help you figure outwhat you need for your specific situation.
And the link for that willalso be in the show notes.
(09:47):
Remember, preparation is the key to asmooth website build, take the time to
get these building blocks ready, andyou will be amazed at how much easier
the actual building process becomes.
Especially if you have experiencedtrying to build a website without
putting those building blocks in place.
If you enjoyed this episode, makesure you subscribe, leave a review
(10:07):
on your favorite podcast platformand come back for my next episode.
Thank you so much as always for tuning in,and I hope to chat with you again soon.
Popular Podcasts
United States of Kennedy
United States of Kennedy is a podcast about our cultural fascination with the Kennedy dynasty. Every week, hosts Lyra Smith and George Civeris go into one aspect of the Kennedy story.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com