How to build a website in five easy steps

NAB has partnered with Squarespace to help you build an all-in-one website that is compelling and effective.

Your website is your online homebase, a place to provide context for your work and build direct, authentic connections with customers and clients. You might have social media profiles and accounts on different online marketplaces, but your website is the place where you can tie it all together.

Squarespace’s all-in-one website building platform gives you everything you need to create a compelling, effective online presence. Start your new website with a single landing page, build a multi-faceted presence with media and eCommerce, or anything in between. Here’s Squarespace’s top 5 steps on how to start a business website that leaves a lasting impression.

Find out about offers for NAB business transaction account holders from partner companies

Step 1. Do your research

Before you start building out your website design, sit down and do some brainstorming. This thinking will form the foundation for your website decisions.

Write down answers to these questions:

• What are your top three goals for your website?
• What brand visuals and tone of voice speak to your business and target customer?
• Who is your target audience and how will your website serve them?

Understanding these concepts will help you make decisions about pages to add, copy to write and page design. For example, knowing what you want people to do once they land on your website will help you figure out how to organise your layouts.

When in doubt, look at other websites you admire for inspiration.

Step 2. Choose a template or create your own

An effective website design will help you attract your ideal customers, prove your professionalism and showcase your personality. Website templates are pre-designed layouts that help you quickly create a professional, easy-to-use website.

Squarespace offers a range of templates, opens in new window that you can customize with brand colours, fonts and imagery. Or you can create a fully custom website based on your needs with Squarespace Blueprint AI. You can then drag and drop elements like text blocks, images, photo galleries, logos and more to make the website your own.

When you’re ready to set up a template for your site, your website goals can help to guide you. Are you building an online store, offering appointment booking, selling content or something else? Your intention will determine what pages and information your website needs to include.

Step 3. Add your website pages

You can get started with just a homepage but depending on what you’re building, you’ll likely need additional website pages. Most websites will need an “About us” and “contact information page” for website visitors. Consider what other pages you might need, like a blog page or one for FAQs.

Design page layouts

To design your page layouts, take the time to truly consider your customer journey. How will someone get from the landing page of your site to taking the step of contacting you or buying from you?

As you move pieces around your page design, ask yourself:

• When someone lands on your homepage, can they find the information they need?
• Is your navigation easy to understand?
• Do you naturally guide someone where you want them to go next, like your store page?

The goal is to create a polished representation of your brand that speaks to your target customers’ priorities. The experience visitors have on your website should encourage trust, interest and engagement with your website, which will bring them closer to converting.

Create basic website navigation

Navigation design includes everything from your website’s navigation menu to buttons and copy, hyperlinks and how you lay out your web pages. Good navigation design helps visitors to move around your website and find what they need. Ideally, visitors will have such an easy time finding what they need that they won’t even think about the navigation design of your website.

The more user-friendly your website navigation is, the more people will want to stay on the page. A bad design will cause people to click away from your site before getting to your content or products.

Intuitive design and navigation can impact key website factors like:

• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) performance
• How much time people spend on your site
• How likely someone is to buy from you. 

Step 4. Add content to your website

Once you have your layouts set, the next step to guiding people through your website is choosing the right copy and visual elements.

Writing website copy

Website copy that informs and engages your audience is a crucial part of your website. Before you write your copy, set yourself up for success by deciding what you need to write and where you’ll place it.

Keep these best practices in mind when preparing:

• Start with your homepage and define what you offer or the purpose of your site.
• Keep copy concise and skimmable.
• Identify key details and any other pages to include in your header navigation, like an “About us” page, pages for your products or services or a page with a contact form.
• Consider which search keywords are relevant to your business and how they can be incorporated into copy and site navigation.

If you’re stuck, an AI copy generator, like the one built into Squarespace, can help you get some ideas flowing. It’s best to use any generated copy as a starting off point – your voice is what will make the text unique and memorable.

Adding photos to your website

The first step to choosing images for your website is to identify what types of imagery fit your brand. Stock photos are a useful place to start, especially if you don’t have many of your own photos yet.

Your other options include taking photos yourself or hiring a photographer, if that’s within your budget. Leading with photos that represent your brand – photos of yourself, your studio or storefront, your items for sale or your team in action – can support your credibility and build trust with your audience.

For photos and images to load quickly and cleanly on your website, pay close attention to image formats, resolution and sizing. All of these can impact how your images look and how quickly your pages load.

• Make sure you’re working with JPEGs or PNGs.
• Stick to a width of 1500 to 2500 pixels.
• Keep the total size of media files on a webpage under 2 MB to optimize load time.

Step 5. Buy a domain

Before you launch your website, choose a custom domain name. A domain name is like a street address for your website – like nab.com.au. It’s one of the first impressions your website makes and impacts everything from SEO to a person’s ability to easily remember and find your site. It doesn’t take long to buy a domain, but make sure you pick one that fits your brand.

Ideally, your domain name and your business name will be the same or similar. That way, existing customers can easily find your site. If your domain name isn’t available with “.com” after it, consider a different domain extension, like “.co” or “.store”.

If you’re still brainstorming names for your brand, you can also use a business name generator for help coming up with ideas.