Quick Guide to Website Building using Wix
Why Choose Wix for Website Building
Wix offers a unique blend of simplicity and flexibility. For beginners, its drag-and-drop interface ensures no coding experience is needed to design a stunning website. Yet, for those who wish to delve deeper, Wix provides advanced design features and customizability.
The platform is also a one-stop solution, offering domain registration, hosting, and a wide array of tools to optimize and market a site. With its extensive template library catering to diverse sectors and its robust app marketplace, Wix is a recommended website builder. Here are some other benefits:
- Mobile Optimization: All templates are mobile-responsive, guaranteeing websites look and function well on smartphones and tablets.
- Built-in SEO Tools: Integrated SEO tools guide users through optimizing their website for search engines, improving a site’s visibility on platforms like Google.
- Extensive App Market: A robust App Market filled with free and premium apps can enhance a website’s functionality, from adding social media feeds to integrating eCommerce solutions.
- Reliable Hosting: The platform provides secure and dependable hosting, ensuring websites remain accessible and load quickly. This hosting comes with the added benefit of automatic updates and backups.
- E-commerce Capabilities: For those looking to sell products or services online, comprehensive e-commerce solutions are available, including product listings, secure payment gateways, and order management.
- Multimedia Integration: It’s simple to incorporate various multimedia elements, such as videos, images, and audio, allowing for a richer content presentation.
- Dedicated Support: The platform offers extensive support resources, including tutorials, forums, and a dedicated support team available to assist with any challenges users might face.
Getting Started with Wix
Wix caters to a broad audience by offering free and premium plans to meet various needs. The Free Plan is an ideal starting point for those who are new to website-building or are in the experimenting phase. It provides a platform to create and publish a site without any upfront costs. However, there are some trade-offs. Websites built under the free plan display Wix-branded ads, and users cannot connect their custom domain names, potentially affecting the site’s appeal.
On the other hand, the premium plans provide access to enhanced features and capabilities. Whether it’s about securing more storage, eliminating ads, or harnessing advanced eCommerce functionalities, there’s a plan tailored for it. The decision between opting for a free or premium plan hinges on the website’s intended purpose, the level of professionalism sought, and the specific features desired.
Setting Up a Wix Account:
- Visit the Wix Website: Begin by heading to the official Wix website.
- Sign Up: Click on the “Sign Up” button. One can register using an email address or connect with a social media account.
- Account Verification: Once the sign-up form is completed, Wix will send a verification email. It’s essential to click on the verification link to activate the account.
- Personalization: After verification, Wix will ask questions to understand the website’s purpose and offer tailored suggestions.
Navigating the Wix Dashboard: The dashboard is the command centre for all website activities.
- My Sites: This tab showcases all websites associated with the account.
- Create a New Site: If starting anew, this button helps initiate the website creation process.
- Site Actions: Beside each listed site, there are options to edit, view, or manage settings.
- Apps & Services: This section contains tools like Wix Stores, Wix Blog, and more, offering additional functionalities.
- Settings: A centralized location for updating account information, payment methods, etc.
Choosing a Template
Wix Template Library caters to different industries and functionalities. Whether it’s an e-commerce portal, a personal blog, or a corporate site. The templates are categorized based on industries and purposes, and there is also a search function that can help zero in on a template by keyword or theme. Plus, with the preview option, interactively experience each template, ensuring it aligns with the requirement.
Select a template that adapts to various screen sizes, ensuring a consistent user experience. Many templates come pre-equipped with specific functionalities, like image galleries, e-commerce systems, or booking platforms. Assess and check if these built-in features align with the website’s requirements. Choose the right template that blends aesthetics with functionality, ensuring the website resonates with its intended audience. With a template chosen, Wix offers a realm of customization options to ensure the website truly embodies the brand:
- Colours & Theme: Adapt the template’s colour scheme to resonate with the brand’s identity, ensuring consistency across digital touchpoints.
- Fonts & Typography: Fonts can subtly influence a visitor’s perception. Select fonts that mirror the brand’s tone while maintaining legibility.
- Media Elements: Replace generic images and videos with branded content, ensuring the visuals narrate the brand’s story.
- Modifying Sections: Wix allows users to add or subtract sections as per their content strategy, ensuring the website is both comprehensive and concise.
Designing the Website
The design of a website helps shape first impressions and convey brand values and user engagement. Wix Editor is built on the principles of user-friendliness and versatility. With its intuitive drag-and-drop interface, place elements anywhere on the canvas without the constraints of rigid grid systems. Whether adding a new section, adjusting page margins, or integrating third-party applications, the editor offers a holistic design environment.
Customizing Page Layouts: The layout of a webpage influences the user’s journey, navigation ease, and overall engagement. Users can choose from a plethora of predefined sections – be it headers, footers, galleries, or testimonials. Each section is customizable in size, positioning, and content arrangement. This flexibility ensures that the layout aligns perfectly with the content strategy, guiding visitors effortlessly through the website’s narrative.
Incorporating Multimedia: Images, Videos, and Audio: Multimedia elements add depth, dynamism, and engagement to a website. They tell stories, evoke emotions, and enhance user immersion. Upload high-quality images, ensuring crisp visuals across devices. Videos can be embedded directly or sourced from platforms like YouTube or Vimeo. Audio, whether it’s background music or podcast episodes, can be incorporated to enrich the auditory experience.
Fonts and Colors: A brand’s identity is intricately tied to its design elements, such as the fonts it uses and the colours. The platform has an extensive collection of fonts. From bold headers to subtle body text, typography can be fine-tuned for readability and aesthetics. Colours, too, play a pivotal role. Wix allows for precise colour selection, gradient creation, and opacity adjustments. By ensuring fonts and colours are consistent across web pages, craft a cohesive digital identity that leaves a lasting impression.
Adding Essential Website Features
Setting Up a Blog or News Section: A blog or news section is a platform for brands to share insights, updates, and stories. Choose from various blog layouts, customize post formats and schedule publications. Whether sharing industry news, thought leadership pieces, or behind-the-scenes glimpses, a blog can drive traffic, improve SEO rankings, and establish a brand as an authority.
Adding Contact Forms and Maps: Contact facilitating queries, feedback, and collaborations between businesses and audiences. Wix provides a range of customizable contact form templates that can be adapted to specific needs. Furthermore, integrating maps can guide visitors to physical locations. Wix allows the embedding of maps, ensuring users can find their way without leaving the website.
Integrating Social Media Buttons and Feeds: Wix offers tools to embed social media buttons, ensuring visitors can quickly access a brand’s social profiles. Moreover, integrating live social feeds, be it from Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook, can showcase real-time updates and foster cross-platform engagement.
Implementing an Online Store: Wix Stores provides a comprehensive solution to set up an online marketplace, such as product listings and inventory management, to secure payment gateways. With customizable storefronts and intuitive checkout processes, offer a smooth shopping experience to users.
Boosting Engagement: Wix App Market has many applications, from chatbots for real-time customer support to testimonial sliders showcasing feedback. These third-party integrations can boost a website, ensuring it’s not just a static digital presence but a dynamic platform that interacts, engages, and evolves with its audience.
SEO and Website Optimization
Wix simplifies this process with its tool: the Wix SEO Wiz. This feature provides a step-by-step guide to setting up fundamental search engine optimization (SEO) elements. From crafting meta titles and descriptions to setting up canonical URLs and generating sitemaps, SEO Wiz ensures a website is primed for search engine crawls. Moreover, it offers personalized plans based on a website’s specific needs, ensuring a tailored approach to SEO.
Optimizing Content for Search Engines: Beyond crafting engaging narratives, it’s crucial to integrate keywords naturally, maintain a logical structure with headings and subheadings, and ensure internal linking. Wix offers tools for keyword analysis, allowing users to identify and incorporate search-friendly terms. Additionally, alt text for images and concise URL structures enhance a website’s local SEO profile.
Mobile Optimization: Most web traffic comes from mobile devices, and search engines prioritize mobile-friendly sites. With Wix, websites are inherently designed to be responsive. However, users can further fine-tune mobile views, adjust layouts, and ensure that multimedia elements scale appropriately, guaranteeing a seamless user experience regardless of the device.
Leveraging Analytics and Performance Metrics: Wix integrates analytics tools to view insights such as visitor behaviour, traffic sources, and engagement metrics. The data highlights areas of success and pinpointing avenues for improvement. From monitoring page load times to analyzing bounce rates, these metrics ensure websites remain optimized for search engines and users.
Publishing the Website
Start by linking a domain, whether purchased through Wix or externally. Once the domain is connected, the final step is to hit the ‘publish’ button. This will move the website live, allowing audiences globally to access, explore, and interact.
Regular maintenance and updates ensure a website remains fresh, relevant, and functional. Wix offers intuitive dashboards that make it easy to add new content, tweak designs, or integrate new features. Always monitor for any potential issues or updates required, ensuring optimal performance and security for visitors.
Once the website is live, engage in digital marketing activities, from search engine marketing and social media campaigns to email marketing, to drive traffic and increase awareness. Wix provides tools and integrations that help in promoting the website. Features like SEO optimizations, newsletter tools, and integration with advertising platforms make it easier to reach target audiences and establish a strong online presence.
Conclusion
Building a website is a significant step in establishing a digital presence. Using platforms like Wix has simplified this process, but launching the site is only the beginning. It’s crucial to monitor website performance, gather user feedback, and stay informed about web design updates and digital trends. Regularly updating and tweaking the site based on these insights ensures its relevance and effectiveness.
ARCC is a web development company based in Singapore. We specialize in creating responsive and user-friendly websites tailored to specific requirements. With a team of experienced developers and a focus on best practices, ARCC delivers reliable web solutions for businesses across various sectors. Feel free to reach out to us for a no-obligation digital marketing consultation.
