DIY Website DO’s & DON’Ts
Going DIY with a website is a fantastic way to save money and get creative with your design. As you dive into building your new site, you’ll likely encounter a seemingly endless array of options and decisions to make. That’s where we come in!
To help you get started with confidence, here are a few of our favourite DIY Website DO’s & DON’Ts.
DO: Make An Impact
A website is meant to be a hub your clients can go to get to know you and your brand. How you go about creating that connection is completely up to you, but a good rule of thumb is to focus on telling your clients a simple three-part story about:
Who you are.
What you do.
How they can be a part of it.
By focusing your website around these three things, you’ll have a solid foundation to create a welcoming and engaging experience.
DON’T: Make It Too Complicated
Have you ever clicked through to a website and felt immediately overwhelmed? Maybe the first thing you see is a 1200-word introduction or a menu navigation bar with a link to every section of every page up-front and centre. You know the ones...
Don’t get us wrong - we love a website with engaging, elevated content that tells a story! For anyone offering services with a lot of intricacies, it can be vital to provide tons of guidance and reference material. In some cases, the more information the better!
It’s how you present that information that matters.
Try breaking up large paragraphs into smaller, more digestible content and add in context with graphic or interactive elements.
Take your various menu items and organize them into main headers with drop-down items that relate.
Make a statement with a photo or video and let that tells your story visually.
Simple. Clean. Beautiful. Elevated. That’s our approach.
DO: Be Consistent in Your Design
One of our most simple and important tips is to use your brand as a guide for your design. Most platforms have the option to set up your colours and fonts so that they will show up the same way everywhere you see them on your site.
You can use this tool to help everything feel cohesive and familiar no matter what page your client is looking at. Before you get too far into your design, take some time to set up your Headers, Sub-headers, and Body fonts to show up exactly how you like them. Then, whenever you add text to your pages, you can select the appropriate style and viola! Beautiful consistency and easy application.
Do this with your fonts and color scheme, and you’ll be headed for success before you’ve even started.
DON'T: Use a Random Assortment of Fonts
Typeface and font selection is an incredibly complex art form that many people have barely dipped their toes into. As much as we’d all love to spend days pining over the exact weight on the bottom of the letter "J" in our site header, there is an easier way to help your website copy feel intentional and perfectly balanced.
Start by finding one or two typefaces you love that complement one another nicely. Typically, the Header style will be a bit bolder and more interesting whereas the Body style is simpler and easy to read. If you’re feeling restricted by two, consider adding a third that shows up as a feature sparsely.
Fun tip: Many website-building platforms offer typeface pairing suggestions! Be sure to check them out for ideas.
Once you’ve decided on your favorites, use only these curated fonts on your website. You can switch things up a bit with italics, and bolding but the typeface should stay the same.
By sticking to one or two fonts, your website will not only feel cohesive, but it will also perform better when loading up in your browser.
DO: Use a Template
One of the very best ways to DIY a website is by using a template you love to help ease the design process. There are so many amazing options out there for templates of all kinds, from full store-fronts to clinician databases. The best part about using a template is that all you have to do is add in your content, customize as much or as little as you like, and hit publish! It’s super easy, efficient, and saves you precious time you can reinvest into your business.
Our favourite place to build websites is Squarespace, and we have designed a stunning collection of beautiful templates just for you!
Have a look at them here: Curated Customizable Templates
We hope our collection of DYI Website Do’s and Don’ts has you feeling inspired and excited about designing your new website!
If you’re unsure about buidling your website alone, We'd Love to Work Together! We are here to help you design a website that you are PROUD to show off.
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