Did you know that 55% of local businesses get less than 500 website visitors on average every month?
With 93% of people searching for local businesses online, starting a website for your business is a vital step in establishing your online presence.
Knowing how to create a website that gets traffic will help increase your brand awareness, authority, qualified leads, and sales.
In this guide, you’ll learn:
- How to create a website that gets traffic in 10 steps
- The best software to create a website that attracts visitors
Steps to Create a Website That Gets Traffic
- Choose a profitable niche
- Pick the right website builder
- Get a great domain name and web hosting
- Set up your website
- Optimize your web design for a smooth user experience
- Create high-quality content
- Try out different content types
- Perfect your website’s search engine optimization (SEO)
- Develop a content marketing strategy
- Leverage social media and curation platforms
Step 1. Choose a Profitable Niche
Knowing how to create a website starts with identifying your niche. Having a niche will help you stay focused and motivated to grow a loyal audience with ease.
A niche is an area you decide to specialize in within an industry. So, whether you intend to become a blogger, run an e-commerce store, or start a business website, you need to decide which niche you want to be in.
There are several niches you can choose from. Some are more generalized, while others are specific. For example, fitness is a niche, with yoga being a more specialized area of fitness.
You’ll likely want to select a profitable niche. Not all niches are rewarding. Do market and keyword research to know how in-demand your desired niche is.
Your niche will guide your content creation and marketing efforts and provide partnership and collaboration opportunities with other businesses in and outside your industry.
Step 2. Pick the Right Website Builder
A vital step in learning how to create a website is choosing a website builder that’s right for your business goals.
We recommend using WordPress as your go-to website builder, not just because it powers over one-third of the internet but because:
- WordPress is a free, open-source platform
- It accommodates any business size, from small to large companies
- It’s easy to customize
- It’s user-friendly
While WordPress is free to use, your website will not go live until you get a hosting plan from a web hosting company.
Bluehost offers a smart AI-enhanced website builder that uses WordPress to create a website without you having to write a single line of code.
Step 3. Get a Great Domain Name and Web Hosting
After deciding which website builder to use, the next step in learning how to create a website is choosing a domain name and reliable hosting to power your website.
Your domain name is your website address online (for example, bluehost.com). It’s what users will type in their browser’s address bar to reach your website. Your domain name should be simple and easy to pronounce and spell.
Choose a domain name that represents your brand well. Use popular extensions like .com. You can use your name or a variation of it or your business name. Avoid using special characters or numbers that can complicate your domain name.
Next, choose a suitable hosting package. Web hosting is what powers your website and makes it accessible online. It’s what allows the front end of your website to be visible when visitors go to your domain.
Bluehost has flexible and affordable hosting plans you can choose from depending on your needs and budget. You can buy your domain name and hosting service separately. However, Bluehost offers a free domain when you sign up for a hosting package.
Step 4. Set Up Your Website
Setting up your website involves a range of processes, but it can be a simple part of learning how to create a website.
After choosing a website builder and purchasing a hosting package, Bluehost empowers you to install your WordPress website seamlessly in one click.
With several free WordPress themes available, you can select your preferred template to customize your website.
To get the best design satisfaction, you can opt for a premium theme option. These themes are more exclusive, have more attractive and price-worthy features, and are generally more cohesive than free options.
Set up your key pages and content layout using a design that represents your brand.
Step 5. Optimize Your Design for a Smooth User Experience
How to create a website that attracts visitors involves building an intuitive website interface.
You should remove broken links, unnecessary sections, and wandering call-to-action buttons. Consider installing live chat support to help your audience proactively.
Make sure your website’s mobile-friendly. The number of internet users on mobile has seen a steady rise, with almost a 50% share of website traffic in 2021. This means your website should be mobile-ready.
Check how responsive your website is with Google’s mobile-friendly test and improve your mobile user experience with Google’s mobile speed test.
Step 6. Create High-Quality Content
Creating valuable content is one of the main aspects of learning how to create a website because it’s what will bring you the traffic you desire.
Create valuable and shareable content, such as blog posts, videos, or podcasts, to attract the right audience and retain them. If your users find your content insightful, they’ll share it. This will help your ranking on search engine result pages (SERPs) and increase your traffic.
Take your time, and create content that holds value rather than churning out material that’s all fluff and no substance.
When creating content, answer these questions:
- Who is it for?
- What problem does it address?
- What are its takeaways?
- Is it in line with my niche?
Step 7. Try Out Different Content Types
When planning how to create a website, it’s always a good idea to try out different content types and blog post lengths. This can help you learn how to satisfy different user preferences.
While some people prefer blog posts, others prefer videos, podcasts, or graphics. Having a mix of various content types will create a balanced and memorable user experience.
Here are some of the content types you can try:
- Blog posts (long-form or short-form)
- Podcasts
- Videos
- Quizzes
- Infographics
Step 8. Perfect Your Website’s SEO
Perfecting your website’s SEO is the technical part of how to create your website.
Don’t let that scare you.
SEO is the backbone of your website ranking online, but you don’t have to be tech-savvy to make Google — or any other search engine — rank your website highly.
Here are some core SEO practices to get your website ready to top the SERPs:
- Submit your website to Google Search Console for indexing.
- Add keywords to your website pages and posts.
- Write meta titles and meta descriptions for your webpages.
- Link to relevant internal and external pages, especially other websites with high domain authority, to get higher search and authority ratings.
- Install Google Analytics to check your website performance, needs, and suggested improvements.
- Install SEO plugins like Yoast for basic best practices during content creation.
- Maximize your website speed by using Google’s PageSpeed Insights and installing effective cache plugins.
- Optimize images for fast load speed. Compress photos and include image metadata, ALT tags, and captions.
Step 9. Develop a Content Marketing Strategy
Website building isn’t just about learning how to create a website — it’s also about how you plan to get your website seen after setting it up.
You need to figure out how to get traffic to your website consistently by developing a content marketing strategy like 70% of marketers are already doing.
A content marketing strategy is a plan to get traffic to a website and grow an audience by publishing, optimizing, sharing, and promoting its content.
Content marketing is a funnel from how you use various resources and media in different stages of your audience journey until you get them to read your latest blog post, watch your new video, or check out a stat.
Step 10. Leverage Social Media and Curation Platforms
Learning how to create a website with the right website builder doesn’t end with setup and optimization. Social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and curation platforms, like Reddit and Quora, should be part of your marketing strategy.
With over 54% of bloggers stating they get the most traffic from their social networks, it’s essential to know how to leverage social media marketing for your website’s traffic and visibility.
Build a brand on your social media platforms, engage with your audience, and interact with other industry leaders for collaborations or shout-outs.
Final Thoughts: How To Create a Website That Gets Visitors in 10 Steps
With this guide, you now know how to create a website that gets traffic. Building a website with the right website builder is only the beginning.
Even after creating valuable content, you need to promote that content and your website to attract visitors.
Besides social media and curation platforms, you can market your business and get massive traffic to your website through word-of-mouth, guest blogging, or influencer marketing.
Ready to build a traffic-worthy website for your business? Check out Bluehost’s expert-guided Blue Sky service.