Here at Fire By Night we are passionate about building websites, and we realize that building your own can be an enjoyable and educational process so here are 5 of our favorite tips for getting started building high-quality websites.

1. Choose a good hosting provider

I always recommend Bluehost shared WordPress hosting. I have been working with Bluehost for a while and they have good support, reasonable prices, and also do not allow any “adult content” to be hosted on their servers which is something that I want to support. For business sites, I normally recommend the choice or choice plus (prime) hosting options because they provide a lot of flexibility for expansion down the road. Get hosting here!

2. Select a good eye-catching template

Once you have your hosting account set up, you will need a WordPress template. There are a lot of free WordPress templates out there and some of them are ok, but I normally recommend spending the money get a higher quality template because that will greatly affect the way the look and feel of the end result. Also, when you pay for a template you can normally get better support if you have an issue. You can buy beautiful templates from Envato marketplace.

3. Get some stunning photos

Making sure you have high-quality pictures is a must! A lot of well laid out sites look pathetic because of low resolution or blurry pictures. Spend the extra time and/or money to get good pictures. If you are on a budget consider downloading free stock photos from Pexels or Unsplash.

4. Keep your audience in mind

When designing and putting the site together always have these questions in mind; “Who am I targeting?” and “If someone visits this site, what are the main things they would be looking for?” There are many sites where the designer thought more about what they wanted to display than actually the practical reasons that people would be going to the site.

5. Keep it updated

Once you finished your totally awesome website, make sure to update the information regularly. Your website represents you and old, outdated, data can be confusing to the people you are trying to reach. Make sure to develop a plan to make sure your website doesn’t fall out of date.

There you have it! Now go make something awesome.