Young food blogger entrepreneur writing blog post and working online on laptop from home office

At this point, you have your content strategy and at least a few pieces of high-quality content ready to publish. Now, you’re ready for the next stage of building your business blog: creating a website. 

At first glance, creating a blog website may seem confusing and overwhelming. There are tons of different hosting platforms, themes, and templates to peruse. However, once you’ve narrowed down your focus on what kind of blog you want and how you want it to serve your business, you’ll be able to more easily navigate the multitude of options at your disposal. 

How to Create a Blog Website

If you haven’t already, you need to register your domain. Ideally, you can use your business name or something close to it for your domain. Simply put, the domain is what comes after the www. in your website. It should be easy to remember and spell.  Once you register your domain, you need to select your hosting software. 

Choose a Hosting Software

When a hosting provider allocates space on a web server for a website to store its files and content, they’re hosting that website. Web hosting makes the files that make up a website (code, images, content, etc.) available to view online.

At this point, you may be tempted to select a cheaper option for your website hosting. However, it’s best to not skimp out on your web hosting. It’s worth the investment for a top-notch provider who will provide excellent customer support. 

There are a number of hosting providers that you could select. Here are a few of the most popular hosting software: 

  • Squarespace
  • Wix
  • WordPress
  • Medium
  • Self-Hosted

Blog Design

While a good blog design doesn’t necessarily equate to good content, it’s crucial that you keep blog design in mind when it comes to building your blog. You can have the best content in the world, but if you have poor design, your readers won’t stay engaged and you’ll have a hard time attracting new visitors to your blog. Also, your blog not only needs to be attractive but also easy to navigate.  

UX design, or user experience design, is the process of designing a website that is useful, easy to use, and engaging. UX design enhances your readers’ experience and ensures your visitors will have a great experience visiting your website. 

Use a Template

If you’re a rookie when it comes to design, you can always use a template for your blog. These days, there are thousands of templates to browse. You could use a free one, or invest in a high-quality template that you can easily customize to fit your needs. 

Design it Yourself

Interested in testing out your design chops? Go the DIY method and design it yourself. Even if you have limited experience with website design, there are a number of guides, tutorials, and videos available for free that can lead you through the process. 

Hire a Professional

Don’t have time to do it yourself? Consider hiring a pro to design your website for you. When you hire a professional, you get the added bonus of being able to provide as many directions as you’d like and then have someone else bring your vision to life. 

Utilize Responsive Design

The best website blogs implement a responsive and engaging design. However, your blog doesn’t need to go over the top and offer an exhaustive number of ways users can interact. In fact, too many features, pop-ups, and options can overwhelm the visitor and turn them away. 

Instead, focus on things that you know will provide a positive user experience. Think about site speed, a mobile version, and the flow of your content. Your readers should be able to easily navigate to every part of your website. 

Update and Optimize

Once you’ve selected your hosting software and know how you want to design your blog, you’re ready to start publishing content! Keep it simple, functional, and easy-to-use and you’ll be well on your way to providing an outstanding experience for your blog’s readers. 

After your blog is live, you'll want to ensure you stick to a regular maintenance schedule to continuously update and optimize your blog.

This post is to be used for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, business, or tax advice. Each person should consult his or her own attorney, business advisor, or tax advisor with respect to matters referenced in this post. 1-800Accountant assumes no liability for actions taken in reliance upon the information contained herein.