Build a Website Start to Finish: the Plan
This phase is one project. You will build a real website, put it on a real address and check it from your phone. Pick the kind of site you want above and the instructions on every stage of this phase change to match. You can switch any time.
Most first websites go wrong before a line is written. The builder opens a chat, types "make me a website" and gets something shiny about nothing. The fix is ten minutes with a notepad.
Write the one sentence
Finish this sentence before you touch any tool: "This site helps ___ do ___."
For a business: "This site helps people in Dayton who own a dog book a grooming appointment." Name the town. A business site that does not say where it is loses the searches that matter most to it.
For a portfolio: "This site helps art directors see my illustration work and email me about a job." Name the person who hires you, not "everyone".
For an event: "This site helps our guests find the venue and the start time, and reply by the deadline." An event page has one visitor with one question, and that question is usually "when and where?"
For a blog: "This site helps new sourdough bakers fix the loaf that went wrong this morning." Pick a subject narrow enough that you could write your next ten posts without running dry.
List the pages, then cross half of them out
Write down every page you think you need. Now cut it. A first site that ships beats a big one that stalls at page four.
- Home: what you do and where, with one button to call or book.
- Services and prices: real prices if you can publish them. People leave when they have to ask.
- Contact: phone, email, address, hours, and a map link.
- Home: your name, what you do, and your best four or five pieces, large.
- One page per project: the brief, what you made, and the result.
- About and contact: a short bio and one way to reach you.
- One page. Date, time, place with a map link, what to wear, and how to reply.
- A second page only if you truly need it, such as travel and hotels for guests from out of town.
- Home: the newest posts, each with a title and a one-line summary.
- A post page: one template that every post uses.
- About: who you are and why anyone should trust you on this subject.
Decide the one thing a visitor should do
Every page gets one main button. Not three. When a visitor has too many choices, they usually pick none.
Write it down: the button says Book a time or Call usthe button says Email me about a projectthe button says Reply by the deadlinethe button says Get new posts by email, or simply Read the latest post.
Your turn
Open a plain text file called plan.txt and put three things in it: your sentence, your page list and your one button. Keep it. You will paste it into the AI in the next stage, and it is the reason the first draft will be about something.
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