The ultimate guide to organize your website DIY project. 

If you’re here, you probably know that you absolutely need a website if you want to grow. But then there’s the fact that creating a website is tough. You want to keep the project organized, but you don’t know where to start. And how do you even know how to organize a website itself (let alone the project?!)… It’s an overwhelming task, so maybe in the past you’ve pushed it to the bottom of your to-do list.

But finally launching your website has been a goal of yours for a while now. You don’t want to have a website that looks and sounds DIY, but that’s just where you’re at. So how do you organize your website to make it look professional and attract the right people?

Here’s how to organize your website project if you’re DIYing it for your freelance or service-based business.

Decide what pages you want on your website.

No matter what, you’re going to need a home page. That part is obvious. But what other pages will you need?

If you’re a service provider, you’ll undoubtedly need a services page and contact form. But sometimes there are other pages you could consider, depending on what your goals are for your business. Maybe you’d like to include an education page or a blog page to help spread the word about your business, mission, or industry.

Pages you could include:

• Home 
• About
• Services
• Product/Virtual Storefront
• Education 
• Blog
• Contact

These are standard pages that I’ve worked on with my own clients. These are a great starting place, but you may think of others for your own biz.

How do you decide though? I always suggest thinking of your website as part of your sales pipeline. This will help you structure the pages to guide your leads through the buying journey. What do they need to know to keep clicking right onto your calendar?

Get (or take) brand photos for your website.

Brand photos can make or break your website. These are such a good investment for any business! However, you don’t need to spend a ton of money. You could start by taking your own if you know your way around a camera. You could also start with a mini brand shoot—so many photographers offer these. If you can’t invest, there are lots of websites that allow you to use their stock imagery for free… Find one that has good stock photos, and select ones that align with your brand vibe for now.

If you can’t swing brand photos right now, add it to your investment list for when you’re ready! They are 100% worth it.

Nail your visual branding.

Now you know what pages you’re going to have, you’ll need to consider visual branding. That means colors to start, but also photos, fonts, and overall vibe.

Brand strategy is a huge part of becoming a high-level entrepreneur. But that doesn’t mean you need to invest thousands when you’re just starting out. If you’re DIYing your website, you can start with something simple. Simple will be easier to execute, and will look better long-term. When you’re ready to step it up a level, maybe you look into a website template or semi-custom design (versus entirely custom).

Overall, regardless of what you choose to do, you want your visuals to look consistent. Consistent, cohesive branding looks professional and often attracts more clients.

Do SEO research before writing your website copy.

Search engine optimization is so so so important to consider when organizing your website project! You want your website to show up on Google, right? SEO is a solid sales strategy when done well.

However, my approach to SEO is to do your research and consider it secondary on the evergreen pages of your website. I’d rather you save the SEO-rich content for your blog, and sprinkle keywords as you can through the evergreen pages. This may be different than everything you’ve ever heard, but it’s better to let your sales copy do its copy thing instead of trying to get your evergreen pages to rank on Google.

Also, you might not want your evergreen pages to rank on Google. For example, does it make sense for a lead to find your about page first because it’s search engine optimized? Or a blog post that educates them and includes a lead magnet to better connect with them? The second option is more likely to capture the lead as a subscriber, so you can continue to nurture and sell.

So while yes, you need to organize your keywords when organizing your website project, don’t get too caught up in this step.

Write your copy with dream clients in mind.

It can be expensive to hire a copywriter to create custom conversion copy for your website.

And it can take a while to get on a good copywriter’s schedule (the best ones definitely won’t be able to do it this week for you, and you needed it yesterday).

So writing your website copy is typically the one everyone gets stuck on. When you’re in the thick of it and too close to your biz, it can be a mess of wanting to say so much but not knowing where to start.

The key? Instead of thinking about how you can fit your entire life, passions, and plenty of service options onto your website… Think about what your ideal client needs to know in order to purchase from you. What do they need to think and believe about you and themselves? How will they know that they’re ready to work with you?

Understanding the answers to these questions, then mapping out their journey through your website will make it so much easier to figure out what needs to be said on each page.

Write your website copy in an afternoon.

This might feel like a lot. If you’ve already imagined your visuals and have photos gathered, I have a tool you might LOVE: Website copy templates.

My website copy templates are wireframes and designed to be plug-and-play. Think Mad Libs, but for business. You just need to follow the prompts to write your website copy—and most people who grab these templates can whip up words in an afternoon.

You can learn more and grab those website templates here. It’s time to organize your website project, and officially mark “website” off that to-do list.