Hi, my wife wants to make a simple site for her therapy business. No frills, no b.s. just something simple for us, since we have ZERO experience in this.

Your help is appreciated.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/234814/diy_free_services_to_build_a_business_website.html

That article has some possible options that may give you what you are looking for

If she has a real business, pay someone to do it. It's worth it's weight in gold if it's done correctly.

I wish I could grab a crystal ball and show you the future and the difference between a properly made website and just a 'no frills website we built', it's like literally throwing thousands of dollars in customers away every year.

If you're going to build it yourself, and you're absolutely strapped for cash, and you're in a jam.

Go to Godaddy, Bluehost, a billion other different hosts.

Buy your domain (there is always a coupon code to buy a .com for $0.99 on Godaddy, so google 'Godaddy promocode')

Buy hosting (it shouldn't be more than $5/month, but it shouldn't be free)

Install Wordpress

Go to http://themeforest.net/ and buy a nice theme

Keep the content, simple and terse. The website should sell the customer on calling/emailing you not becoming experts on your service. Create an outline of the website (probably with yours there are no 'child' pages). Home, About, Services, Blog (if you want, but don't say 'yes I want it' then don't post, post on that thing weekly, minimum or not at all), Contact

If you need graphics, take some time and see what's trending in design (behance.net, dribbble.com) and then go to fiverr and find someone to do very specific tasks (sliders/etc).

Limit your use of colors. Colors to the untrained person go bad very quickly.

Don't use stock images

Have a few people you know get on the site and WATCH THEM USE IT. See what comes natural to them, find errors.

Install Google Analytics (most themes have an area where you just drop the code in and it automatically inserts it into the footer/header). Just make sure it's working.

Search for the correct keywords your site should be targeting (how would you use Google to find your competitors?).

Install the SEO - All In one Pack, read about it and use it.

Do not spend time on social media, no one will care, no one will use it.

That's about it.

I'll be happy to review the site and share a few insights.

That's some rock star advice from Sonic. Do it. Though, there are stock image gems to be found, IMO.

Thanks for all of that great info. I'll pass it on and help her with the design. Seriously Sonic..... thanks !!!!!

SonicHawk wrote:If she has a real business, pay someone to do it. It's worth it's weight in gold if it's done correctly.

I wish I could grab a crystal ball and show you the future and the difference between a properly made website and just a 'no frills website we built', it's like literally throwing thousands of dollars in customers away every year.

If you're going to build it yourself, and you're absolutely strapped for cash, and you're in a jam.

Go to Godaddy, Bluehost, a billion other different hosts.

Buy your domain (there is always a coupon code to buy a .com for $0.99 on Godaddy, so google 'Godaddy promocode')

Buy hosting (it shouldn't be more than $5/month, but it shouldn't be free)

Install Wordpress

Go to http://themeforest.net/ and buy a nice theme

Keep the content, simple and terse. The website should sell the customer on calling/emailing you not becoming experts on your service. Create an outline of the website (probably with yours there are no 'child' pages). Home, About, Services, Blog (if you want, but don't say 'yes I want it' then don't post, post on that thing weekly, minimum or not at all), Contact

If you need graphics, take some time and see what's trending in design (behance.net, dribbble.com) and then go to fiverr and find someone to do very specific tasks (sliders/etc).

Limit your use of colors. Colors to the untrained person go bad very quickly.

Don't use stock images

Have a few people you know get on the site and WATCH THEM USE IT. See what comes natural to them, find errors.

Install Google Analytics (most themes have an area where you just drop the code in and it automatically inserts it into the footer/header). Just make sure it's working.

Search for the correct keywords your site should be targeting (how would you use Google to find your competitors?).

Install the SEO - All In one Pack, read about it and use it.

Do not spend time on social media, no one will care, no one will use it.

That's about it.

I'll be happy to review the site and share a few insights.

This is one of the best write-ups I've seen and I couldn't agree more with it. I wish I could have shown this to my owner a while ago when he basically did the opposite of everything that you just posted.

On some of the template sites they list a price, but don't say anything about how it is charged,,.....like is it one time, or monthly?

If you're talking about the themes at themeforest.net, you're basically just buying it. One-time purchase cost for a regular website. (You're buying a license to use it for one specific site.)

But feel free to share with as many as you wish.

DTexHawk wrote:But feel free to share with as many as you wish.

Yeah, that's what I said.

Largent80 wrote:On some of the template sites they list a price, but don't say anything about how it is charged,,.....like is it one time, or monthly?

Themeforest is a one-time charge, there are several subscription based sites that will charge you monthly. You don't need those.

I've used TF many times and trust them (although your card will get charged from Australia where they are located which is odd).

I would give you a link to download those themes for free, but there is malicious code in every single one of them that if you don't know how to get rid of it will crash your site immediately. So, DON'T DOWNLOAD FREE VERSIONS.

DTexHawk wrote:But feel free to share with as many as you wish.

The support you receive from the theme creators is worth the initial $40.

That isn't what Douchtex is referring to. He is pissed that I wouldn't share the golden girls DVD,s with him, so now he has to pirate them.