Wix’s visual design editor allows you to build many types of websites without coding, but there’s still plenty to learn before you start creating your site. I’ll walk you through everything you need to know to build a Wix website, from how to choose a domain to some basic principles for writing your first blog post.

I’ll focus on building for-fun hobby sites, professional portfolios and service-based business websites, as Wix is most effective for these types of sites. If you’re building an e-commerce website, I recommend using Squarespace or Shopify instead.

Here's how to get started building a website with Wix.

How to build a Wix website: From domain selection to publishing your first blog post

Choose a domain

A domain is the address people use to access a website, like cnet.com. Your domain is one of the primary tools people will use to find and recommend your site, so it’s important to choose an effective one. As a general rule, I recommend selecting a domain that:

• Is relevant: Your domain should relate to your site’s primary topic in some way. For example, if you’re creating a professional portfolio for a photography business, you might use something like “yournamephotography.com”. This helps people draw a connection between the domain and your site’s content, which can make it easier to remember.
• Is short: Shorter names are generally easier to remember. I recommend sticking to one or two words, if possible. Continuing with the photography portfolio example, it might be more effective to use “yournamephotos.com” instead of “yournamephotography.com”.
• Is easy to spell and say: A simple spelling makes it easier for people to type your name correctly into their browser and recommend your website via social media or email. Simple pronunciation allows them to discuss your site with people on the phone, in videos and in real life. This may make people more likely to recommend your website to others.
• Uses a .com domain: The .com extension is 33% more memorable than other domain extensions, so people are more likely to type your domain correctly if you’re using it. I only recommend using an alternate domain extension to signal that you’re a local business (like using a .ca domain if you only intend to have Canadian customers) or a specific type of organization (like using a .org domain if you’re building a nonprofit).

You can brainstorm domain names that fit this criteria on your own or use a generator like DomainWheel for suggestions. Either way, I recommend running your intended domain by a few trusted friends or colleagues to see how they feel about it.

All Wix plans include a free domain for the first year, but you can often save more money in the long run by purchasing your domain through a designated registrar instead. 

Select a Wix plan

Wix requires you to sign up for a free trial before you can purchase a plan. This free trial lets you sign up for features that are restricted on certain plans, so you should know what plan you want going in to avoid incorporating features you won’t have access to after your trial.

I recommend that most users start with the lowest-tier Wix plan, Light, which costs $17 per month. Light provides enough storage for at least 20 large pages, like portfolio pages with lots of high-resolution images, or 200 smaller pages, like blog posts with only one or two pictures. The affordability and flexibility of Wix’s Light tier makes it ideal for professional portfolios, small hobby sites or blogs with infrequent posts.

You’ll need the Core plan to access e-commerce features. This plan costs $29 a month and includes enough storage for at least 500 pages, plus various monetization tools. However, Core only applies automated sales tax to 100 transactions per month, a limit you won’t experience using Squarespace or Shopify. I generally recommend avoiding Wix for running online stores because of this limitation.

Set up your account and site basics

Next, create your Wix account using an email/password. You can also sign in with Google or Facebook through single sign-on or SSO, but SSO may not be as safe.

On sign-up, Wix directs you to a page where you can clarify who you’re building your site for. You can skip this using a link in the bottom right corner.

You’ll then be sent to Wix’s AI chat, which gathers information about your website to generate a site design for you. This sounds great, but in my Wix review, the AI site generator created truly hideous websites, so I recommend skipping this step.

Skipping the AI generator takes you to Wix’s regular guided setup process. Here, you can enter some basic information about your site, such as its name and intended purpose.

Wix uses this information to suggest apps for your site. Anything you check off will be automatically added to your website. Just remember that this list includes things limited to higher-tier plans, so cross-reference what’s offered with the Wix plans page to make sure you’re only installing apps you’ll be able to use long-term.

Wix also uses your site information and the apps you’ve selected to create a customized setup checklist, which can help you get started if this is your first time building a site.

Pro tip: You can skip these site setup basics if you already know what you want to create and feel confident in your ability to navigate Wix.

Connect your domain to Wix

Next, you’ll want to connect your domain to your Wix site. If you’re purchasing your domain through Wix, you can use the Connect a Custom Domain item on the checklist to check that the domain you want is available.

If you’ve purchased a domain from a registrar, you’ll need to log in to your registrar account and point your domain to the Wix nameservers. This is done in the DNS management area for your domain. You can see how I’ve used Namecheap to point one of my domains at a different host below:

Note that you will need to buy a Wix plan to connect your domain, regardless of where you’re registering the domain itself. If you want to test the Wix software before you commit to a plan, you can skip this step for now and connect your domain after you’ve built your website.

Select a site template

With the basics set up, it’s time to choose your site template. This is the design foundation you’ll build your site around, so it’s important to choose the right one up front -- especially because Wix makes it extremely difficult to switch templates later on.

Searching through the 800-plus Wix templates can be overwhelming, but there are some tools for simplifying the process. If you’ve told Wix what your site will be about, it will actually enter appropriate keywords into the search bar for you and display templates built for sites like yours. You can also enter other keywords into the search bar or use the dropdown menus to filter templates based on type (like blog or e-commerce store), industry (like photography or fashion) or collections (like new and most popular templates).

All Wix templates let you customize content placement, color schemes and fonts, so you won’t be stuck with the exact design you see in the template library. However, you’ll want to start with a template close to your intended design to minimize the amount of work you need to do before launch. For blogs, I recommend using something like the Travel Blog template:

For a professional portfolio, I like the Interior Design Portfolio template:

Pro tip: You can toggle between desktop view and mobile view in the Wix previewer to understand how the template you’re considering will appear on mobile devices.

Customize your overall site design

Next, you’ll want to customize your site’s general appearance by opening the editor and selecting Site Design. This area lets you modify your site’s overall color scheme, fonts and background. You can also customize something called Page Transitions, though I couldn’t actually tell how fiddling with those settings changed my site.

There are some key design principles to remember as you customize your site:

• Simplicity is key. Your design should be aesthetically appealing, but simple enough to keep the focus on your content. To achieve this, avoid background images and stick with two primary colors and two -- ideally similar -- accent colors. I also recommend using no more than two fonts across your site. I like to use the bold version of a font for headers and the regular version of a font for paragraphs.
• Contrast is important. Specifically, there should be significant contrast between your background and your text, as this makes it easier for visitors to read your content. This is why so many websites use a white or almost-white background with black text, and why I generally suggest doing the same. However, you can use other color schemes with significant contrast, such as white text on a black background.
• Larger text is easier to read. Your visitors can customize text size and magnification in their browser, so you don’t need to worry about this too much. Still, I recommend ensuring that your paragraph text is at least 13-point font to ensure easy reading for a broad range of viewers, then sizing up your header text so it visually stands apart.

You may also want to consider color psychology at this stage, as it can be a powerful enhancement for branding and marketing.

Build your homepage

Now it’s time to design your homepage. There are several things you should include:

• Vibrant, high-resolution visuals: Catch -- and hold -- your visitors’ attention with photos, graphics made in a program like Canva or custom illustrations. Pay special attention to how these images complement the color scheme you’ve chosen for your overall site design.
• Bold, clear headers: Your headers should be large and have sharp contrast with your site background and other nearby visual elements. The most important of these is the top header, which should also quickly and clearly explain how your website can help visitors.
• Calls to action: These are phrases or sentences, often in the form of links or buttons, telling your viewers to take a specific action. For example, you might have a button that says “subscribe to our newsletter”. You should have at least one call to action near the top of your homepage. I personally recommend including a call to action in every section.
• White space: Leaving blank space between text, images and other site content makes it easier for visitors to absorb individual blocks of content, especially lines of text. White space also prevents your site from feeling cluttered, which can reduce overwhelm.
• Straightforward navigation: Your top menu should include a small number of important links with clear labels. Consider using a layered menu (one with drop-down options that appear when you hover over a link) if you have many pages. You may also want to include smaller links to important pages in your site’s footer.

I also recommend visiting websites in your niche and taking notes about the layouts and visuals on their homepages. This can help you figure out what works for your audience and how to differentiate yourself from the competition.

Customize your site’s mobile appearance

Responsive design automatically modifies your site’s appearance to fit your visitor’s screen. This can done entirely for you by most website builders, content management systems or themes, which saves you time but also limits your control over how your site looks on mobile. Wix, meanwhile, gives you near-complete customization options through its mobile site editor. You can start by customizing how your header behaves as mobile users scroll through your website:

You can also control where quick action items (like emailing you or sharing your site on social media) appear on your mobile site and activate a Return to Top button. Wix will then open the full mobile editor, where you can view and modify your site’s appearance and functionality on phones.

I was pretty satisfied with the default mobile layout for my site, so I didn’t make a lot of changes here. However, I appreciated having this level of customizability, especially since some site templates may not adapt as well to mobile on their own.

Add essential pages

While you can create a one-page website if you’re selling a single product or using your website as a digital business card, most websites need multiple pages to accomplish their goals. Specifically, most websites need these pages:

• About: A space for a detailed explanation of the story behind why you created your website or company, and what your site or business aims to do.
• Contact: A page where users can reach out to you via a contact form. You may also want to publish your email address and/or business phone number here. Some websites also list business hours or average response times here.
• Newsletter page: A dedicated page for getting visitors to subscribe to your newsletter. This page should emphasize your sign-up form and any freebies or discount offers your subscribers get.

Many Wix site templates come with some or all of these pages built in. You can navigate to individual pages by clicking on the navigation menu within the editor and selecting Navigate, then choosing the page you want to edit from the menu that appears. You can then modify the existing layout and add or remove content as you see fit.

You may also want to add:

• Store/product pages where you’ll sell physical and digital products.
• Services page(s) where folks can find out more about, and sign up for, professional services you offer.
• Privacy policies where you explain what data you collect from your visitors and how you use (or don’t use) that data.

You can add pages to your Wix site by selecting the menu and going to Manage Menu > Add Menu > New Page or by clicking the page icon in the sidebar and selecting Add Menu Item > New Page. From there, you’ll be able to choose from template pages for things like product landing pages -- or start with a blank page and create something unique to your site.

Test your site

Now your site looks great in the Wix editor -- but that doesn’t mean it will deliver a great user experience. You’ll want to conduct two types of tests:

• Self-testing: Explore the site yourself, ideally in multiple browsers and/or on multiple devices. Click around the various pages to make sure your links and images load properly and quickly.
• Third-party testing: Ask a trusted friend or colleague -- or audience member if you already have some level of audience -- to explore your site. Give them a few things to watch out for, including how intuitive they find the core navigation and whether they encounter any broken links or images.

I recommend doing at least one round of each type of testing to ensure that your site is functioning the way it’s supposed to.

Optional: Write your first blog post

Finally, if your site has a blog, you’ll want to publish something on it before you share it with the world. You have two options here:

• If your blog will act primarily as a news section for your website, create a post explaining the purpose of your website, your brand and your existing products/services. You might also use this post to share any special promotions you’re running to celebrate your site launch, such as an early bird discount.
• If your blog will be an educational resource or an otherwise significant portion of your website, write an article that establishes your expertise and helps readers solve a related problem. 

In short, write an article that establishes the type of content people can expect to find on your blog. This will help them understand your expertise, brand and what they’ll get if they sign up for your newsletter or purchase something from you. 

You can add blog posts in the main Wix dashboard by selecting Blog > Posts in the sidebar and clicking the Create New Post button.

Pro tip: Use blogging best practices -- like organizing your article with headers and using short sentences -- to keep your audience engaged and boost SEO.

Finished your Wix website? Get ready to launch

It’s tempting to launch your Wix site the instant you’ve purchased a hosting plan, confirmed your domain, finalized your site design and created your first content. However, it’s important to take the time to get your site launch right if you want to quickly grow your online presence.

I recommend giving yourself at least 30 days between when you start building your website and when you launch. You can use those days not only to perfect your site, but also to build excitement on social media by sharing bits and pieces of what you’re working on. This doesn’t guarantee a massive influx of traffic on launch day -- most sites take months or even years to gain significant traction -- but it can help you get started on the right foot.