How to Make a Website with Canva | A Step by Step Guide

- Hi, I'm Nick from Design School.

I was asked the other day

whether businesses still need websites

when you can easily set up a social media account

in a few minutes.

It's a good question.

And the answer is simple.

Yes.

Social platforms are amazing

and incredibly convenient

for getting out your current messaging.

But I think of them more as bridges.

And bridges need to lead somewhere.

Ideally, they lead to a brand's true home

in the vast online world, their website.

Creating a website can feel like a daunting task

but Canva is making it easier than ever.

It's not under a minute

but it really doesn't take too long.

Let me show you how.

(upbeat music)

Firstly, before we go any further, what is a website?

Well, in its simplest description,

it's a collection of webpages located

under a single domain name, like canva.com.

If you wanna get a little more detailed,

then it's a 24/7 online presence

that can be used to communicate with people,

sell products, describe your services,

even provide entertainment and showcase portfolios.

Having one establishes credibility.

It builds trust

and helps your business look more professional.

The easiest way to get started is with a template.

On the Canva homepage search bar, type website.

Browse the available templates.

Anything with a crown on it is for pro users.

Anything without is available to anyone.

Let's look at a real estate template.

Yeah, this one's perfect.

Click on it and it will open in a new tab.

Feel free to get more specific

with the search terms as well.

Search for fashion sites, portfolio sites,

even education websites,

and you'll get a much more targeted selection

to search through.

Everything here is editable.

Change the text by double clicking on it.

Drag in photos from the elements tab or upload your own.

I like the layout of most pages

but I'm not sure about that first one.

Click on the template tab

and type in real estate

and I can see other options.

I like this header section much more,

so I'm gonna drag this over here,

and you'll see it replaces the one that I already had.

Now I can go through and delete any pages I don't need.

And since this is a scrolling website,

I can actually resize some of the pages

where there's extra unneeded space.

Now I'll get rid of that generic logo

and add in my brand identity.

Let's resize it.

Okay, looking good.

Now I can adjust the font to suit the new brand

and change the colors so they suit to.

Finally, I need to find an image

that better suits the types of properties

that this agent deals with.

I'm just gonna jump to the elements tab

and put in some search terms.

Yep, this one's perfect.

Let's drag it over

and it will replace the background image like this.

Nice.

This is looking pretty good,

but I want to give the audience a call to action

on this first page.

A call to action or a CTA,

as they're commonly called,

is a direction to the audience

to engage or do something.

On websites, this often takes the form

of a button or a link.

So let's bring this down here

so there's a natural flow from the text over to the CTA.

Select the text box that you wanna link.

Go to the chain icon in the upper right corner

of the screen.

Here, you can enter an external link

or choose one of the other pages on the site.

At the top right, there is a preview button.

Click on this to see how it's looking

and test out the links.

There are options to see

what it looks like on other screens too.

Like a tablet or a smartphone.

This will automatically resize your design

for the different aspect ratios.

It's worth checking for any responsiveness issues now.

Okay, looking good so far.

And that's really how simple it is.

Obviously, it's not live at the moment.

But it's at a stage

where we could easily share it with key stakeholders

or maybe our client to get some feedback and suggestions.

Let's look at the next stage and how we publish it.

In the top right corner,

you'll see a button that says, "Publish Website".

You'll be given two options here.

A free domain or the chance to use an existing domain.

Let's choose free.

Here, Canva will give you a URL.

You can edit it like this.

In the site's description,

you can describe your website in 160 characters or less.

Create a concise and compelling summary of the page here.

Including a target keyword will help search engines index

and rank the page.

You can click this checkbox

to hide your site from search engines.

This is great if you just wanna share it

with some specific people via a link.

Good for getting feedback

or suggestions from your team or client.

You can give it even more security here

by restricting access via password.

When you're happy, hit that big purple publish button.

Now, if you want your own custom domain name,

you can do that here as well.

Click this and then purchase domain.

Start searching for available domains

and then claim your domain like this.

You'll need to fill in a registration form

and then review the settings

before proceeding to the payment page.

It normally takes 24 to 48 hours

for the website to go live.

And it's really as easy as that.

You now have a fully functioning

and great looking website you can continue

to build upon and improve.

What's even better,

your customers and your audience now have a trusted place

where they can find you at any time, day or night.

Thanks so much for watching.

I hope you found this useful.

And I'll see you in the next video.

Hey, did you learn something?

Why don't you hit subscribe.

Maybe even a like.

Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one.