If I Had to Build My Website Again From Scratch, Here’s What I’d Do Differently

I launched my first website David Condon Woodcraft back in 2017. At the time I knew my craft fairly well, but I knew very little about websites, SEO, or how Google actually finds and ranks content.

Like many small business owners, I jumped straight in and learned everything the hard way. Over the years I made plenty of mistakes. Some were small, others probably slowed the growth of my business by years.

The good news is that a website doesn’t have to be perfect to work. Mine eventually started generating sales and enquiries, but looking back there are several things I would do differently if I had the chance to start again.

Here are the biggest lessons.

A laptop showing a clean website layout beside messy crossed-out wireframes and an organised sitemap, representing lessons learned from rebuilding a website from scratch.

I Would Still Choose Wix

The first thing worth saying is that I would still choose Wix.

Before settling on it, I tried several different website builders in the very beginning and quickly realised that many of them were far more complicated than I wanted to deal with. Wix, by contrast, was simple drag-and-drop design.

For someone who had never built a website before, that mattered.

Could a developer build a better technical site? Possibly. But for a small business owner who needs to get something online and manage it themselves, Wix was approachable and easy to learn.

Even today, I don’t regret that decision. Wix is not perfect but no platform is. Price, editability, look all matter when choosing a website builder and Wix ticks those boxes, for me anyway.

I know that because I did try to move away from it.

At one stage, I carried out a fairly major experiment with moving my site to SiteGround and WordPress. On paper, it made sense. More control, more flexibility, more ownership and all the things people often say you should want from a “proper” website setup.

In reality, it was not for me.

The move became more complicated than I expected, and instead of feeling like I was building a better website, I felt like I was creating a new problem for myself. I wrote more about that experience in SiteGround, WordPress & Me: A Blog Migration Story That Didn’t End Well, because it taught me an important lesson.

The best website platform is not always the one with the most features. Sometimes it is the one you can actually use, update and keep improving without needing to become a full-time web developer.

I Would Start With a Very Simple Site

Even with a platform I could actually use, I still made one big mistake early on.

I built too much too quickly.

In hindsight, my first version of the site should have been extremely simple:

• Home
• About
• Contact
• Shop
• Blog

That would have been enough.

Instead, I started experimenting with page designs, layouts and navigation before I really understood how the system worked. I was also creating new pages by copying existing ones directly and giving them names I felt might be searchable.

Retirement Gifts, Sweet Sixteen Gifts and several others were added with good intentions, but many of those pages were eventually deleted. And no, I did not 301 redirect them at the time, which is another lesson learned the hard way.

It is easy to get excited when you are building your first website. Every idea feels like it deserves its own page, every possible search term feels like an opportunity, and every menu item feels important.

But complexity grows very quickly if you do not keep things simple at the beginning.

If I were starting again, I would build the smallest useful version of the site first, then only add new pages when there was a clear reason for them to exist.

I Should Have Learned the Basics First

If I could go back, I would pause after creating those basic pages and spend a bit of time learning the fundamentals before going back and finalising their design.

Things like:

how templates work
how menus are properly structured
how design settings affect multiple pages
how people actually use search terms
what pages are worth creating and what are not
what image sizes and formats work best
what not to add to your pages to slow them down

Because I didn’t understand these properly at the start, I ended up making mistakes that were replicated across many pages.

One particular habit caused a lot of trouble. Instead of building new pages properly, I often copied existing pages and modified them. If there was a mistake on the original page, it was copied along with everything else. Sometimes I even forgot to rename the url and had /copy-of-page for a few weeks/months. That then involved a change of name and a 301 redirect to resolve.

Over time that meant the same problems appeared again and again throughout the site.

Fixing those issues later took far longer than it should have. I was still running a business after all.

One thing I would definitely do earlier is keep the SEO side simple and practical. Not tricks, not hacks, not chasing every tiny setting, but clear titles, sensible URLs, proper internal links and pages that make sense to real people. I’ve written before about why SEO doesn’t have to be hard for beginners, and looking back, that is still the approach I wish I had trusted sooner.

Mixing Store Pages and Normal Pages Was Confusing

Another odd decision I made early on was how I built parts of the shop.

Some of my store sections were created using Wix’s proper store templates. Others were built using standard pages that I manually turned into shop pages.

Looking back, I still don’t know exactly why I did this.

It created inconsistencies in the structure of the site and made things harder to manage later. Whether it caused any SEO issues or not is hard to say, but it certainly didn’t make life easier.

If I were starting again, I would stick with one consistent system from the beginning.

I Would Choose My Colour Scheme Once

Design decisions can quietly eat up an enormous amount of time.

In the early days I experimented with different colours, page layouts, and visual styles. Each change meant updating multiple pages manually because the colours weren’t properly linked to a template style.

As a result, I spent far too many hours changing small design details across the site.

If I were starting again, I would choose a simple colour scheme early and stick with it.

Function matters far more than decoration.

A Clean Homepage Is Better Than a Fancy One

At one point I added two image carousels to the homepage as well as loads of text.

At the time I thought it looked impressive. In reality it probably slowed the page down and made the homepage harder to understand and text that was never scannable to the human eye.

My business carries a large variety of products, and the extra visual clutter didn’t help visitors figure out what the site was actually about.

These days I prefer a much simpler approach. A homepage should quickly explain:

• what the business is
• what products or services are offered
• where visitors should go next

Anything that distracts from that is probably unnecessary.

Set Up Google Search Console Early

One thing I would definitely do much earlier is set up Google Search Console and actually pay attention to it.

When you are building a new website or blog, it can feel like nothing is happening for weeks or even months. You publish pages, tidy your layout, improve your homepage and wait for some sign that Google has noticed you exist.

That is where Search Console becomes useful.

It will not magically bring traffic overnight, but it does give you a clearer picture of what is going on behind the scenes. You can see whether your pages are being indexed, which posts are starting to get impressions, what search terms are appearing, and whether certain pages are quietly beginning to move.

That matters because early signs are easy to miss. A page might only get a few impressions at first, but those impressions can show that Google is testing it. Another page might be indexed but going nowhere, which tells you it may need a better title, clearer structure, stronger internal links or more useful content.

I wrote more about this in Worried No One Is Seeing Your New Blog? This Free Google Tool Can Help, because it is one of the few free tools that can give a new blogger some reassurance that their work is not completely invisible.

If I were building my website again from scratch, I would not obsess over the numbers every day, but I would start watching them earlier. Not because Search Console gives you all the answers, but because it helps you make calmer, better decisions instead of guessing in the dark.

Blogging Is What Finally Made a Difference

One thing I wish I had taken seriously much earlier is blogging.

Over the years I started a blog several times, only to stop again after a few posts. Each time I restarted it, I told myself I would keep it going, but other work always seemed more urgent.

Eventually I committed to writing regularly, and that’s when things began to change.

Blog posts started appearing in search results. People discovered the site through articles rather than just product pages. Traffic slowly increased.

It took years longer than it should have, but consistent blogging finally started to pay off.

Blogging as I have learned is very slow progress work which is why many who try it end up quitting after only a few posts. When you see no views, you may decide it is not worth your time. I did that too.

I wrote more about Blogging for Your Small Business: A Practical Guide, which should help if you are thinking about starting your own business related Blog.

Writing Random Blog Posts Was a Mistake

When I first started blogging, I also made another common mistake.

I wrote about too many unrelated subjects, even outside the scope of my business.

The idea seemed logical at the time. If I wrote about lots of different topics, I thought it might attract more visitors. In reality it just made the website less focused to search engines.

Search engines prefer clear topical authority. When a site jumps from subject to subject, it becomes harder for Google to understand what that website is really about.

Today I try to keep my posts much more focused on areas that actually relate to my work and experience.

If I Started Again, My Rules Would Be Simple

Looking back over the past few years, the lessons are fairly straightforward.

If I were building my website again today, I would follow a few simple rules:

● Keep the site structure simple at the start
● Choose a clean design and stick with it
● Use consistent templates and layouts
● Build clear product and menu categories
● Start blogging early and keep it consistent
● Focus on topics related to the business
● Improve internal links between pages
● Ask for advice before making major changes

None of these ideas are complicated, but ignoring them can cost a lot of time.

Final Thoughts

Running a website is a bit like learning any craft.

You make mistakes, fix them, and slowly improve as you go.

If I had known these things back in 2017, my website might have grown much faster. But most of those lessons only came from years of trial, error, and experimentation.

In the end, building the site the hard way taught me far more than getting everything right the first time ever would have.

Thanks for reading,
David

💬 Got thoughts or feedback? Please leave a comment below, I’d love to hear your take.

About the Author

I’m David Condon, a small business owner and blog writer based in Tralee, Co. Kerry. Running my own woodcraft business means I’ve seen first-hand how much confusion there can be around shipping times, delivery dates, and what “business days” actually mean. That’s why I wrote this post — to share a bit of what I’ve learned and hopefully save you some frustration.

Every so often I step outside the workshop to write about wider business topics like this one. If you’d like to know more, you can follow the link in the Note from the Author section below or visit my About Me page to learn more.

💬 Note from the Author
This post was written specially for David Condon Finds. If you enjoyed it, you might also like my other projects:

Phoenix DVD Blog – where I write about DVDs, Blu-rays, and life as a collector
David Condon Woodcraft – my main site focused on woodturning and handmade Irish pieces

If you’d like to support my writing, you can do so through the Buy Me a Coffee button below. It helps keep these side projects going — thank you!

Like what you're reading? You can buy me a coffee — sure it’s cheaper than a pint!

Search This Blog

David Condon Finds