As a writer, I’ll happily admit I have a major weak spot: graphic design skills. 

In my process of setting up endless new websites for my business, my newsletter, and other hobby projects of mine, I’ve tried nearly every big website builder out there. 

But, luckily, modern no-code tools make it faster and easier than ever to start a website. And if you want to have distribution and SEO features baked into your site, you’ll want to try a platform like beehiiv. 

beehiiv takes care of the things most people stress over, so I can spend less time figuring out the tech and more time focusing on what I actually want to share with the world.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through my approach, the exact steps I take when creating a site, and some tips for getting launched quickly with beehiiv.

A few years ago, the phrase how to build a website usually meant late nights fighting with WordPress themes, broken plugins, and cascading style sheets (CSS) you didn’t actually understand. It felt like only developers or super tech-savvy folks could pull off something impressive.

That’s no longer the case. In 2025, no-code platforms have completely changed the game. With the right easy website builder, you can go from blank screen to professional-looking homepage in minutes. Templates, drag-and-drop blocks, and preset design elements mean you don’t have to start from scratch.

Here’s what this looks like in beehiiv:

For example, I’m working on a new media brand Pub & Property. To get started, I quickly spun up three core pages:

All of this happens inside one dashboard, with tools that are genuinely intuitive. All you need to do is to pick one of the best website makers out there and let it handle the heavy lifting.

Before I get started, I should make something clear: 

With beehiiv, you can create both. 

So when you’re creating a website here, you’re also building the infrastructure to send a newsletter, too. And when you’re creating a newsletter, the builder naturally extends to website pages, so you can make sure that you have public-facing (and discoverable) pages for your content.

When you search for the best website makers, you’ll see the usual suspects: Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy, Webflow, and dozens more. 

They’ve all made big strides in simplifying design, but I find myself overwhelmed any time I try to use them. If you're not careful, you can get carried away with overspending on a plan that you don't really need. 

That’s where beehiiv stands out.

beehiiv started as a newsletter platform, and the website builder is an extension of that DNA. Instead of being just another drag-and-drop editor, it’s designed to help you grow an audience and turn that audience into revenue. The builder is designed to help make your site the engine of your business.

Here are some of my favorite features of the beehiiv website builder:

Other builders might give you flexibility, but they often require add-ons or third-party tools to get the same functionality. With beehiiv, I get a clean design plus the growth features that matter to me as a creator.

If you’re just looking for a static business card site, Squarespace or Wix might be fine. But if you want a website creation guide that leads directly into building an audience and a business, beehiiv is the tool built for that.

I run two newsletters through beehiiv and have completely customized their websites with beehiiv’s website builder. I’ll walk you through some key features you should know, offer some tips I use to design my site, and will share some helpful resources you can check out, too. 

As soon as you click into the Website Builder, beehiiv gives you two options: start from a blank canvas or choose from one of their templates.

For Pub & Property, I picked a layout that emphasized imagery because I knew I wanted to showcase cottages, countryside pubs, and property listings. 

Once you apply a template, you can edit every single part of it — colors, fonts, sections — but you’re not staring with an empty page.

Next, you’ll decide where your site “lives.” beehiiv automatically gives you a subdomain (something like pubandproperty.beehiiv.com), so you can publish right away.

Later, you can connect your own custom domain; I connected mine at pubandproperty.com. Either way, the domain setup is optimized for SEO out of the box, so search engines can actually find your content. 

And if you want to fine-tune things further, each page has its own SEO settings where you can customize titles, meta descriptions, and keywords.

This is where the editor really starts to feel powerful. beehiiv gives you default pages like:

From there, you can add as many custom pages as you want. For Pub & Property, I added an About page and a Contact page, so readers had a sense of the story behind the brand and a way to get in touch.

The magic is in how you design these pages. Everything is built with blocks:

It feels more like arranging Lego pieces than coding.

P.S. There are a ton of resources and tutorials where you can go deeper if you want to learn more about the editor specifically.

Your site also comes with global elements, like the navigation bar at the top and the footer at the bottom. These carry across every page by default, which keeps your branding consistent.

For Pub & Property, I kept the nav minimal so that visitors never get lost and always see the clear next step.

You can also add Modals — pop-ups for things like login, signup, or promotions. I don’t use these heavily, but other creators do. For example, Oliver Darcy uses a gated modal to convert readers into paid subscribers on Status.

If you want inspiration for how design choices affect engagement, check out these best email designs. Many of the same principles apply to your site’s look and feel.

Once your pages are structured, it’s time to add the substance. With beehiiv, this is seamless because the content you publish as a newsletter automatically lives on your site, too.

That means I can write an essay or publish property roundups, hit send, and instantly that same content is archived on Pub & Property. It’s a true website + newsletter hybrid, not two separate tools stitched together.

Other creators have done this in creative ways:

The possibilities are endless! You can use the same builder to create the version that fits your content and community.

The last step is setting up the backend details. In the Settings tab, I add meta descriptions, connect Google Analytics, and double-check compliance boxes like General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Then, I preview the site on desktop and mobile to make sure everything looks sharp. Mobile testing is key since most of your readers will land on your site from their phone.

Finally, once everything looks good, I hit publish. And from there, I focus on growth. With beehiiv, you’ll also get the following growth features:

For Pub & Property, I used Boosts right away to start bringing in subscribers, which meant my new website was growing from day one.

That’s the flow I follow every time I spin up a new site on beehiiv: pick a template, set up the domain, build the core pages, customize navigation, add content, fine-tune SEO, and publish. It’s as simple or as advanced as you want it to be.

One of the biggest mistakes beginners make is overthinking the launch. You don’t need to spend weeks obsessing over tiny details before hitting publish. The goal is to get something live, test it, and start collecting real feedback.

If you don’t want to get stuck staring at a blank page, templates are your best friend! beehiiv has a handy selection of professional looking website and newsletter templates.

I recommend starting with a template. It’s the fastest way to get a feel for layout and structure without having to design every single detail yourself. You can pick from styles geared toward different types of publications, whether you’re running a finance newsletter, a lifestyle brand, or a food blog.

Always hit the Preview button before you go live. It’s the fastest way to spot design issues or weird formatting. Then, check the mobile view using the phone icon because, let’s be honest, most of your visitors will see your site on their phone first.

Catching little spacing problems or text that looks too big on mobile saves a lot of headaches later. It’s a small step that makes a big difference in how professional your site feels.

Once the site is live, I like to get traffic flowing right away. With beehiiv, I use Boosts, basically a built-in way to swap subscribers with other newsletters. It’s an instant traffic generator for your new site and helps you start building momentum without having to rely solely on social media or ads.

Even if you’re brand new, using Boosts gives you an early push that gets the site off the ground faster than waiting for organic traffic to trickle in.

For more ideas, see this guide on how to grow newsletter subscribers. Driving early traffic is half the battle. Keeping those people engaged is the other half.

If you’ve taken your site as far as your design skills allow and still feel it’s not quite where you want it, you don’t have to stop there. 

beehiiv connects you with vetted experts who specialize in building beautiful, high-performing sites on the platform. It’s a great option if you want to level up your website and bring in professional polish without starting from scratch.

https://www.beehiiv.com/experts

At the end of the day, learning how to make a website in 2025 really is ridiculously easy. What used to take weeks of coding or endless plugin installs can now be done in a single afternoon with the right tools.

For me, beehiiv’s builder brings together everything I actually need:

Add in features like Boosts to drive traffic and email integration that’s ready from day one, and you’ve got a foundation for growth.

With today’s best website makers, it’s never been faster (or more fun) to get your ideas online. Try beehiiv for free.