You've just had an "eureka" moment with your future website. After browsing the Web for months or even years, you finally stumbled upon a website so beautiful, so stunning, and so functional, that you have to immediately mimic every incredible look and feature with your own website. But there's a problem - and this is a common issue for most business owners and website builders trying to imitate design - the website you love is in an industry totally different from you own. What works for a restaurant may not work for a law practice or tech startup.

The key here is to know your audience. You can still take away bits and pieces from your favorite websites to implement into your own but never forget about the actual people who will be visiting your site. Before choosing the first layout, picking the first design, or writing the first piece of copy for your front page, run down this checklist to ensure you can build a stunning site that is custom-tailored for your audience.

Create a Vision Board

It isn't just for motivational speakers and inspiration - vision boards will help you brainstorm the look, feel, and purpose of your website and how it will connect with your audience. You don't have to create a physical vision board with drawings and magazine clippings. Simply create a folder on your desktop and save pictures and screenshots that inspire you and create that "eureka" moment for your own site.

Don't Sweat the Domain

We get it - finding that perfect domain name is almost euphoric, especially given the shortage of .com domain names available today. But here's the thing - it doesn't really matter. While you spend days, weeks, or even months sweating the perfect .com, someone else plucked a .co or .net and is already well on their way to building a great website.

How often do you manually type a website into your address bar that isn't as common as Facebook or Twitter? Probably never. But you do search for websites on Google or click on links found on social media. Pick a domain, don't sweat the details, and move on.

Build a Sitemap

It's fun to dream up your logo and what colors you'll use for the homepage, but you need to think about functional first. If your website isn't navigational then beauty won't matter. Use a sitemap builder to lay out the general navigation of your website and use it to build how your site will function.

Let a Website Builder Do the Heavy Lifting

If you're reading this list now there's a good chance you aren't a professional web designer, so why take on the expertise all on your own? Website builders give you the templates, designs, and building blocks to build a beautiful website with minimal knowledge. And if you do know a thing or two about coding your own website, most website builders have forms to enter your own code to customize a site even further (though most people won't need this).

Build an Editorial Calendar

The framework of your website is laid out and the basic design is complete, so now it's time to give your website its lifeblood - content. It's a common mistake to skip the planning and just start typing out a copy before your site goes live, and you might get lucky at launch. But without good planning, there's an inevitable downward spiral when your content grows stale and unorganized.

Us Google Calendar or the calendar on your Mac or PC to lay out what you're going to post each day (try to plan out one month at a time) and stick to that calendar as closely as possible. As time goes on you'll get a feel for what content works best on specific dates.

Connect Content & Social Media

If the content is the fire that fuels your website then social media is the oxygen that helps it grow. Set up your social channels and plan how each one will share your content as it posts. You should also download social share tools for your website so that readers can share content on channels of their own (your website builder should have options to implement these seamlessly).

Step Back

The vision is there, the domain chosen, the framework built, the design picked, and the content planned - you're ready to launch. But before you pull the trigger, take a step back and refer back to your vision board and favorite websites to make sure that vision is still in line with what you've completed. It's easy to fall victim to "scope creep" where you think of so many new ideas and changes along the way that the final product no longer reflects your original vision (and ends up being bigger and more expensive than you intended).

Go for Launch

It's time. You took the proper steps and all the right pieces are in place. As long as the final product reflects your vision, your website is ready for launch.