Why Bricks for Export Sites
An export website has one job: turn a foreign buyer’s search into a qualified inquiry. Speed and trust decide whether that happens. A slow site loses rankings and visitors; a generic-looking site loses credibility before the first email is sent. Bricks covers both sides — it’s one of the fastest page builders in WordPress, and its design system approach makes a professional-looking site achievable without a front-end developer on retainer.
This guide walks the whole path — buying the domain, setting up hosting, structuring the site, handling languages, and launching — and links to the specific guides on this site when you need the deep dive.
Before You Start
Domain and hosting. Use a .com domain for a global export site — it’s what buyers expect, and it avoids confusion about your market. For hosting, anything that runs PHP 8.1+ comfortably is fine; LiteSpeed-based hosts are a good default because the cache plugin comes free.
Start clean. Install WordPress with no demo content. If you’re following our installation guide, the first 30 minutes are scripted: Bricks installed, license active, and the 15-point setup checklist done. Do this before touching the design.
Plan the sitemap on paper. Export sites live and die on clarity. Write down the 5-8 pages a buyer actually visits: Home, Products (or Services), About, Contact — plus a blog if you’re doing SEO content. Decide this now; it makes every later step easier.
Structure and Templates
Templates, not pages. In Bricks you design templates — one for products, one for the blog, one for the contact page — and content flows in. If you build page-by-page, every future product needs hand-editing. Our glossary explains templates, sections and containers if the terms are new.
Products as custom post types. Register a “Products” CPT instead of making each product a page. Then a single template renders every product, and a query loop renders the listing page. That’s the difference between a site that grows and a site that fights you. See the Query Loop tutorial for the listing mechanics.
The buyer’s path. Home page should answer “who are you and what do you make” in one screen. Products page lists with clear categories and a filter. Every product page ends in a contact or quote call-to-action. About page is trust — factory photos, certifications, years in business. Contact page is one form and nothing else.
Multilingual Setup
Choose your approach early. Two realistic options: a translation plugin like WPML or Polylang, or a second WordPress install per language. The plugin route is simpler for most export businesses — one dashboard, one set of plugins.
Bricks and multilingual plugins work, but there are two rules: translate content in the plugin’s editor (not by editing Bricks pages twice), and test one template thoroughly before duplicating it across languages. Breakages multiply with every extra language, so get the first one perfect.
English first, then the rest. For most export businesses, English is the money language — buyers from everywhere read it. Add other languages after the English site is stable and getting traffic. A half-finished second language hurts trust more than a single well-built English site.
Content That Converts
Real data over decoration. Buyers ask five questions: what exactly do you make, what are the specs, how do I buy, why should I trust you, and who have you worked with. Answer all five with specifics — part numbers, tolerances, lead times, certifications, real photos. Vague marketing copy reads as a red flag in B2B.
Speed is a conversion feature. The same page scores 60-80 with Elementor and 95+ with Bricks — that difference shows up in bounce rate and rankings. Keep the plugin stack lean and run the maintenance checklist after launch so it stays that way.
Every page ends in action. A quote form, a WhatsApp link, an email button. The inquiry is the unit of success on an export site — design every page to produce one.
Performance and Launch
Before launch, run the verification pass. PageSpeed on the home page (90+ target), mobile tap-through, form submission test, and a real email check. The setup checklist has the full list.
Launch checklist. Submit the sitemap to Google Search Console, add the site to Bing, set up analytics, and enable search visibility (it’s off by default on fresh installs — a classic launch miss).
After launch. The work shifts to content and maintenance: weekly 10-minute maintenance, regular PageSpeed checks, and blog content for the search traffic that compounds.
The 5-Day Plan
- Day 1: Domain, hosting, WordPress, Bricks installed — run the setup checklist
- Day 2: Templates and theme styles — structure, global colors, typography
- Day 3: Product CPT, query loops, listing and detail pages
- Day 4: Multilingual setup (if needed), contact form, legal pages
- Day 5: Verification pass, sitemap submission, launch
If any step deserves more depth, the linked guides on this site cover it. And if you’d rather hand the whole thing to someone who’s done it a dozen times — that’s what the tools page’s contact section is for.
