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It's much easier to create a website over the years. It's easier, cheaper, and faster than ever.
What do you actually need to create a website?
You will need a stable internet connection, and a good hour or so of your time.
Don't worry if you don't have any previous web development experience.
This step-by-step guide will show you how to create a website from scratch in one hour. Follow my tips to avoid making the same mistakes that I did when I started from scratch.
Your 2-Minute Cheat Sheet
This is your quick-start guide for creating a website. This section will not cover all the details, but the most important steps. Each step is further explained below.
Choose the right web host. Bluehost is our favorite web host because of its speed, reliability, ease of setup, and ease. Bluehost is affordable at just a few dollars per month and has everything you need for your first website to look professional.
You will need a domain name to represent the purpose of your website. A domain name ending in.com is the best, as it will help you earn brownie points from visitors.
Bluehost is my favorite domain registrar because they offer a free domain for the first year. This saves you money and avoids the hassle of going through a domain registrar.
After you have registered your domain, you can choose a content management system (CMS). There are many options, including Drupal, Joomla and Joomla.
WordPress is my favorite and I use it for all of my sites. Bluehost offers WordPress as a one click install.
Now you have a working website. Congrats!
You are not done.
Market your business next. You must create a logo, write copy for your website, plan your marketing strategy and install Google Analytics.
The exciting stuff you might already know.
Let's now discuss the steps involved in building a website. Continue reading, or skip to the steps you need assistance with:
- Choose web hosting
- Choose a unique and relevant domain name
- Choose a good website building platform or CMS
- Create a website that looks amazing
- Use a child theme to protect your website
- Create a website and add relevant content
Step 1: Select Web Hosting
Do you recall the large, categorized bookshelves in your school library?
A web hosting company is exactly like a bookshelf. The internet is the library.
Hosting service providers or web hosting companies store your website on a server. This makes everything on your site visible to the internet and your visitors.
These companies offer monthly and annual plans for shared servers, dedicated servers or virtual private servers. This allows you to select a plan that meets your security and support needs.
You can choose the basic plan if your website does not collect or store financial or personal data. You don't need to spend a lot.
How do you choose the right web hosting company for you?
Site Speed
You need a reliable and fast web host if you want to make money with your website.
Sites that are fast have many advantages. They rank higher, aid with SEO, maximize conversions, and are more visible.
Bluehost is a great choice, and it makes loading times very short.
However, we advise you to stay away from shared hosting and other low-quality services.
You will share your web server with thousands other websites through shared hosting. Hosting speed will slow down, plus you might end up sharing your server with spammy websites, which could lead to you being the brunt Google.
If you don't want to pay too much for hosting services, this rule is clear: You get what your pay for.
You'd be paying $5 per month for security, speed and uptime, especially when you consider plans that cost more than $120 per monthly.
I don't recommend that you buy the most expensive plan. Just avoid the least expensive hosting.
Uptime Dependability
Your web hosting service must always work properly. Your website will not be accessible to anyone else.
Hosting providers that are reliable will offer you an uptime guarantee. This could be something like “We offer a 100 percent network uptime guarantee” or other similar claims.
If a hosting company claims 99.9% uptime, then your site could be down for up to 3.5 days per year. Providers that offer 99.99% and 99.999% uptime will only have one hour and five minute downtime, respectively.
You should look for an insurance provider that guarantees your coverage. Hosting credits can be used to compensate you if your website is down.
Customer Support
When technical problems arise, you will need fast and efficient support. There are many support options available, including email, chat, and telephone. Email is, however, the worst. Support via phone or chat is much more effective.
Look for a provider that provides 24/7 support. If something goes wrong, this will allow you to quickly get your business back online.
To get an idea about the support you will receive, make sure to review your service level agreement. You can also look at the company website to get a sense of their support team.
A host should offer a free trial period. This will give you an idea of what you can expect from the service. Even if they don't provide any assistance, it is worth contacting them a few times in the first 30 days. You will be amazed at how fast they respond to you.
Your new host will not improve the quality of your service if they are slow to respond. This is why the free trial is so important. Bluehost allows you to cancel your account for no cost within the first month. DreamHost offers a money-back guarantee of 97 days.
Scalability
Two reasons are why scaling is important. A hosting provider should be able to grow with you and allow you to upgrade as needed. Your website should be capable of handling large spikes in visitors.
To find out if your web host is flexible, consider the following questions:
- If your visitor count reaches a certain level, will the web host upgrade to an intermediate VPS?
- This upgrade is so simple!
- Is the web host able to handle seasonal fluctuations in web traffic?
It is important to find a solution that addresses all three of these points.
To learn more about the experiences of other web hosting providers, visit forums. Compare prices and services to find the best plan for you based on your budget and needs.
Once you have a web hosting provider, you can proceed to Step 2.
Step 2: Choose a unique and relevant domain name
Do not go searching for the perfect domain name. There isn't one. While some names are better than others, they only make up a small portion of your business. Your website's content is still the most important.
Your website's URL on the Internet is called a domain name. My domain name is NeilPatel.com and it represents my personal brand. You can make yours whatever you like, as long as it is related to your business or topics you are passionate about.
There are so many options!
Here are some guidelines to help you choose the best domain name.
- It's important to keep it relevant
- Keep it short and memorable
- Avoid numbers
- Select a.com or.org domain.
- Make sure that your domain name is available
These methods can also be used to find the perfect name:
Method 1- Brute Force Method
Many people have the ability to think up the perfect domain name on their own. You will need to register the domain with a domain name registrar in order to purchase the domain and search for the availability of the potential domain name.
Bluehost is a great place for starting, because it offers a free domain for a year with their hosting plans. You can also search availability.
I'll also advise you to avoid going for domain names that have hyphens (like neil-patel-marketing.com) even when you get it at a dirt-cheap price. It can be confusing.
Method 2: Use a Tool
Some people aren't very creative and that's okay.
Name generators are a great option if you're having trouble coming up with a domain. Enter a few keywords and the generator will search for domain names that combine them.
Bluehost allows you to check the availability of domain names in addition to its speed and reliability. Click the sign up page, enter your domain name into the box and voila! You will now have a domain name.
Keep in mind that your preferred domain may not be available. If this happens, you can mix words up, use a thesaurus or add a verb.
Once you have chosen your domain name, the next step is to find a website-building platform.
Step 3: Choose a good website building platform or CMS
You will be overwhelmed by the sheer number of choices available if you do a quick Google search for website builders or CMS.
CMS stands for Content Management System. This allows you to modify your website from within the domain. It will save you tons of time and make things much easier. Ready-to-use templates make it easy to customize layouts, settings and content.
These are some options:
- WordPress. WordPress ranks number one in terms of CMSs. It is popular and easy to use. The platform boasts over 58,000 plugins, which allow you to do just about anything on your website.
WordPress.org and WordPress.com are not the same thing. The former allows you to create blogs for free, while the latter lets you download the WordPress software to install it on your website.
- Wix. WIX is another website builder. This is a great choice if you only need one page, such as a portfolio site, restaurants, local businesses or freelancers. You can rest assured with their reliability (99.99% uptime) as well as security features (such 24/7 managed monitoring, optimization, and optimization).
Wix might not have the features you need to create large sites.
- Drupal. WordPress is the most advanced web-building solution. This is why it requires a steeper learning curve. It's worth the effort when you consider how customizable it is.
Although I wouldn't recommend Drupal to beginners, it is the best choice if you are looking for advanced customization. To learn more about the platform, you can hire an expert.
Now you can get your website online. Now all that's left is to make it look amazing.
Step 4: Make Your Website Look Amazing
A theme is a must for any web designer. There are two types of themes: free or paid. The latter looks more professional and allows you to customize your site more easily. These themes are also affordable and can be purchased for as low as $100.
WordPress and Wix offer great free themes. However, StudioPress offers a premium version that allows you to test out more features.
These themes are built using the same CMS, but can be customized to give your website a unique look or allow it to work differently. A website for an artist should look different to a SaaS site or a restaurant.
Your visitors will judge your website in just a few seconds based on its visual representation. Your visitors will leave your website if it looks untrustworthy, outdated, or doesn’t meet their expectations.
It is very easy to choose a theme.
Before you make a decision, I suggest reading the reviews and not prioritizing functionality over visual appeal.
You want your website to look great with fancy fonts and colors. But that shouldn't come at the expense of its functionality.
You can also change the theme at any time. It is important to not change the theme too often as it can harm SEO and branding.
Step #5 – Protect your website by using a child theme
A child theme is the best way to protect your website. A child theme is a stylesheet that is stored separately from all other files in your theme's folders on the webserver. It will make it difficult for your site to break and protects you from having to redo any changes when you update a theme.
Remember that website builders may use different names to create a child theme.
A “child theme” is a WordPress theme that you can create in Drupal. Some websites do not allow you to create child themes, but you can still make a backup theme like in Joomla.
Step #6 – Configure Your Website, Add Relevant Content
This is the end of the technical portion and you can now focus on the more exciting things.
To make it easy for your visitors to find your website and to give them quick access to the different sections of your site, you should start by creating navigation. You can choose a few colors to represent your website without being too extravagant.
For example, I chose white and orange.
To make your website more appealing and clear, organize, separate and highlight the most important parts. To make your website run smoothly, you can install plugins.
Here's a quick list of items you should do to market your business, especially if it is going to make money through the website.
- Get a logo. This logo will be used to represent your brand.
- Your website copy should include the About Me page and any other pages.
- To keep track of visitors to your site, install Google Analytics code.
- To find out what your visitors like and dislike, you can start planning your marketing strategy.
The last tip is that you need to be familiar with online marketing, content marketing and link building in order to increase visibility, generate leads and reach your business goals.
Conclusion
Although there are many challenges to creating a website, you will get better and more comfortable.
We've covered everything you need to know about building your website. If you have any questions, Google or YouTube can help you.
You can find tutorials for just about everything on the internet, so trust me.
The rest of the process involves choosing a web host, a CMS, designing your site, and marketing. If you have patience and perseverance, you can expect to see real success.
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By: Neil Patel
Title: How to Make a Website in 6 Easy Steps
Sourced From: neilpatel.com/blog/make-a-website/
Published Date: Tue, 17 May 2022 22:00:00 +0000