You want to know how to make a website, but no idea where to start?! I went through exactly the same struggle not that long ago and now here we are, you are reading my website. I’m going to walk you through the steps on how to make a successful website.
Just for the record, I didn’t have any technical background and I was till able to make a website in a day, that started generating over 1,000 views per day in a month.
Back to the basics, when getting myself into making a website I clearly had no idea what I’m doing and what the capabilities of having my own website are. I remember how overwhelming it felt not knowing what I needed to do to create a website, but after doing a ton of research I got the big picture together. To speed this process up for you I’m summing up my experience and what worked for me very well.
How to make a website step by step
Here’s a bird’s eye view what you need in order to make a website.
1. Domain name
2. Hosting
3. CMS
4. Theme
5. Visibility
a. SEO
b. (Social media)
c. (Paid Advertisement)
Traditionally speaking about website creation we only need to do step 1-4 but I want to tell you how to make a SUCCESSFUL website, because I assume you want people to see it, therefore you might want some more hints on what to focus on other than just doing the bare technical minimum.
First things first, let’s get started!
What is a domain name and how to get one
First you need to come up with a website name, that is called a domain name. In prior to do that, depending on your goals you would be thinking what should be your website look and feel like. I was making a personal website therefore I decided going for my own name as there’s nothing more personal and good for me, mine is just sooo exotic.
Cool, so where can I buy a a domain name? More importantly, where should I buy a domain name? What are the differences between different domain name providers?
These were the questions I asked myself and the short answer is:
You can get your domain and hosting at the same place! To save the most money on domain names (instead of buying it separately and then do a time consuming and sort of complicated domain transfer process) you can get your domain name when you are buying the hosting service, which is the next step getting closer having your own website.
What is Hosting
OK, so now you have the coolest name for your website and you will need a place where you can store your website’s content to keep it accessible at all times for your website visitors. There are website hosting companies who do that for you.
Where you host your website will determine the final outcome of your future success. You
Again, there are so many different places where you can get a domain and hosting for your website that is very confusing. After evaluating all opportunities I would recommend the 2 in my opinion equally the best hosting companies you would like to use.
They are both great value for the money and fantastic customer service if you’d ever get stuck with anything. Below I highlight why I’m more satisfied with them than any other providers.
Hostgtor Support:
24/7/365 support is available to assist you via Telephone or LiveChat (even Skype, they are very helpful) with any hosting-related questions.
Bluehost Support:
Trained, in-house experts are here to help 24/7. Our robust help center includes guides, video tutorials and more.
Money-Back Guarantee:
If you’re not completely satisfied, you can cancel your hosting plan (within 45 days with Hostgator and 30 days with Bluehost) for a complete refund.
Hostgator: 99.9% Uptime
The availability of your website is Hostgator’s top priority. They stand by that fact with our uptime guarantee!
Bluehost:
#1 recommended web hosting by WordPress.org. Enjoy hassle-free WordPress installation on all accounts.
Free SSL Certificate Included
Every website hosted at Bluehost is given a free SSL certificate. Protect your website visitors with one click.
What is a CMS
So you have a name and a place to store your website’s content, but you still don’t know how to upload and manage all the information to the internet.
In a nutshell, CMS, stands for Content Management System, is an online software that enables anyone to build a working website without having to get their hands dirty under the hood, tinkering with all the code. In fact, no coding or programming knowledge is required in order to build/run a website based on a CMS.
OK but which CMS
WordPress is the CMS to rule them all! There’s just no other way to say this. WordPress controls nearly 60% of the CMS market! What’s even more impressive, is that nearly 30% of all websites run on WordPress. That’s among all websites! Knowing these numbers, it should come as no surprise that this very website runs on WordPress as well.
Best part, WordPress is free and the system is suitable for ANY kind of website.
How to get CMS
To make your life easy, both Bluehost and Hostgator offer a one-click WordPress installation and then you are ready to rock.
WordPress Themes
Now you have WordPress and know how to upload and manage your content easily. But you wonder how is it going to look like? A WordPress theme provides all of the front end styling of your WordPress site.
Choosing the right theme is where magic happens. It can determine the capabilities and final outcome of your website.
There are free themes with limited options to customize and there are more premium themes you have to pay for. There’s an overwhelming amount of themes to choose from, but most of them is a one-purpose-fit kind and I wouldn’t recommend these types.
As you’re just getting started, your ideas might develop and you don’t want to limit yourself by your WordPress theme in terms of how you can edit your website.
Both money- and capability-wise I’d choose Themify again. With Themify’s drag-&-drop Builder, you can design literally any kind of layout! Themify Builder is packed with built-in tools like flexible grid system, responsive styling, sticky & parallax scrolling, video background, animation styles, addons and so much more. It’s also very easy and intuitive to use.
Visibility
So your beautiful brand new website is up and running. Congratulations! Now it’s time to think about how people are going to find it.
Well, different ways, first let’s focus on probably the basic pillar and what you can do on your own on your website.
SEO
SEO that stands for Search Engine Optimization is a strategy to get more traffic by ranking higher in search engines like Google. To make a website that is search engine optimized you can use the Yoast SEO Plugin that is available for free in WordPress and you can just add this directly in your WordPress interface.
This tool helps you to customize how your content appears for search engines that categorizes it and rank your website for specific search terms you are relevant for in order to make sure people browsing the internet find useful results for their searches.
When people search the web for the topics you write about, your search-engine-optimized content will appear higher in the search results, and you’ll get more people clicking through to your website.
In the following article I’ll walk you through how I do SEO that drives me a good amount of traffic and also discuss further opportunities to get more traffic on your website.
I hope you found this article useful on how to make a website and you are ready to get started your very first, very own website!
Connect and ask if you need more advice on how to make a website that works well!
Cheers,
Istvan