How To Make A Website

So you’ve come to the conclusion that you need to know how to make a website and how to build it yourself; however, you’re not too sure on how to go about getting this done. Relax! You’ll be glad to know that this article is a step by step website building guide that will show you how to create a website and have it running within the hour.

What’s the first thing you need to know about making your own website?

Before you begin, you need to have the right domain name and a web hosting service you find reliable. Be mindful of the hosting services you pick, since it can have a significant role on your website’s performance such as speed, stability, up-time, etc.

Do you know what a domain is?

Simply put, it’s your website’s main address, although many people just call it a URL and it will look something like this (www.myexample.com). Bear in mind that the domain by itself, while important, is not the actual representation of your website. Rather, it’s a pointer to where people can find your website on the Internet after you have created it.

This is why your website will need a hosting service, as it gives the Internet space needed to support all the content. Basically, it’s the skeleton for your website’s “skin” hence the most important part.

Once you have effectively set up the domain name and web hosting service for your website (this will take you approximately 15 minutes), you can configure your website to appear however you wish. This article uses the free and popular CMS platform known as WordPress. It’s an easy platform that allows users to create a professional looking website in mere minutes, we will show you some simple steps to get started on personalizing your site. If at anytime throughout the steps above you are having any difficulty please email us through the contacts page anytime with any questions you have and we will do our best to assist you in anyway we can.

Are you ready to begin making your website?

Then lets get going!

Remember, it’s important to be careful when you go to register your new domain name. After all, the domain name is your prospective clients/customers’ first impression of your website, you and your business. Thus, you need to consider four things about your domain name.

A – Is the name relevant to your website’s content?
B – Is the name easy for folks to remember (is it catchy or eye-grabbing)?
C – Is the name short but descriptive?
D – Does it have the proper extension to it (.net, .com or .org)?

The domain name you choose will play a huge role in search engines. For instance, if somebody types in “big fast cars” using Google or Yahoo, the website that has a domain name that matches this phrase has a significant chance of appearing in the results. Users tend to choose websites that have URLs that are relevant to the phrase they’re looking for or are also relevant in terms of the topic. Make sense?

1) Firstly you must choose your domain registrar. The world’s number one domain registrar is GoDaddy.com.

To begin, you’ll need to go to www.GoDaddy.com. This should take you to a page that allows you to look for domain names that are available to purchase. Bear in mind that you’re only looking for extensions that end in .com, .net or .org, as these are the most common extensions that people will be able to relate to easier.

Once you get there your search box enquiry should look something like the picture below:
Type your desired url into the search box and see if it is available.

2) If the domain name you want is available, you’ll need to click the add button directly below and continue onto the registration. The website will ask you if you’d like to buy more extensions and list them for you to see or if the domain isn’t available it will list some other options for you to consider. And, unless you really want to purchase the extra ones, just click on the the one you want to add and continue on.

3) You must go through the registration process; this is fairly simple. There are going to be several payment options to choose from along with how long you desire to have the domain name purchased for. It would be best to go with a 12-month registration, as you can renew it at any point over that 12 months.

Keep in mind that you’ll be presented with an offer to choose between several privacy protection services and web hosting services. Decline all of them for now but most specially the option for web hosting.

Godaddy is a strong domain registrar that offers web hosting so I am more than happy for you to choose web hosting through godaddy, however, it would be ideal for you to use another company for your hosting needs. (You’ll understand why you should do this in step number two.)

Once you have purchased the domain name, you’ll be emailed a receipt with the all the relevant information. Save it because you might need it down the road.

Your newly purchased domain is usually available to use within a day, sometimes sooner!

4) You’ve now become the proud owner of an entirely new domain name. Way to go!

Okay, you’ve got the domain ready, now you have just got to put it to use for yourself! This means you need to come up with a web hosting provider that provides great service. How do you pick from the many different ones? It’s simple really! There are just two rules you should follow when trying to decide what web hosting provider to go with.

A – Avoid the inexpensive/cheap offers.
B – Pick an established, well-respected host.

Be sure you do a little bit of searching because you’re bound to find many hosts that offer low prices. Of course, you need to look closely and be sure they’re actually worth the price you pay. What you’re looking for is a web hosting service that ensures your website runs smoothly and won’t have a tremendous amount of down-time. If a web hosting service has these problems, avoid it at all costs! Do your research on the one you end up choosing to make sure they have lived up to their promises for other people.

We would like to suggest a well priced, well established hosting service called Hostgator.

It’s highly recognized among the industry, is reasonably priced and has a real good reputation for its speed, reliability and customer service. It’s also got an unlimited amount of bandwidth and disk space. This means it can handle a large amount of traffic and has no limit on its upload capacity.

How do you setup your Hostgator account?

1) Firstly you need to visit the hostgator website by clicking this link: www.Hostgator.com.

When you get there, you’ll see a big button saying “View Web Hosting Plans”. Click on it! Since you’ve got just one domain name to host, choose the “Hatchling plan”. Decide for how long you want their services and hit the “Order now” button.

2) You will be asked if you wish to register a new domain name, or use an existing one. Since we have already registered a domain name, choose an existing one:

Enter the domain name you’ve purchased, but before you press Continue to Step 2 remember to put your discount code into the box into the bottom to secure your discount, this is a 25% off discount code offered to all visitors of this site so make sure you use it because it’s a great deal.

3) Fill in both the account and billing information. Once you’re done, click on “Create Account”.

Once it is all processed and configured, the hosting plan will be active and ready to use. (This generally takes an hour).

You’ll get an email that contains the important information like the login information and name servers (something you’ll need down the road to link up to your domain). Keep this email in a safe place.

See how simple it is to do? It took you about five to 10 minutes and that’s it! Well done!

Okay, now you’ve got both your domain name and your hosting service, you’ll need to put them together.

This step is pretty simple but the majority of folks tend to worry about it since they’ll be messing with the domain they have picked, changing things like name services, DNS, etc. And, while you have to do that, it’s much easier than you can imagine. How do you guide your domain to point towards your web host?

First, go to your domain providers on www.godaddy.com. If you must, log in… if you’re not already.

Second, put the cursor on the Domains tab and choose “go to”, “my account” and then “domain management”.

Third, click your domain name, which will take you to an entirely new page. Here, you’ll configure what you need about the domain you have and, yes, that includes the terrifying name servers, it should look something like this:

Fourth, click set “NameServers” and a little window will pop up. Make sure your browser doesn’t have a pop-up blocker. If you need to, you can temporarily allow the site to have a pop-up.

Fifth, choose “I have specific nameservers for my domains” and input the data the webhosting plan gave you at registration in both Nameserver1 and 2. Don’t worry with the other two spots. Remember, all this information came in the email you got from Hostgator when you ordered their service.

Sixth, click on “ok” to confirm and all changes will take about two hours before it is effective.

That’s all there is to it! Now, that wasn’t so difficult, was it? You finally got the GoDaddy domain you own to hook up to the Hostgator account. But remember, it won’t be effective right away so give it some time.

If you need help with the linking up issue, you can always call Godaddy.com’s customer service for assistance. They’re ready to help you out whenever you need it!

What’s WordPress you ask? Why should you have WordPress on your website? WordPress is a free platform bloggers commonly used for several years. In essence, it allows you to build a website without a lot of effort being put forth. It’s user-friendly, extremely customizable and a powerful tool when you’re creating a website.

Now, WordPress permits you to utilize the free pre-designed themes. Thus, you don’t have to spend your money hiring an expensive web designer (or two) to get the site looking professional. The program is also friendly when it comes to search engine optimization (also known as SEO). You’ll be able to install third-party plug-ins like the popular “All-in-one SEO”, which will boost the website’s visibility and more.

In saying that, it should be noted that manually getting WordPress on your website is extremely difficult and will be time-consuming…especially if you’ve never done it before. That’s why you should have Hostgator, as it’s got a built-in WordPress installer. Just one click and it’s ready for you to use.

The WordPress feature comes from each Hostgator hosting plan. So, how do you install WordPress using Hostgator auto-installer?

First, your new domain should already be pointed toward the Hostgator nameservers (because we purchased both through hostgator this will happen automatically). With that in mind, type in: www.yourwebsite.com/cpanel.

Second, use your login information for the Hostgator cpanel that came with the email you got from your Hostgator web hosting purchase. Once you’ve done this, the cpanel should be noticeable. Be sure you explore it because it’s got a lot of features to it.

Thirdly, you’ll need to scroll down to find the Fantastico De Luxe under the category Software/Services.

Fourth, be sure to choose “new installation” and use the instructions provided. You’ll be required to type in specific information like your email address, chosen WordPress username and password among many other things.

Word to the wise: where you see “Install in Directory”, you must leave this be. Do not put anything in this.

Fifth, press the “Install WordPress” button. The next page will give you your Mysql username and access URL. While you won’t need it right away, you should save it for later on.

Sixth, press “Finish Installation”. You now have WordPress installed successfully onto your website. The default “twenty-ten” theme can easily be changed once you’ve gained entrance back into the site.

Once you have access back onto your site and clearly see the default theme, all you have to do is type in: /wp-login to the main URL and log into the site using the information you just put up. Of course, you can also login with the “login” link on your homepage, which is sitting on the right sidebar.
www.yourwebsite.com/wp-login
What you’ll notice right off the bat are the quick-links to pages, posts, tags, comments and category and change your WordPress theme. Your WP dashboard should look like this you should become familiar with this as this is how you control your site.

You’ll also notice plenty of sub-menus on the left hand side of the screen. They do serve their purpose but, right now, you should place your focus on the more important details like the ones listed below:

A – Posts
If you’re running your site like a blog, you’ll use posts a lot. When you generate posts inside WordPress, you can choose what page they’ll be displayed on, the date in which to publish them, the name of the publisher and the option to give visitors the ability to comment on the posts. You’ll also be able to set up diverse post categories.
B – Media
The media menu allows you to manage your videos and pictures that you place on the website.
C – Links
In the link section, you can generate a variety of links and link categories you can use later on to create customized sidebar widgets.
D – Pages
You’ll use this to add fresh new pages to the website. You can browse the different options available like enabling/disabling comments, page slug, adjusting the page template, altering page order, etc.
E – Appearance
The appearance section will permit you to customize the website’s look, beginning with the theme you want to use down to the menus and sidebar widgets. You have a ton of ways to customize the website. Go all out!
F – Plugins
Plugins are useful tools if applied the right way. There are lots of third party plugins that allow you to speed the performance of your website, boost visibility of the website on search engines, improve the visual style and look, etc.
G – Users
This part is for the addition or modification of the existing user settings like profiles, passwords, emails, etc.
H – Settings
This allows you to set up things like the blog name, front page display, description, media settings, date format, etc. From settings, you can also reconfigure the third party plugins.

If you have followed these 5 steps correctly you should have your site up and running and all you need to do is add some great content and if you like explore a range of different themes. If you are still having some trouble once you have gone through the steps and you need some extra help just send me a message through the contact us page and I would be glad to help. I have helped a whole range of people with their sites so if you have any questions please dont hesitate to ask anytime and I will endeavour to do my best to help or point you in the right direction so your question is answered and you get your site up an running properly. Good luck guys and happy website building.