Creating Websites – A Beginner’s Guide

How can you make one?

We’ll answer both those questions here.

Back in the day, the only people who created websites were the geeks who spoke in esoteric languages and spent fortnights at a stretch bent over their computers.

It wasn’t a task for the average Joe. Things have changed, thankfully.

Creating websites is much simpler now. By the end of this article, you’ll know how it is done. You would be ready to create your own professional looking blog or website and the best part is you don’t even need to have any coding or internet knowledge. It won’t hurt if you have some though!

A few small technical hurdles could still stand between you and your website but we will shoot down those hurdles for you in this and other easy-to-follow guides on this site.

So grab a cup of coffee (or carrot juice, its good for your health), and let’s get started!

Launching a website online involves 4 major steps.

• Registering a domain name
• Choosing a way to create your website (and consequently, the type of web hosting)
• Linking your domain name to your web host
• Content creation

Step 1: Register a domain name

Irrespective of what type of website you want to create, whether it is a hobby blog or a small business website or a photography portfolio, you will need a domain name. A domain name is, simply put, the name of your website and it often looks something like www.somename.com. This is the address which people will type into their browsers to reach your website.

Popular examples would be www.youtube.com or www.yahoo.com. The name of the website (or the domain name) you are currently on is makeawebsite.tv.

Some more examples are Michael Smith wanting to get michaelsmith.com for his blog or Sarah wanting to get sarahsjewellery.com for her home-based jewellery business or Joe going for iphoneapps.com for his website that talks about and reviews iPhone apps and lets people download them.

So yep, you can basically get any name that you find connects to your website content in a meaningful way. Names that are easy to remember and are brandable do have an edge over others.

How do you get a domain name?

There are companies known as domain registrars that can register a domain name for you at a cost. Domain names are registered for a particular duration like an year, so you will have to renew your domain name before it expires in order to retain control over it. In other words, you are simply leasing a domain name from a central domain name authority. When your lease gets over, if you don’t extend the lease then the domain name will become available for someone else to grab – just like a leased property. This brings us to another aspect of domain names: domain availability.

Domain Availability

Domain names must be unique so once you grab a domain name, someone else can’t get the same domain name (unless you let yours to expire by not renewing it or you sell it to them). For the same reason you can’t get a domain name that someone else has registered for their use. In that case you might have to go for a different name.

For example, if Sarah above found that sarahsjewellery.com was taken, maybe sarahjewellery.com (note the missing ‘s’) or sarahsjewelleryonline.com or sarahsjewellerybiz.com are available. She could also try with a different domain extension (the last part in a domain name like “.com” or “.net”) like sarahsjewellery.net or a .biz to see if they are available.

Generally, you shouldn’t change your domain name once you build a website on it. So make sure that you really like the domain name you zero in on. If the domain name of your choice isn’t available, have a look at my guide to choosing a great domain name where I share some of my suggestions and a few nice tools that might just help you find the one domain name that really resonates with you.

Once you find a domain name that is available, register it right away so someone else doesn’t take it before you do. You can create your website at leisure and registering a domain name doesn’t require you to build a website on it immediately.

Domain Cost

Domain names usually cost between $8 and $35. The cost also depends upon the domain registrar (who gets to set his price) as well as the domain extension (like .net, .org etc.) Some extensions are pricier than others. It is good to research a bit about your registrar before buying from them.

Remember that the cheapest registrar might not necessarily be reliable and the most expensive need not necessarily be the best registrar. I personally prefer Namecheap and recommend them. They price their .com domains for $10.69 per year and that includes a couple of freebies including free domain privacy (which on its own costs around $9 with some registrars).

Domain Privacy

This feature hides the contact details of a domain owner from public view. This not only saves you from receiving spam mail on the email id you enter in your contact details while buying a domain name, it prevents people interested in your domain name from sending you unsolicited emails or attempting to gather information about you for wrongful purposes.

I personally prefer to get domain privacy for my domains, whenever possible.

If you want to explore more about domain names, you might find the following helpful:

How to Register a Domain Name

Step 2: Choosing a Web Host

Once you have a domain name, you need to create your actual website (the content, design) and there are different ways to do so. How you want to create it would determine the type of web host (we’ll see what they are below) that would be appropriate for you.

Before we look at “creating” a website, let’s pause a bit and see what a website really is. You are on a website right now, or more correctly, a webpage (and a website is just a collection of webpages). Look at this page, what is it? It is essentially a combination of the following:

•  The content (that you are reading)
•  The design (where is the logo? Is there a menu? Where does the main content go?)
•  The behavior (what happens when you click on a button or a tab, fill a form etc).

All three of these (including the content) are coded into website files.

Who codes these files? Earlier it was the geeks and programmers. Today, there are software that help you choose a design (and behavior) visually, accept content from you and then create these files automatically so you don’t have to touch any code.

What do the geeks do then? Oh, they now write these software.

Back to where we were.

These website files are kept on what are known as computer servers (these are computers just like the one you are probably using right now; only, they are generally much more powerful) that are connected to the internet. When you want to visit a website, your web browser (like Firefox, Chrome) fetches these website files from the computer servers, interprets the code and displays the web page in a human-viewable format.

If you are wondering how your web browser knows which exact computer server on the internet to fetch the files from, stay put. We’ll look at that very soon (below) but for the moment, let’s have a closer look at the servers we just discussed.

Web Hosting Companies

So to keep your website files and other related stuff like images, you see that you need some disk space on a computer server that is capable of serving web pages to visitors. Web hosting companies provide this space (on their servers) to you for a fee. They keep their servers connected to the internet 24×7, thereby making your website accessible to anyone who can get on the internet.

They protect your website files from hackers and malicious attacks by equipping their servers with anti-virus and security software (like firewalls) so you can concentrate on your website. A lot of web hosts also provide you with free tools like installation scripts and website builders that make it easy for you to build and maintain your website.

There are two flavors of these web hosts. It doesn’t matter if some of the above seems a bit unclear to you at the moment. What comes next is what you really need to pay attention to because this is where you’d have to make a choice. Again, there are two types of web hosts:

1. Standard web hosts
2. Online website builders

Standard Web Hosts

…provide you with disk space on their servers and sometimes a few other (free) tools that help in building websites. It is up to you to choose how you’d want to build your website on that space.

On a standard web host, the most popular choices are:

1. Using Website Building Frameworks (Content Management Systems like WordPress)
2. Desktop Web Design Software
3. Coding

Let’s look at each in a bit more detail.

1) Content Management Systems (CMS)

Typically you’d install web-based software popularly known as content management systems in the space provided by the web host (note: not on your computer). Once you install a CMS, you can choose a design (also known as a theme or a template) for your website from multiple options available, customize it by providing details like your site’s name and then start putting the content on it. Functionality (or features) can be added to the website in the form of what are known as ‘plugins’.

Creating a website using a CMS is the most popular option and the one I’d recommend to beginners who want to start and run a website.

The CMS ‘manages’ the content (and hence its name) and combines it with the design code to automatically create the website files, that will once again be automatically served to your website’s visitors without you having to do anything special.

There are CMS software for just about any type of website you’d want to create – whether it be a blog, an informational website, a forum, a photo gallery, an online store or any other type of website. The best part is that most of the CMS’s are open source and free.

WordPress, the world’s most popular CMS is also free and can be used to create many different types of websites. Check out my comprehensive guide – WordPress for Beginners – where I show you how to build a blog or a website from scratch using WordPress. Everything from registering your domain name to getting your website up and running is covered step-by-step.

CMS’s offer a high degree of flexibility and make it a breeze to create beautiful and professional looking websites without any programming knowledge (though it could definitely help if you know some.)

The vast majority of websites created in the world today use this method.

2) Desktop Web Design software

These are software that you can install on your own computer (instead of on the web host’s server). The software comes with several website designs and you can choose one and customize it with your content, just like with a CMS. The ‘code files’ are created on your computer. You can then transfer them to the web host server using software known as File Transfer utilities.

However, the really good quality ones among these software are quite expensive – upwards of $130 and easily going up to a little more than a thousand dollars a license.

Even with the heavy price tag like that, the kind of ‘behavior’ or functionality you can incorporate into a website with these is heavily restricted compared to a good CMS. Ideally, in my opinion, these are only suited to web designers who create a number of websites on a regular basis and also know a good deal of programming to aid in the website creation.

3) Programming/coding

Purist geeks still exist, in case you were wondering. They code their websites from the bottom up. Many of them still use CMS’s for their comfort and flexibility. However, in rare cases, like when the needs of a website are very very unique, coding a website can be a better option.

Once written, the code files can be transferred from a computer to the web host’s servers. Unless you are planning to become a web designer/developer, going this way isn’t recommended. It could take a few months to learn the required technologies and put together a decent website. Definitely not required if your needs are met by a CMS.

Those are the three ways to create a website using a standard web host.

There’s another type of web host. We cover that next.

Online Website Builders (OWBs)

These are web hosts who do not provide you with disk space and give you free reigns over it. Instead they provide you with an online design interface, or in other words, allow you to login to their website and then create your website from there – totally from within your web browser.

You choose a design or a theme, customize it and enter your content. You might be able to add a few features, like, say, add a ‘search’ feature to your website or add an event calendar on it. Usually the only functionality you can add are the ones supported by the web host.

Some of these online builders also provide access to the other files that the website internally uses. If you know programming you can directly modify these files to tweak your website’s design.

There is nothing to maintain or bother about. The only thing that you work with here is your site’s content. You won’t need to actively make sure that your site is running the latest version of a CMS, or it is secured with plugins and the like.

This then, after the CMS, is really the only other choice and it is between these two options that you’ll want to pick one.

How to decide?

CMS vs Online Website Builder

Before I go about comparing the two, I’ll give you my distilled wisdom here first. You should go for an online website builder (OWB) only if:

• You absolutely cannot be made to bother about updating your CMS software or parts of it (plugins) from time-to-time on your web host. You just want to setup your website once and then on touch it only when you want to modify or add something to it. This description might suit you if, for example, you are a super busy business that wants to get a website online just to share a description of its services and contact details.
• Your needs are straight-forward (nothing too complex or uncommon). All the features you want are provided by a stable online website builder.
• You plan on staying with your OWB for a long term.

If any of the above is not true, you’ll probably do better with a standard web host, by installing a CMS software on it. Here’s why:

Designs: OWB’s generally have just a couple hundred designs (or themes) you can choose from. Popular CMSs like WordPress have thousands of themes for you to choose from, from throughout the internet. You’ll have to be careful with choosing only safe/trusted themes, but even then there are loads of them and always something that will suit your tastes.

Flexibility: OWB’s usually provide just a handful of “features” that can be added to a site you build with them. If you want a feature that is not supported by them, you will pretty much have to live with it.

With CMSs, you are far far ahead because there are thousands of plugins for the most popular CMSs. You can be almost sure that someone out there has the feature that you need and has developed a plugin for it. In a minority of cases, you might have to pay for a premium plugin to get your feature. And in still fewer cases, you might need to hire a developer to create a plugin for you if you just can’t find it anywhere.

Portability: With CMSs you are not stuck to any particular (standard) web host. Just about every web host provides you with the same kind of features and the ability to install your CMSs. If you grow dissatisfied with one web host, just pack up your website and unpack it on your new web host.

This moving of your website isn’t always a simple few-clicks process and generally requires diligent attention. But even then, you won’t really be stuck having to decide between staying with the same host or recreating most of your website from scratch at a different web host like you’d be in the case of OWBs.

Since OWBs provide their own “website builder software”, you can’t easily port them to a different OWB. It usually requires a good deal of rework. There are exceptions to this, but portability isn’t always a given with OWBs.

Stability: OWB’s keep sprouting up all the time. They bank on getting enough paying customers to stay in business. Some of them could go down if they don’t succeed. Most well-meaning businesses will give you time to move, but it’s still a headache if there isn’t a smooth way to port your website to a new OWB. Takeaway: Choose an OWB whose been in business for long enough and is stable or go for a CMS on a standard web host.

These benefits far outweigh the minor extra-work of keeping your CMS installation and its various components updated.

My recommendation is to go with a CMS-driven solution on a standard web host as that offers a lot of flexibility and your website is truly portable and web-host independent. But if you don’t want to go through the initial learning curve that a CMS requires, or put in time for maintenance and your needs are simple and straightforward, then consider an online website builder.

When going for the online website builders,  make sure the one you choose supports the features you want before you get started with them.

This site you are on right now is built using a CMS (WordPress). It’s hosted with Hostgator (on their Baby plan) and I recommend you to consider them as well. They are beginner-friendly, reasonably priced and have a helpful customer support team.

You can use coupons to get a discount when signing up with them. 25OFFPROMO will give you a 25% discount on your first invoice while FREEMONTH1 will get you your first month for just 1 cent. I’ll get a referral commission if you use the above link to sign-up with them but you won’t be paying a cent more than you otherwise would have.

I have a  WordPress tutorial that explains how you can use WordPress to create your site from absolute scratch. Check it out.

Step 3: Link Your Domain Name to Your Web Host

By now, you should have a domain name and decided on a web host – whether you choose a standard web host or an online website builder, it doesn’t matter for this step.

Some web hosts allow you to register domain names as well. I usually recommend that you buy your domain name from one company and your web hosting from a different one. This allows you to independently change to a new web host without having to push around your domain name alongside.

Plus, some web hosts can make it quite a hassle to transfer your domain name to a different host/registrar.

Buying your domain name from a separate company does mean that you’ll have to go through this extra step of pointing your domain name to your web host, but it is generally worth it.

However, if you do decide to buy your domain name from your web host, we can still remain on speaking terms and you can probably skip this step because they’d have taken care of this already. If not, read on.

What Does This Pointing Thing Mean?

Remember you are free to buy your web hosting from any company? That means that your website files will get to reside on any company’s servers depending upon who you sign up with.

This step essentially connects your domain name with the server at your web hosting company that has your websites’ files.

This ensures that when someone types your website’s address/URL (www.somename.com) into their browser, their browser is able to find your website’s files and display it to them.

The How-To

I cover the how-to part of linking a domain name to your web host in a detailed fashion in this guide, but will still provide you with a run-down of it here. In order to link your domain name to your website, you have to do one of two things. In your domain name control panel, change the settings for your domain name to specify the:

1. Nameserver to be used OR
2. IP Address of the server on which your website resides.

Remember you only need to specify any one of the above. In most cases, you’d prefer to set the nameservers as that is slightly easier than setting the IP address. Don’t worry if these sound a bit technical at the moment, it is not imperative for you to understand what these mean in order to get them working. Besides, you’ll have to set them only once (unless you decide to change your web host).

The nameservers and/or the IP address would be provided in the welcome mail sent to you from your web hosting company. The nameservers will look something like ns2.webhost.com and ns3.webhost.com while the IP address will be a string of digits that could be separated by dots. Note them down and update them in your domain name’s settings (by logging into your domain registrar control panel).

Once you have done this, just make sure you save the changes. You will have to wait for sometime before you can see your webpage when you try to open your website in a web browser. This webpage will only be a placeholder at the moment, as you haven’t really setup anything yet. Domain registrars quote a maximum of 72 hours (that’s 3 days) for the settings to take effect (that is, for you to see the placeholder web page) but it usually takes just a couple of hours for it to take effect. The minimum time that it ever took me was 15 minutes while the maximum has been 4 hours.

Wait for a few hours and then type in your domain name in your browser. If you see some kind of a welcome page bearing your web hosting company’s name or a blank page, you are set! Its now time to get down to creating your website content. You should probably pat yourself on your back if you got this working right the first time.

Step 4: Create Your Website Content

Once you have all the setting up done, its time to start creating the content for your website. In other words, what would users see when they land at your site?

Depending on how you choose to create content (step 2 above), you’d have to learn the respective tool or process to build your site. Desktop Web Publishing software comes with its own documentation that lays down how you can go about creating your site’s content. In the case of coding, the code you write would contain your content as well (or, to get technical, you could make it go into a database).

That leaves us with Content Management Systems (CMS) and Online Website Builders (OWBs).

Creating Content with a CMS

Every content management system ideally comes with its own documentation that talks about how it should be installed, set up and how it can be used to create a site from the base up. There are hundreds of CMS’s out there. Some might be more suitable for one particular type of website while some might be flexible enough to satisfy a wide range of needs. For example, WordPress started out as a blogging platform but has now become a powerful and flexible platform that can be used to create a lot many types of sites. On the other hand a CMS like phpBB is specifically meant for websites that are centered about forums/message boards.

Most web hosts provide one or more of what are known as installation scripts. Some of the popular installation scripts are Fantastico DeLuxe, Softaculous and Quick Install. These scripts provide an easy way to install many of the common website software, including CMSs – usually with just a few clicks and filling in of basic details.

If you want to use a CMS that is not supported by any of the scripts provided by your host, you can always download the CMS from the internet, upload it to your web host space and then manually install it.

In order to see what all scripts are supported by your web host, login to your web hosting control panel using the details (Control Panel link, username and password) in the host’s welcome email. The scripts are usually contained in a section called Software/Services near the bottom of the screen.

Click on each one of these to see what web software are supported. Some of the software might overlap between the different installation scripts – you can install it through the script of your choice.

If you decide to go with WordPress (and I recommend you have a look at what it can do), check out my WordPress tutorial  for beginners. It will help you get your feet wet and onto your journey of creating a successful website.

Online Website Builders

With these, you have to login to your account and then use the online builder/editor to put your website together. Some builders give you a short tour showing you how you can design the various elements on your web pages. Some give you tutorial videos in their help sections where you can get an over-the-shoulder view of how the tools can be used. Usually you can publish your web pages (or changes) as soon as you are done with them.

Creating content can be a finite task if you have only a few pages of content in mind – for example for your small business website – or it could be an ongoing journey if you are planning something like a blog.

That’s pretty much it. We have gone through all the broad steps involved in the creation of a website. Explore the links at the end of each of the steps. I’ll be creating a lot more guides in the coming weeks, so drop in your comments, questions or suggestions for guide in the comments section.

And don’t forget to share this article!