How To Make A Website

1 CHOOSE WEBSITE BUILDING PLATFORM

2 CHOOSE AN ADDRESS FOR YOUR WEBSITE

3 SET UP AND CUSTOMIZE YOUR WEBSITE

#STEP 1: CHOOSE YOUR MOST CHERISHED WEBSITE BUILDING PLATFORM

When you are ready to build a nice looking, mobile responsive and a functional website in breeze, you’ll need to choose a platform. In other words, you will need a Content Management System.

Do you know what “Content Management System”?

About a decade plus ago back, most sites were built using HTML (code), CSS and even Flash. Creating a website then was a herculean task. The process of making a website was time-consuming. Moreover, for those that were determined to learn how to make a website in that era, it took them a lot of time to learn. Because, it was too technical and tricky to master.

Till date most people still think that creating a website from scratch is difficult or requires a lot of coding and design skills. These set of people still think that to make a website is the job reserved for the tech-savvy.

However, another set of people harbor the notion that to create a website is still very capital intensive. Well…I want to clear your doubt: that’s no longer true. By the time you are through with this HOW TO MAKE A WEBSITE TUTORIAL, you will have discarded those thoughts. In this new era, particularly, this 2018 has presented everyone some awesome Content Management Systems (CMS) like WordPress, and Drupal, to mention but few.

These Content Management System have made creating a website very easy for everyone. You no longer have to pay through your fucking nostris in other to make a website.

In simple explanation, content management system (or website building platform) is a user-friendly platform for building websites and managing your own online content instead of using a bunch of loose HTML pages.

Most Popular Website Making Platforms in 2023

Recent statistics presented by W3Techs, WordPress is by far the most popular content management system (60%), and is closely followed by Joomla (6%) and Drupal (4%).

WordPress can be used to build different types of Websites. For stats regarding its usage see data on how people make website:

I recommend using WordPress to build your website because of these reasons below:

WordPress vs. HTML & CSS: When you compare the two approach above, you will understand better. If you wish to learn HTML from scratch, it can take 6+ months, let alone learning CSS and PHP.

Although, Having a basic knowledge of HTML, CSS and PHP is an added advantage. It can help you tackle things in breeze. However, if you want to create a website within hours, learning HTML is a herculean task, and ain’t a viable option.

How To Make A Website: Simple Comparison BETWEEN WordPress And Other CMS Platforms

WordPress vs. Website Builders 

WordPress is flexible and free of cost. Whereas, website builders are expensive and often very limited. They are not versatile. Website builders are good for one-page websites, but not more.

WordPress vs. Joomla/Drupal

Drupal is a very powerful platform that is popular with web developers and experienced coders, but it comes with a very steep learning curve that makes it a bad choice for beginners. Joomla is similar to WordPress and works great for online stores, but you’ll need at least a little bit of technical coding to make it work the way you want.

If for some reason you don’t want to build your site with WordPress, you can use Drupal, Joomla as alternatives. NB: They are all FREE to use.

However, for the beginners, I Advise you stick to WordPress.

Other platforms are no match to it. It’s the easiest platform that even a dummy can work with.

Moreover, WordPress is flexible enough to suit everyone from small business owners and multi-national and capital intensive businesses. For professional bloggers, WordPress is the surest platform for you.

NEXT STEPS TALKS ABOUT GETTING A DOMAIN NAME AND WEB HOSTING. BELOW ARE THINGS TO DO BEFORE. LET’S FIND OUT

Choose a platform to build your website. I’m recommending WordPress which is free to use and easy to understand. In this guide, I’ll be showing you how to make a website using WordPress.

At this point, you don’t need to install/download anything. I’ll show you this in the step 3.

#STEP 2: GET A DOMAIN & WEB HOSTING

In order to set up your WordPress (or any other type of websites), you’re going to need two things:

CHOOSE A DOMAIN NAME AND WEB HOSTING

• A domain name (a web address like yoursitename.com)
• Hosting (a service that connects your site to the internet)

The WordPress platform itself is free. However, the domain name and hosting will cost you around $3 – $5 a month which is less than a coffee, so it won’t break the bank.

Owning your own domain name represents far more professionalism than having your site on someone else’s domain.

For example, www.yoursite.blogspot.com. Moreover, it shows seriousness and also helps your search engine optimization efforts.

Still on that, having your own hosting will also make sure your website loads quickly and won’t go down for hours at a time which is a plus to you SEO efforts.

You might ask yourself: Where do I get a FREE domain name and hosting?

I’ve mostly used www.Bluehost.com as a web hosting and domain registrar for my other sites, apart from this very site.

Their services are affordable. Moreover, they have a good customer service, and they’re currently throwing in a domain name for free, when you buy a hosting plan with them. As you can see… blue host is okay for you.

NB: THERE ARE OTHER HOSTING PLATFORMS OUT THERE THAT YOU CAN EMPLOY THEIR SERVICES. HOWEVER, THE CHOICE IS YOURS.

When you get a domain name, you’ll also get a customized personal email account(s): [email protected], which is way more professional than a generic Gmail or Yahoo address.

If you already have a domain name and hosting? Go ahead and skip ahead to stage 3, where I’ll explain how you can set up your website.

STAGE 1: Go Bluehost.com

STAGE 2: Choose Website Hosting Plan

Once you click “get started now,” you’ll be taken to a page to select the hosting plan of your choice.

Note: I selected their “basic” option, which is a great choice for new websites. Plus, at the moment they’re running a special discount of $2.75/mo (usually it’s $7.99/mo)

The “plus” and “prime” plans are great, but you don’t really need all the extra bells and whistles they offer unless there are millions of people flooding your site each day.

Save your hard earned cash and opt for the cheapest package to start out with.

STAGE 3: Pick a Domain Name

Quick scope:

• If you’re making a website for your business, your domain name should match your company name. For example: YourCompanyName.com
• If you’re planning to set up a website for yourself, then YourName.com can be a great option.

For example, for this site, I chose howtomakeawebsite.top . This is vey important, because your website’s intents should reflect on your domain name. By so doing it suggest to prospective visitor what your website is all about.

For instance, this website centers its activities on providing rich resources that will help your online presence. Stuffs such as how to make a website, affiliate marketing, blogging tips, etc , are being taken care of here.

Popular domain names usually end with .com, .org, .net, or info, etc. However if they are not available you could still go for other less popular domain name extensions such as .top, .biz, .pizza, . xyz, and so many others. 

In the recent months, a huge amount of domain extensions like .top, .global .pizza, .xyz, etc. , are constantly growing in demands.

NB: My best advice? Stick with .com, .NET, info or .org if you can, and if you luckily come across any that resonates with your business. Remember that people often type in these popular extensions into their browsers address bar by default. Therefore stick with them if you are opportune.

Let continue, If you’ve already got a domain name, just enter it in and click “Next” on the “I have a domain name” form.

If you aren’t ready to choose a domain right off the bat, you can do it at a later point in your website setup.

STAGE 4: Fill In Your Details

To create your account, just enter in your personal information on the “create your account” page.

You’ll need to add in your first name, last name, country, street address, city, zip code, phone number, and email address. Your receipt will be sent to the email address you enter here.

It’s optional to also add in your business name within this form.

Enter your payment information to continue.

STAGE 5: Check Your “Package Information” and Finish Registration

The next step in registering for a Bluehost account is to select your plan and package.

These are the last steps you’ll go through before your account creation is complete, so pay close attention to the extra options available, like Domain Privacy Protection.

• Domain Privacy Protection is only $0.99 cents more per month and keeps your personal information such as your name and address under the wraps.
• If you want to keep your website and domain information anonymous, you can spend the extra $0.99 per month. If you don’t, be sure to uncheck this box.

STAGE 6: Create Your Password

Once paid and registered, you’ll be able to create your password:

NEXT STEP TALKS ABOUT SETTING UP, EDITING, AND CUSTOMIZING YOUR WEBSITE. THESE BELOW ARE THINGS YOU MUST DO BEFORE THE NEXT STEP:

Do some brainstorming to come up with a unique domain name that reflects your future website, business or blog.

Secure your domain name and web hosting. For this I recommend AND gave example with Bluehost but you can pick any other web host as long it’s reliable and simple.

#STEP 3: SET UP & CUSTOMIZE YOUR SITE

Now that you are through with step 2 that encompasses the buying of domain name and setting up your hosting plan, it is time to delve into the last crucial step that involves the setting up, editing, and customizing of your website. Shout hurray!!! Hope you can see how easy the steps so far have been? Lets continue.

SET UP AND CUSTOMIZE YOUR WEBSITE

Without time wasting, get your website up and running in breeze. The first thing you’ll need to do is install WordPress to your domain.

Installing WordPress

WordPress can be installed in two ways. However, one is pretty much easier than the other.

1. USE ONE-CLICK INSTALLATION CREATE A WEBSITE WITH WORDPRESS (DRUPAL, OR JOOMLA):

Most web hosting companies now offer One-click installation for WordPress powered sites. This makes it super fast that even a dummy like you can make a website in breeze. NB: It is only the reliable and well-established hosting companies that have  integrated One-click-installation for WordPress. If you need this service…go for reputable webhosting companies.

If you signed up with Bluehost or any other similar hosting company, you should find your “one-click-installation” in your account control panel.

Here are the steps you should follow. NB: These steps should be unique to or the same on all the major and well established web hosting companies:

1. Log in to your hosting account.
2. Go to your control panel.
3. Look for the “WordPress” or “Website” icon.
4. Choose the domain where you want to install your website.
5. Click the “Install Now” button and you will get access to your new WordPress website. When the setup is done, Bluehost will show you the installation and login details as seen on the screenshot below

2. MANUAL INSTALLATION

If  hosting company does not provide one-click-install for WordPress you don’t have the option to install WordPress automatically.  Check up this manual guide below:

NB: If your host does not have one-click-install for wordpress or any other CMS, it is a danger signal.

REMEDY IS TO RUN AWAY FROM SUCH HOST: SWITCH HOST!

3. Choosing a Theme (Template for your site)

Once you have successfully installed WordPress to your domain, you’ll see a very basic yet clean site:

But you don’t want to look like everyone else, do you?

That’s why you need a theme – a design template that tells WordPress how to structure your website. See a theme sample version below:

The fun part of it is here: There are thousands of awesome, professionally designed themes you can choose from and customize for your own sit. Although some of these themes a premium, some others are freemium. But there are definitely free themes you can start with.

Here’s how to find a theme you like:

1. Log into your WordPress dashboard

If you’re not sure how, type in: https://yoursite.com/wp-admin (replace “yoursite” with your domain).

This is what the WordPress dashboard looks like:

Everything is easily labelled. If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed, don’t sweat it – I’m going to show you where to go next.

2. Access FREE themes

Once you’re on the dashboard, you’ve got access to over 1500 free themes! Just search the side bar for “Appearance”, then click “Themes”.

I’ve even compiled a list of 15 most popular free WordPress themes.

If you want something more professional or elegant than what you find here, you can head over to ThemeForest.net where there’s a HUGE library of themes to pick from at varying costs.

But before you do that, I really suggest you at least try spending some time browsing the free themes. Many of them are actually really professional and well made; so don’t write them off.

As you can see above, installing a new theme for your website is very easy.

You can search for specific keywords and/or use filters to find themes that suit your style. Finding the perfect theme can take a while, but it’s worth it.

You should also look for themes that are “responsive”, as this means they will look good on any mobile device.

Just punch it in as one of your keywords, and you’ll be all set!

3. Install your new theme

Once you have found a theme of your choice, installing is simple….click “Install” followed by “Activate”.

IMPORTANT: Changing themes won’t delete your previous posts, pages and content. You can change themes as often as you want without having to worry about losing what you’ve created.

How do you add content and create new pages? Let see below.

With your theme installed, you’re ready to start creating content. Let’s quickly run through some of the basics:

4. Adding and editing pages

Want a “Services” page, or an “About Me” page (like I have on my menu at the top of the site)?

1. Look along the sidebar in the WordPress Dashboard for “Pages” -> “Add New”.
2. You’ll find a screen that looks a lot like what you’ve maybe seen in Microsoft Word. Add text, images and more to build the page you want, then save it when you’re done.

Adding pages to the menu

If you want your new page to be linked to your navigation bar,

1. Save any changes you’ve made to the page by clicking “Update”
2. Click “Appearance” -> “Menus” in the sidebar of the WordPress Dashboard
3. Find the page you created and add it to the list by clicking the checkbox next to it and then “Add to Menu”.

Adding and editing posts

If you have a blog on your website, “Posts” will be where you turn to next. You can use different categories to group similar posts.

If you want to add a blog to your website, you can use different categories and posts. Let’s say you want to create a category named “Blog”. Simply add it to your menu and start making posts.

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Create a new category by going to “Posts -> Categories”

OR

1. Create a blog post by going to “Posts -> Add New”. Once you’ve finished writing your blog post, you need to add the right category for it.

Once you’ve created your category, simply add it to the menu, and you’re in business!

Customization & Endless Tweaks…

In this section, I’ll cover some of the basic things I’m asked about all the time that will help you tweak your website.

Changing Your Title and Tagline

Page titles explain to searchers what your website is about. They’re also a big part of how search engines determine your rankings. You want to be sure they’ve got the keywords you want to have targeted (but in a natural way, written for real people).

You should use a unique title on every page of your site. For example, my site’s title is “How to Make a Website”.

(Can’t find it? Just hold your mouse over the tab at the top of your web browser).

Taglines are added at the end of titles across every page.

In order to change the title and tagline on your website, go to “Settings -> General” and fill in the form below:

Disabling Comments for Posts & Pages

Some websites (business/organization sites mostlyn’t want) do their visitors to be able to comment on their pages.

Here’s how to shut comments off on WordPress pages:

1. While you are writing a new page, click “Screen Options” in the top right corner.
2. Click the “Discussion” box. The “Allow Comments” box will appear at the bottom.
3. Untick “Allow Comments”.

Want to disable comments on every new page by default?

1. Go to “Settings -> Discussion” and untick “Allow people to post comments on new articles”

Setting Up a Static Front Page

Some people contact me saying they’re frustrated that their home page looks like a blog post. You can fix that by making your home page “static”.

A static page is a page that doesn’t change. Unlike a blog, where the first new article will show up at the top every time, a “static” page will show the same content every time someone comes to the site – like a home page you’ve designed.

How To set up a static front page:

1. Go to “Settings -> Reading”
2. Choose a static page that you have created. “Front Page” denotes your home page. “Posts page” is the front page of your blog (if your entire site isn’t a blog).

If you don’t choose a static page on your own, WordPress will take your latest posts and start showing them on your homepage.

Editing sidebar

Most WordPress themes have a sidebar on the right side (in some cases it’s on the left).

If you want to get rid of the sidebar or edit out items you do not need like “Categories”, “Meta” and “Archives”, which are usually pointless, here’s how:

1. Go to “Appearance -> Widgets” in the WordPress Dashboard.
2. From here, you can use drag and drop to add different “boxes” to your sidebar, or remove the items you don’t want.

There’s also an “HTML box” – a text box where you can use HTML code. For beginners, don’t worry about this – just drag and drop the elements you’d like in your sidebar.

Installing Plugins to Get More Values out of WordPress

What is a plugin?

“Plugins” are extensions that are built to expand WordPress’ capabilities, adding features and functions to your site that don’t come as built-in.

They’re shortcuts to getting your site to do what you want to, without having to build the features from scratch.

You can use plugins to do everything from adding photo galleries and submission forms to optimizing your website and creating an online store.

How to install a new Plugin?

To start installing plugins, go to “Plugins -> Add New” and simply start searching.

Installation is easy – once you find a plugin you like, just click “Install”.

NOTE: before you go and install every single one, I suggest you read this article: Things you need to know about using WP plugins.

To save you some time, I’ve put together a list of the most popular plugins that webmasters find useful:

• #1 Contact form 7: My website has a contact form on my About Me page. It’s an awesome feature to have, as people (like you!) can fill in the form and send me an email without logging into their own email provider. If you want to do something similar, definitely get this plugin. Here’s a step-by-step guide for setting it up.
• #2 Yoast SEO for WordPress: If you want to make your WordPress site even more SEO-friendly, this plugin is a must-have. It’s free, and it’s awesome. You’ll be able to edit your title tags, meta descriptions and more, all from within the page itself – no more fussing with WordPress settings.
• #3 Google Analytics: Interested in tracking your visitors/traffic and their behavior? Just install the plugin, connect it with your Google account and you’re ready to go.
• #4 JetPack: this plugin is a must have, and is a perfect freemium plugin with free basic features that serve your need that you may never go premium with it.

Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg! Here’s a list of recommended plugins by me.

Congratulations!!! You have just saved money and time.

Checkout:

• How Much Does A website Cost
• How To Create A Blog Site From Scratch
• The Difference  Between A Blog And A Website
• How To Register A Domain Name