How to build a website in 5 simple steps

How to build a website in 5 simple steps

I have seen many articles written about how to build a website or blog. For the most part I feel like they all leave beginners with many unanswered questions. Here I outline the fastest, simplest, and cheapest way to build your own website or blog from scratch without writing any HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) code. If you don't know what the heck HTML code is, good, don't worry about it.

Step 1. Find a good web hosting company to host your website. This is how your website can exist and be found on the Internet. Without having your website hosted, there will be no way for anyone to gain access to it online.  Web hosting can range anywhere from free to upwards of $200 a month. We will be focusing on hosting that will cost between $4 and $20 a month.

If you want the easiest way to build a website, you will be looking for a host that provides "site builder" software. Site builder software is a program that let's you build your website by selecting pre made templates or themes and arranging the items on your webpages the way you want them to look. The only real trouble with something like this is you will be very limited on how much control you have over the final look of your pages. You will be working with pre made templates that only let you do so much with it. This is why most people (myself included) seem to outgrow this type of web hosting company in a hurry. Not to mention that these conveniences are what makes the price of hosting closer to the $20 range.

The type of hosting that I will recommend for someone starting out is a host that offers a site builder as well as open source software installation such as WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal. This type of hosting is used by the majority of websites you see online. This type of hosting will run you between $4 and $10 a month. The open source software is free as well as being very popular and quite good. This type of software is often referred to as a content management system or CMS. A CMS will allow you many options for adding content to your website as well as choosing the layout and the look of your web pages. You will be able to add not only text, but photos, video, and audio as well. Out of the above choices for a CMS, WordPress is the one that I recommend and use due to it’s popularity and quick learning curve.  Joomla and Drupal are very nice and powerful CMSs also, but they have a bit of a steeper learning curve.

Step 2. The next step in building a website is choosing a domain name for your site. A domain name is the phone number for your website. It is the name people type in to their browser, such as (www.google.com).

Step 3. Once you pick the right hosting, domain name, and CMS for your website, the next step is to install the CMS software to the “back end” of your website. The back end of your website is only available to you. The general public only sees the front end when they visit your site. Installing the CMS is done right from your control panel that you will receive from your hosting company after you sign up. The control panel is nothing more than a private page from your web hosting company that only you and the hosting company have access to. The software installation is really easy because most good hosting companies have it set up so you can add what ever CMS you want automatically. You just need to follow the onscreen instructions and set up your user name, password, and the name of your blog or website. It really is quite simple to do if you choose a reputable hosting company.

Step 4. Now it’s time to choose a theme or a template for your website. A theme or template is similar to what I was talking about for a site builder. It is a pre designed look and layout for your web pages. The big difference between a site builder and a CMS is, with a CMS you have virtually limitless choices to pick from. WordPress has many free templates you can use for your website and they are getting better all the time.

Step 5. The only thing left to do now is add all of your content to your website. Since you chose a good CMS, this part of the job is the most fun. There is nothing quite like seeing all of your web pages come together as a finished product.

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