How to make a website yourself

Do you want to try your hand at making your very own website for personal or business use? Then, this one is for you. This easy to follow tutorial shows you the easiest way to make a website by yourself. I am creating this tutorial with beginner and layperson in mind; taking you step by step through the whole process. Let’s get started!

Step 1, Register your domain name

Domain names are used to identify IP addresses and to refer to your website. Examples are google.com and amazon.com. To get your very own domain name, you will need to purchase it through an online registrar like crazydomains.com.au or ziphosting.com.au. Go to either website and register your chosen domain name from just $9.95 for a .com domain or $10.48 p/y for a .com.au domain registration. This gives you the opportunity to lock down your domain for a year (or two years for .com.au registrations). You should renew it before the time expires or run the risk of losing it to another party.

Your domain name is one of the most important aspects of your website and it is one of the major components when you’re trying to make your site search engine-friendly. A word of advice, make it keyword-rich, descriptive, short, and easy to remember.

For a few tips, read ‘Tips For Choosing The Right Domain Name’ and ‘.com Vs .com.au Domain – What’s Best For SEO?’

Step 2, Sign up for website hosting

After choosing the perfect domain name for your website, the next step is to sign up for a company that will host your site and have it connected to the internet for people to see. Web hosting companies typically offer packages which include the purchase of domain name and hosting services from $50-$220 per year. It’s a good idea to order your hosting from the same company that you’ve purchased your domain name with if they offer this server, you will find it much easier to manage in the long run if they are in the same account.

Before you decide on your hosting company, be sure to read ‘SEO Benefits Of Hosting On Servers In Your Country‘ – If you’re in Australia, make sure you’re hosting servers are in Australia – it may cost you more per year but it’s a small price to pay for increased rankings on search engines.

Once that is done, the next step to take is to point your domain name to your web hosting account.

Step 3, Website design

After registering your domain name and signing up for web hosting, the next step is to design your website. Start by getting a WYSIWYG or What You See Is What You Get web editor, which allows you to design your site visually. This is highly recommended for people who do not have high level of technical skills and do not have the time to muck around with technical details. These web editors work exactly the same as a regular word processor.

If you don’t mind spending money on commercial programs, I would recommended purchasing Dreamweaver. Otherwise, you can use free HTML editors. You also have the option to skip this step completely and use built-in templates that are offered by CMS platform such as WordPress. Should you decide to go this route, coding experience will not be necessary. You just have to find the best theme that will suit your purpose, activate it, customise it and your website is ready to go.

Step 4, Test your website

Before you launch your website, make sure to test it first to ensure that it loads properly on all major browsers. This may include validating your code for your webpages called HTML and CSS and ensure that they have no syntax errors. If you’ve designed the website yourself, you will have at least intermediate knowledge of HTML and CSS so be sure to use the free validators (WC3) available to check your code. In some cases, finding out what’s wrong with your code can be really hard particularly if you don’t have the needed skills. If this happens to you, find validators that give very clear instructions on how to fix your code. Some will even fix the errors for you.

Step 5, Accepting payments through your website

If you’re building your website to sell merchandise and services, it is highly recommended that you accept e-payments. In order to process credit card, having a merchant account is a requirement. Check with your local bank on what you’re going to need in order to set this up as requirements vary from one country to another. You also have the options to sign up for payment gateways companies that will accept credit card payments on your behalf for a fee. PayPal is by far the most popular option and is the preferred option over merchant accounts with banks for the majority of Small Businesses.

Step 6, Promotion

Once your website is up and ready, the next step is to promote it online to ensure that it will not go unnoticed. The first step is to submit it to search engines like Bing and Google. To effectively attract traffic, use fool-proof strategies which include creating free business listings in local directories, social media marketing, content marketing, search engine optimisation, PPC advertising, and more.

If you’d rather spend your valuable time growing your business and want to leave the online promotion to professionals, give me a call and let me manage your online marketing and promotion for you.

Although the process of actually creating a website is a lot more involved than a single article can explain, I hope this give you an overview of what is required and the steps you need to take from start to finish to get a website up online.

Here at Ignition Media, we make the process of building your website a tad easier. We offer custom websites based on your business and personal requirements. If making a website yourself becomes overwhelming and you want to call in the experts, then make Ignition Media your first call. Alternatively, feel free to email me direct with any questions you may have; [email protected]

For more information, be sure to read our previous posts regarding website builders:

• Website Builders & CMS
• Best free website builders