Starting a website is as easy as A, B, C and can be quicker than you imagined to publish one. Contemporary website creation doesn’t require you to have any PHP or HTML coding know-how, but an internet connection and proficient computer skills will do just fine. However, there are a few basics that will give you an edge in creating an excellent website.
Choose A Platform
Although 90% percent of the success of your website comes from the content you create, a mere 10% goes to the type of platform you pick. There is a vast pool of web platforms to choose from, and you can choose between Content Management Systems and (CMS) and Website Building Platforms. This article recommends using WordPress, an accomplished CMS web platform that will help you create your website faster and conveniently.
The difference between CMS platforms and Website Building Platforms is simple, as one holds a significant advantages over the other. WordPress – a CMS platform – is suitable for beginners as it has easy-to-use tools for every individual. Besides, it’s a free, open-source platform that permits other third-party users to customize its functions according to their preferred tastes. You will need a web hosting services for WordPress, that will charge an annual fee for hosting your website. The average monthly payment will be far less, in most cases, than using a Website Building Platform.
Website Building Platforms, such as Wix and Shopify, offer limited customization for users through their limited free trials. In no time at all they start charging you full price while you are still learnig the ropes. Squarespace is an open-source platform like WordPress, but the cost of paying for web hosting is higher. All these website building platforms offer limited customization, and unlike WordPress. You also pay more for less neacuse you only get one site. With WordPress you can have as many sites as you like.
Domain Name and Hosting
You need a domain name to seperate yourself from the millions of websites on the World Wide Web. Your domain name is your internet address and points to your website. Your website sites on a computer (a Server) at your hosting company. When someone types in your domain name the hosting company gives people access to your website.
The most Beginner Friendly Hosting Company Is Bluehost and we highly recomend it.
A domain takes the form of “yoursitename.com” and is a substitute to the IP address, a code comprising a series of bunched numbers alternated with dots. With WordPress, you choose your domain name because it’s an open-source platform that allows you to customize everything at little or no cost. If you opt for another Website Building Platforms, such as Spotify and Wix, you might have to purchase a domain from their partnered web hosting sites.
A web hosting company acts as a database for your entire site’s information, and you will have to cash in for these services. It stores all the information that users typing your domain name will see and interact with.
Quality Hosting Companies Have
Great Uptime
Uptime is the amount of time that a web hosting company guarantees that your website will be available online and be visible to visitors. An excellent hosting company should provide an uptime of at least 99 percent. People search content on the internet in the millions per second, and any moment you are offline you could be missing out on a good number of them. It can be very detrimental if you want to use the website for a brick and morter business because if visitors search for a site that isn’t there you can easily lose them.
24/7 Customer Support
Websites usually develop problems and need fixing immediately to offer visitors uninterrupted access. Or, you may need to make a few touches to improve a few essential features. Even if it means doing that in the middle of the night, your web hosting company should be in a position to give you fast customer support to deal with your emergencies. The last thing you would want to hear is that they’re out of service, or there’s no one to attend to you so that you have to wait till the morning.
They’re Rputable
Your hosting company should have been in business for a while, with a good reputation on their side. Avoid web hosting companies that have a history of faulty servers or poor customer services. Or, if they’re still new in the industry, you’ll need to research if their service delivery is top-notch. there’s nothing worse than dealing with a web hosting company that operates at a mediocre level, making you bounce in and out of service effecting the visitors to your website.
They’re Providing Sufficient Resources
A good web hosting company should provide enough resources to help you access their services without difficulty. These resources can take the form of active and responsive support teams to help you tackle problems. Or, they can also be in the form of how-to articles and tutorials to provide you with vital information for navigating their company website. Aside from these resources being straightforward, you may still have questions that require expert support. Mach sure they are able to give you what you need to succeed.
Reasonable Prices
Of course, one vital aspect to consider is the affordability of the plans provided by the hosting company. Some companies offer high prices for ordinary service quality, and they’re those that offer lower costs for high quality. Before going with a web hosting company, scrutinize the market so that you have with the best.
Security
An essential aspect of internet business is online security. It’s always the first thing web hosting services think of providing for their customers. The reason is that the online community is full of rogue individuals who can jeopardize you and your website tremendously by hacking and stealing vital information. Before making your final choice, check out the security index of your preferred web hosting company so that you don’t fall into the security pit falls in the online realm. Do this with the concern of protecting the visors to your site. Most web hosting companies have a security fence for your protection.
Domain Name Management
While it’s possible to find a separate domain name registrar for your website, it’s prudent to find one that provides both hosting and domain registration. As a beginner it’s simpler to manage your plan renewals for your domain registration.
How To Pick The Right Domain
Research Your Domain Name
The internet is full of websites having very similar names that can be confusing to visitors. And, the chances of using a name already published by another website are real. It could land you in trouble for trademark violation if you set up a website with a similar name, costing you thousands in legal fines. To avoid this, try doing intensive trademark research to ensure that no other website is registered and trademarked with a similar name.
Check your idea for a domain here:
Keep Your Domain Short And Precise
Don’t just rush into incorporating your website’s keyword for the sake of it. Instead, try finding a shorter and ideal combination of words that are succinct, witty, and less confusing so that it’s memorable to your users. Also, ensure that people can pronounce them easily as this will increase their chances of typing them correctly and finding your site quickly. Although search engines like Yahoo, Bing, and Google have a way of helping with spelling, readers may find it hectic and quit altogether. As a result, it reduces your visibility, and chances of deflecting visitors are highly likely.
Avoid Doubled Letters And Hyphens
Doubled letters are more susceptible to typos and misspelling, especially if it’s heavy jargon that isn’t familiar to many people. Avert using hyphens because they are synonymous with most spam websites that keep your visitors on high alert. In one way or the other, such domain names may direct visitors to sites with similar domain names and content, thus plummeting your traffic. Search engines will also redirect visitors away from your site if they omit hyphens in your domain name, which can be detrimental to your business.
Make It Unique
Use unique keywords in your site’s domain related to your business or blog so that readers looking for information related to your services or blog content can quickly find you.
Use Domain Generators For Witty Ideas
As of now, there are millions of domains registered in different servers in the world. So it’s easy to say that people have exhausted all the witty ideas. Therefore, finding a good domain can be challenging, especially if you have to do it manually. To simplify it, use domain name generators. These tools provide you clever domain name concepts for your website.
Use the dot com domain extension
It’s easy to feel tempted to use an exceptional domain name extension, such as the ‘.net,’ ‘.org,’ instead of the standard dot com. While there’s nothing wrong with that, using the conventional dot com extension is better. Any average internet browser will use the dot com extension because it’s ingrained in them that all website domains traditionally have this extension. Any simple omissions or mistakes leading to altering your domain’s structure will lead them to an “error, page not found,” which will negatively impact your web traffic.
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
The Secure Sockets Layer is a critically vital security protocol creating an encrypted link between a web server and a web browser. In an internet universe where data theft is rampant, protecting visitors to your site is paramount. Although it doesn’t provide total protection overall, the SSL offers privacy, vital security, and data integrity for your users and your website’s delicate information.
SSL Compliance
There’s a lot of information your users send, including passwords, sensitive personal information such as birthdays and names, or credit cards details. When you make plan renewals info goes through many different computers before reaching the server. Anyone in between can effortlessly access this information if not protected with an SSL certificate.
SSL certificates are free and come with your hosting. Usually, hosting companies need to undergo a few security checks to obtain these security services, which they provide to their customers. Any web hosting company must protect itself with an SSL certificate, and for you as a customer, you need to be sure of it.
Before trusting your hosting company, ensure that you see an “S” on the company’s web address. It should read “https//thehostingname.com.” Not all sites have the protection that comes with an SSL certificate, so it’s not always guaranteed that all “https” websites are secure. If this happens, your browser will warn you with a message that your connection isn’t private and may be vulnerable to hacking and identity theft.
How To force It On Your WordPress Back End
There are two methods of setting up your WordPress site to use https and SSL certificate protocols on your website. One way to do this is by manually setting up SSL and https in WordPress, and the other way is by using a plugin. The latter is ideal for newbies as it’s not as complicated.
To set up SSL and https in your WordPress site using a plugin, you need to install and activate the SSL plugin and then go to “settings” then select “SSL.” If you successfully installed the plugin, it will automatically detect the SSL certificate. Afterward, it will enable your WordPress site to use https.
Installing WordPress
Manually installing WordPress is daunting, especially if you’re a beginner. Therefore, it’s helpful to find a web hosting company with one-click installs. The most beginner friendly hosting service for WordPress sites is BlueHost. Once you have your domain ready, installation is as easy as one-click.
To install WordPress, you have to access the BlueHost control panel through your account.
The easiest way is to use the Bluehost interface. From here:
• Find the navigation menu on the left side of the screen and click on the “my sites” tab. Then click on “create site.”
• Click the “start building” button and enter the admin information. It includes your site name and site tagline.
• In the advanced tab, put your email address, your WordPress admin name, and your password.
Afterward, your installation will take a few minutes, and once it’s through,
• Click on the “my sites” tab and select “manage site.”
• On the upper right side, click on “log into WordPress.”
Themes
Once you’ve created your website, there are many free themes you can work with for your blog, business, e-commerce, or artistry. However, if you choose a premium theme, you will have to activate them by making a small payment to gain access to use.
What’s Better, Free Or Premium?
In a sense, premium themes unlock advanced features, including plugins that you couldn’t find in free themes. Premium themes are great in a way that they:
• Have better design elements
• Have better page builder tools and enables you set up your website quickly
• Have advanced demo layout
• Have additional options to refresh and update your website when you have to.
• Have more plugins to improve your website’s functionality.
How To Install Themes
You can install both free and premium themes in just a few simple clicks. For free and premium themes, the process is all the same, and you first have to log in to your WordPress account before navigating to “appearance” and clicking “themes.” Then, click “add new” at the page’s top. Click “download to initiate the installation and after it’s over, click “activate.” From here, you can customize the theme according to your taste.
Pages And Posts
What Is Content?
Content is the primary product you want to create for your visitors. It implies any creative component, including text, images, audio and video files, data, and e-services. Content can be interactive, entertaining, informing, or persuasive – as in businesses that sell particular products. Content is essential because it provides vital information to engage readers interested in what you are writing about or selling. Besides, web content includes critical information and cues to search engines to index your website and rank them for people using search engines.
Do I Need Pages Or Posts
In simpler terms, pages house posts on a website. They are usually static and don’t need regular updates compared to posts that need to be updated more frequently for new information. You can best understand the difference between pages and posts in these contexts:
Ownership: People personalize posts to show details of the authors. Websites can display this information on the bottom or top of pages according to the layout of your theme. On the other hand, Pages do not show specific people’s details, and they represent your services and business in general.
Timelines: Posts usually have a publication date showing when it was published, whereas pages don’t show publication dates.
Interactive engagements: Posts usually come with an interactive section at the bottom to engage readers in conversations and comments. These comments can be in the form of appreciation, criticism, or even reviews. It means that businesses selling products will prompt their readers to interact in buying or purchasing products they have read about.
In addition, posts also have social media buttons to redirect their readers to external social media pages and find out more about the page. Some will also have share buttons to help share the information they found it helpful. Pages, on the other hand, don’t have comments sections.
How To Create A Page
Creating a page on your website is straightforward and involves a few steps. First, navigate through the dashboard and to the “pages” button and select “add new” and then title it “home” create a few others and title them “about us,” “blogs,” “privacy,” and many others you find convenient.
How To Add A Post
To create a blog, navigate through your dashboard, go to “posts,” then select “add new.” A screen with an active cursor will appear, and you’re ready to add content. After you draft your blog post, proofread to correct any mistakes before hitting the publish button. From then, the post will be visible to people who can read and give comments. You can still come back to re-edit the post and update new information when you feel it’s necessary to share with your readers.
Plugins
Plugins are usually added to a website to increase its functionality and improve user experience. Most free websites don’t have sophisticated plugins but you can add a few basic ones. If you feel like enhancing your website’s functionality, you can purchase and install them. Examples of plugins include Jetpack, Elementor Page Builder, WP Smush, Disable Comments, and Akismet. Today, there are over 15,000 plugins you can choose from to help improve your website’s functionality.
A plugin, however, is different from applications on phones. Both are software, but plugins are add-ons installed in a program to enhance its capabilities. An application operates independently on mobile or computers, and developers design them to be effective with or without accessing the internet.
Plugins fill gaps that feel necessary in a website. Most free WordPress sites and other open-source websites do not have essential plugins to serve a website’s optimal purpose. If you wish to set up an e-commerce website on WordPress, for instance, you have to install the Woo-commerce plugin to serve the purpose of online retailing. This plugin and many others help a website improve its functionality.
Free vs. Premium Plugins
Pemium plugins may come with additional support materials and tutorials on their use, while free plugins might not. Therefore, it enables you to find and use a wide range of your plugin’s elements and functions.
Widgets
Widgets usually appear on your website’s sidebar, headers, footers, and other areas of your web pages. They are blocks of content containing functional navigation buttons. Typically, these functions serve a specific purpose: social media icons grouped in a social media icon widget. You can also add contact form widgets to collect information through query forms stored in your website’s back end. Lead widgets also serve an almost similar purpose: they collect information from your prospective clients about your business website and document them in your website’s back end.
Setting Up The Online Store
Woo-commerce is a plugin specifically created for WordPress and adds e-commerce functionality. Installing a Woo-commerce – a premium plugin – enables you to optimize your websites e-commerce functionality, and you can:
• Sell your products online and accept payments.
• Manage orders and ship them to your customers.
• Incorporate customer reviews and social media.
Other helpful e-commerce plugins you can use in your website include WP e-Commerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
Launching Your Site
After setting up your website and customizing it to your taste, it’s time to launch it for the online community to interact with it. To do this, move to the top navigation panel on your dashboard and click publish this site. And, you are up and running. From then, people can see your work and interact with it.
Conclusion
Creating a website today doesn’t require sophisticated PHP or HTML knowledge, and creating one doesn’t require coding skills. Now, you can create a fully functional website through open-source platforms such as WordPress and website building platforms including Wix and Spotify and have your business up and running. Today, the best web hosting platform, WordPress, stands out, and it’s suitable for beginners wishing to start blogs or websites.