How To Create A Professional Website

3 Simple Steps to Make Your Own Website

Step #1: Choose Your Website Platform

To create a website, you must first choose a platform on which to develop it.

What exactly do I mean when I say "platform"?

When I first started web development in 2005, most sites were built using HTML (code), CSS, and PHP. Each of these required a significant amount of time to study and master.

That's why most people still believe that building a website from the ground up is tough or requires extensive coding and design knowledge — which is no longer the case.

In 2022, content management systems (CMS) like as WordPress have made it possible for anyone to create a website.

Simply defined, a CMS (or website construction platform) is a user-friendly platform for constructing websites and maintaining your own online content, rather than building a website from the ground up using HTML, PHP, and other computer languages.

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Why should you use WordPress instead of a website builder?

1. It's FREE (no recurring subscriptions, open-source)

WordPress is free to download, install, and use, unlike website builders or web design tools. It was created by web developers, and a significant developer community has created attractive free themes and templates, making it simple to get started quickly.

2. It's extremely adaptable and user-friendly.

You already know how to contribute your own content if you know how to use Google Docs. WordPress can be easily expanded with free add-ons to handle almost any type of website, from small business websites to e-commerce sites. You can add contact forms, subscription forms, image galleries, storefronts, and other features to your website using WordPress "plugins." And it's all quite straightforward.

3. Your website will be mobile-friendly. That is, it will function on both smartphones and tablets.

Your website will be responsive right away, looking fantastic on any mobile device, smartphone, or tablet. There's no need to hire a web developer.

4. Community assistance is available

With so many people using the platform (webmasters, small-business owners, and bloggers), it's simple to get support quickly. You can get free assistance or hire thousands of WordPress developers from this site click here.

Are there any suitable WordPress alternatives?

Some do exist.

However, I would continue to use WordPress.

Wix is a basic drag-and-drop website builder that is easy to use, but it is more expensive, not ideal for larger projects, and it is impossible to migrate your website out if the need arises.

Squarespace is an aesthetically pleasing website builder that makes constructing stunning websites simple, but it comes at a higher monthly fee and lacks a migration feature.

Drupal is a robust platform that is popular among experienced web developers and coders, but it has a steep learning curve that makes it unsuitable for beginners.

Joomla is similar to WordPress and is a fantastic tool for website development, but it does require at least a basic understanding of how to write code in order to make things work.

What Next

You don't need to look for WordPress at this point. You don't need to install or download it right now.

It's critical to follow the procedures below to ensure that your website is properly configured: checkmark

In Step 2, I'll lead you through selecting a domain name and locating a hosting space for your website.checkmak

I'll show you how to set up and personalise your WordPress website in Step 3. Don't worry, I'll walk you through the steps with plenty of visual aids.

Step 2: Get a Domain Name and a Hosting Account

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There are two things you'll need in order to get a new website up and running:

a web address (a web address like yoursitename.com)

Hosting a website (a service that connects your site to the internet)

Although the WordPress platform is free, hosting and domain registration are not. However, the total cost is still less than a cup of coffee every month, at roughly $3–5.

Instead of using a free domain that belongs to someone else, you should have your own domain name to appear professional (for example, yourbusiness.my-free-website.com.

Furthermore, having a good hosting service will ensure that your website does not go down and loads quickly (very important for everyone who visits your pages.

What is the best place to acquire a domain name and hosting?

For myself and my web development projects, I've usually utilised www.Bluehost.com as a web hosting and domain registrar.

Their website hosting is less expensive than a movie ticket ($2.75 per month) and includes a free domain name (a nice perk to have).

Of course, you can try alternative web hosting services or even host your site yourself, but this is a very difficult process that frequently fails to meet the needs of your website visitors. So save some money and invest in a good web host.

You can also get a professional email account(s) with your own domain name, such as yourname@YourWebsite.com, which is far more professional than a typical Yahoo or Gmail address, especially if you need numerous email accounts.

Have a domain name and hosting already? Skip forward to step 3, where I'll show you how to set up your website.

What type of domain should I choose?

There are a few guidelines to follow while selecting a domain name:

If you're creating a business website, your domain name should be the same as your firm. For instance, www.YourCompanyName.com

If you want to create a personal website for yourself, YourName.com is an excellent choice.

I choose WebsiteSetup.org for this site (WebsiteSetup).

Domain names normally finish in.com,.org, or.net, but a slew of new domain extensions (the last element of a web address, such as.com or.org) have emerged in recent years, ranging from.blog to.party.

Step 3: Create a website and begin designing.

Install WordPress Site

There are two ways to install WordPress, one of which is significantly easier than the other.

1. USE ONE-CLICK-INSTALLATION TO CREATE A WEBSITE WITH WORDPRESS:

Nowadays, almost all reputable and trustworthy web hosting companies offer one-click WordPress installation.

If you join up with Bluehost or another similar hosting company, your "one-click installation" should be available either during the account signup process or in your account control panel.

Check out Bluehost.com.

For example, to install WordPress on Bluehost (the process is very similar or even identical on many of the most prominent web hosting companies), follow these steps:

Select your hosting package (cheapest plan is fine)

Put your domain there if you already have one.

Fill in your details and select your hosting duration (you can skip the "Extras").

Complete the payment process and register for an account.

To install WordPress, log in to Bluehost and select "one-click WordPress install."

2. MANUAL INSTALLATION (if your web hosting provider does not provide an easy method)

If you don't have the choice to install WordPress because of some strange reason (certain hosting companies don't give one-click-install for WordPress)

2. Select Your Site's Theme (Free or Premium)

We'll go through WordPress themes and how to use and adjust them in the next stage

WordPress themes are design templates that allow changing the appearance of your site more easier and faster.

Fortunately, WordPress provides a large number of themes to pick from. There are almost 8,000 free WordPress themes in the official WordPress theme directory alone.

Without having to go to another website, you may access themes directly from WordPress.

Simply navigate to Appearance > Themes and click the large + symbol next to Add New Theme.

3. Include Content (Pages and Posts)

You must have some material on your site before you can begin customising it.

After all, it's difficult to customise your site if there's nothing to show for it. Content requirements will vary depending on the subject matter of your site and your objectives.

However, practically every website contains a few crucial pages:

page about the homepage

Page of Contact

Consider what information would be most useful to your visitors when determining which pages to include. You should also include visual information, such as images.

Some WordPress themes include page templates for various page kinds to make things easier. Others additionally have multiple layout options for each page.

Go to Appearance > Customize to take use of these options.

To develop this site, we're going to use the latest WordPress default theme, Twenty Twenty-One. The homepage is set to a static page by default, which you can change in the Homepage Settings. Choose whatever page you want to serve as your website's homepage from the dropdown menu.

Alternatively, if you want your most recent blog entries to appear on your homepage, select the option Your most recent posts.

Click Publish in the upper left corner to confirm your choices.

You can then proceed to creating new pages for your website. Go to Pages > Add New in the main dashboard to do so.

The Gutenberg editor is used by the Twenty Twenty-One theme, so I can add page titles and content here.You can add elements like images and formatting to this page.

To add more pages to your site, repeat the process.

4. Double-check that your website is well-organized.

Consider your website to be a library.

The more material you add to your website, the more significant your website structure becomes.

When learning how to construct a website, you should focus on structuring it in a way that makes sense to your visitors and is simple to navigate.

The navigation menu is an important aspect of this. It's time to make your pages visible to your site's users once you've finished them. This can be done in Appearance > Menus.

The first step is to name your new menu before clicking Create Menu.

Then, on the left, you can choose the content to add to it. Click Add to Menu after checking the boxes next to the pages you want to appear in the menu.

You can rearrange menu items and even make them into sub-items by dragging them underneath others, as shown below. Once you're happy, select the menu position where you want this menu to display (in this case Primary menu).

Return to the front end of your site and click Save Menu to see the updated menu in action.

Finally, you want to reflect a structure that makes sense for your site and assists users in reaching their destination.

5. Customization Possibilities

Return to Appearance > Customize for more customization possibilities. When you have a look around, you'll notice that it provides a lot more possibilities for customising your site. You can change the following aspects of your website:

Tagline and title

Colors

Typography

Background photo

Menus \Widgets

You can also customise your homepage and blog page, as well as add custom code. Depending on whatever theme you've installed, the options that show will differ.

Aside from theme modification, WordPress has a plethora of free and premium plugins. There are around 60,000 plugins in the official WordPress plugin directory alone that can add a variety of additional features and functionality to your site. There are also many more options available through third-party markets.

Navigate to Plugins > Add New to install new plugins.

You'll be given a list of some of the most popular plugins accessible right now. You can use the search field to find anything else you need.

Click the Install Now button to add plugins to your site. After it has finished downloading, click Activate. Under Plugins in the WordPress main menu, you'll discover all of your site's plugins, as well as the ability to activate, deactivate, and delete them.

Some options to consider while deciding which plugins to install are:

Yoast SEO — A popular SEO plugin that adds on-page optimization prompts to every page and post, as well as the ability to configure Open Graph social media tags.

Jetpack - Improves website speed, optimization, social media integration, digital marketing, contact forms, and site search with a variety of features.

Smush — This plugin compresses photos before uploading them to WordPress, saving space and speeding up page load times.

WooCommerce — The most popular e-commerce store plugin for WordPress, WooCommerce makes setting up an online store simple. There's more on that below.

MonsterInsights — This WordPress plugin integrates Google Analytics into your dashboard.

Installing a page builder plugin will give you even more control over the appearance of your website. These plugins give your site drag-and-drop capabilities, allowing you to create complete web designs rather than just individual pages and articles. Among the most popular options are:

Elementor — This all-in-one website builder has visual website editing, lightning-fast load rates, and a large template library.

Divi - Created by Elegant Themes, Divi offers yet another simple approach to customise websites.

Beaver Builder — A simple page builder plugin that significantly speeds up website design.

6. Include a blog (Optional)

A blog is not required for every website. Creating one, on the other hand, might be a good way to consistently post new information, demonstrate your knowledge, and provide added value to your readers.\

To create a blog on WordPress, you must first choose a blog page. I already mentioned that you may set your homepage to automatically display your most recent posts. If you wish to keep your homepage static and have a dedicated blog page, you must first create it.

Setting up an empty page (Pages > Add New), naming it Blog (or whatever you want; Blog makes sense because it will automatically construct the address yoursite.com/blog for your blog page), and publishing it is all it takes. Then, under Appearance > Customize > Homepage Settings or Settings > Reading, select it as your Posts Page.

All blog posts will appear on your chosen page once you've saved them. Remember to include it in your navigation menu!

Go to Posts > Add New to add new blog posts to your website.

This will take you to the same content editor you used for your pages earlier. Your blog post should have a title and content. Include graphics and formatting, as well as headers, lists, and anything else the document requires. You can also apply categories and tags, specify an excerpt, and set up a prominent image on the right-hand sidebar.

When you're through editing, click Publish. Congratulations on finishing your first post!

7. Creating an Online Shop (Optional)

An ecommerce store isn't required for every website. Continue reading if you want to learn how to create a website with an online store.

WooCommerce is the most popular plugin for this purpose.

It's simple to set up, with a variety of payment alternatives, and a variety of optimal themes for creating an online store. It also features a range of addons that you can buy to modify your e-commerce site and adapt it to a variety of uses.

8. Set up SSL.

A secure sockets layer (SSL) on your website ensures the security of data delivered to your visitors. SSL is a significant search ranking component, and protecting user privacy and security is critical to ensuring a great user experience.

Perform the following steps to ensure that SSL is enabled on your new Bluehost website:

Connect to Bluehost.

Navigate to My Sites.

Then select Manage Site.

On the following screen, look for the Security tab.

Verify your Free SSL Certificate or SSL Certificate under the heading Security Certificate: Status of Let's Encrypt. The switch should be turned on.

Visit your site again to make sure SSL is enabled. In your browser's address bar, a lock icon should show next to the domain name.

9. Go Live With Your WordPress Site

It's time to properly launch your website after it's finished. Double-check your settings and go over your posts and pages again. If everything seems good, click the Coming Soon Active link at the top of the dashboard. After that, scroll down and click the Launch your site button. You can now view your live website.

Check each page to ensure that all links work, your text is legible, and your photos are properly structured.

Congratulations! You now have a new website to brag about.

Even with a detailed guide to guide you, learning how to construct a website is no easy task.

At the same time, learning a new talent and having your hard effort pay off can be quite rewarding.

However, don't stop there. Learn more and develop more sophisticated functionalities and features with your newfound expertise. This way, you'll learn not just how to construct a website, but how to make the exact website you desire.

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