You’re reading this article because you want to know how to build a website.
There are many reasons, but one of the most important ones is the fact that we can create our own web pages and control what’s on them. We don’t need someone else telling us what to do or how we should do it; instead, we get to decide for ourselves!
With absolutely no prior knowledge of web design, anyone can create a website in just 2 days! So let’s start building your website.
1. Pick a domain name:
Domain name is one of the important aspects of your website. It’s actually a web address where your clients and customers will visit.
In the early days of the internet, buying and registering your own domain name was a sign of credibility and authority. Today, however, it’s becoming more common for people to use a free social media site that offers you a subdomain rather than an actual domain with their company name on it.
A subdomain is a part of a larger domain that is more specific in nature. For Example, if you build a website on WordPress.com you will get a free subdomain that will be like yourcompany.wordpress.com but that looks very unprofessional. You need to buy a custom domain name which costs about $10 per year. The custom domain will be something like yourcompany.com
Advantages of domain name:
Domain names can be used for branding, business identity and are easy to remember.
The Domain Name System (DNS) allows you to connect a domain name with its associated IP address. Every time anyone types in your domain it is connected back to the IP address of your website server.
2. Pick a hosting plan:
Web hosting is the second most important aspect of your website.
Web hosting basically refers to storing your website files on a server or the “cloud.” It’s also where people can find your site and access it. You have two options when it comes to web hosting: shared or dedicated.
Types of Hosting:
There are mainly 3 types of hosting:
- Shared hosting
- Dedicated Hosting
- VPS Hosting
- Cloud Hosting
Shared Hosting features:
Basic features that you need for getting started with building a website.
1. Hosted on servers with multiple websites so it could be a little slow.
2 Shared hosting is cheap and economical.
3. Basic 24/7 customer support
4. Restraint Service Provider
5. upto unlimited space for storing the website data
6. unlimited monthly bandwidth
7. Unlimited Emails
8. Basic Control Panel from where you can manage your website files.
9. Easy to set up one-click Applications so you can build your website in a few hours.
If you are just getting started, you should probably opt for shared hosting. It’s affordable and reliable while still offering full control. What’s more, it’s one of the easiest ways to get your website up and running in a matter of hours. You don’t have to pay for a full year, you can opt for monthly billing. Some Web hosts offer almost free trials.
Shared hosting will cost you approx $2-$5 per month. I have personally used Hostgator as my host for years now. Their service is great and you can start with a “Hatchling” package that costs only $3/month. They have unlimited bandwidth (how much ever traffic your website receives), low cost of domains (you can literally buy for free if you opt for yearly billing.)
Dedicated Hosting Features:
More professional and ideal for large business websites, but very expensive as the main reason why this type of server is used by big companies is that they need much more power to run their website.
1.Top notch servers with High power processors and multiple high-end hard drives for storing the website files and are redundant in nature so that any failure of any components doesn’t affect the uptime of your website or the server goes down.
2.Very fast connection speed to the internet compared to shared hosting because they are not shared with other websites.
3.Full control of the server so you can install any application or do any kind of configuration as per your requirement.
4.Perfect for high traffic websites, no limit on bandwidth usage but it’s a little expensive as compared to a shared hosting plan.
5. High end 24/ 7 customer support
6. Gives you access to all the power of a server that can handle very high traffic websites for an affordable price so it’s perfect for small or large business websites.
VPS hosting features:
Very similar to dedicated hosting, but cost less as compared to them and is more scalable too. In this type of hosting, shared resources are allocated to you and everything is controlled on your own.
1. It’s still not 100% dedicated server but costs less as compared to Dedicated servers.
2. Full control over your server like dedicated hosting.
3. More scalable than the shared hosting plan
4 It’s perfect for growing business websites because you get more for less.
5. Highly secured and fast servers with high-end processors and RAM so it can handle a lot of traffic seamlessly.
Cloud Hosting features:
Cloud hosting is also known as the “Platform-as-a-Service” or PaaS. It’s an easy way to build or host your website in the cloud without doing any configuration or maintenance. For example, if you are building a WordPress site, all of the WordPress files will live and be served in the Cloud instead of on your own server.
Needless to say, with Cloud Hosting you don’t have control over software updates for instance, but in some cases that can actually be a good thing as it can mitigate risks associated with acquiring malware and ransomware by being at risk from exploits.
- You don’t have to worry about servers or bandwidth because it’s a managed hosting solution so it takes care of everything for you if you opt for PaaS services.
2. It’s fast and secure with 99% uptime guarantee, which is very important in today’s world when so many DDoS attacks are occurring.
3. It’s scalable as you can add more resources and bandwidth whenever it’s needed by paying for them on a per-usage basis (similar to having the elasticity of the cloud).
4. Your data is stored offsite with redundancy and multiple backups so even if something untoward happens, it’s always possible to restore the data.
5. You don’t have to invest in expensive hardware or hire someone with technical skills to manage your website because you get full support from their team of experts at a low monthly fee
6. It’s easy to use and your website is always up-to-date as the Cloud provider takes care of all updates related to software, plugins, etc.
7. Your data will never be affected by a hardware failure as it’s backed up by them and they have multiple servers in different locations so if any server goes offline then there are multiple backups to take its place.
So, Which Web Hosting Plan is better for you?
A shared hosting plan is cheaper as compared to the other two and more affordable solutions too because in a shared hosting plan your website will share server resources with multiple websites hosted on that same server, but a cloud, dedicated, and VPS hosting plan is the best choice for businesses that have a long term growth/development plan.
3. Install WordPress and purchase themes:
After you have decided on your web hosting plan, now it’s time to install WordPress and purchase a good-looking theme for your website/blog. And then configure the WordPress installation accordingly by installing plug-ins like WordPress security or adding your logo and other details.
Themes can be purchased from marketplaces such as ThemeForest if you need a premium-looking website otherwise you can use free themes.
4: Create new content and promote it online :-
After you have installed WordPress, purchase the theme. You need to add content.
Add content to your website, including pictures and descriptions for each product or service you sell.
Write interesting inbound marketing articles and publish them on your website to attract more visitors to the site.
5. Finishing up and publishing your website
To the world:
Once you have added content, edit WordPress posts or pages with your information and publish. So now your website is ready to go live (or should I say launch). You have a whole new dynamic community of users who are interested in what you sell. Now all you need to do is start promoting your website.
Thank you for reading this post, I hope you like it, and don’t forget to share this with your friends. If you have any questions related to Web Hosting then let me know via the comments section or contact us directly, we’ll try our best to help you out.
