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How to Start a Website – A Full Tutorial

Discovering Exactly How to Start a Website from Scratch

Finally your dream is going to become true and you are about to discover how to start a website for the first time.  This tutorial is designed for the beginner and will be very easy to follow.  We will go through step by step and you will have everything you need for how to start a website at your fingertips.

Before you put up a website, you have to choose a good domain name.  It should be descriptive, but short and easy to remember.  The future of your site depends to some extent on the hosting service and domain name you choose.  An appropriate domain and hosting service can help increase traffic and ranking within the search engines.  Take the time to consider your domain name and hosting before you move forward.

If you are not familiar with what a domain name is and what hosting is, well you are in luck.  We will go over the basics right now.  The address which we enter into the address bar to enter into a site is the domain name of that site, which is also called URL.  An example is ‘www.yoursite.com’.  The domain name does not actually indicates the main site rather it indicates the location where the site is situated.

Let’s move onto what hosting does for you.  Hosting is basically where the files that make up your website live.  It is like the foundation for your domain name.

It will take a short time to set up the domain and hosting service.  You may want to choose hosting that gives you the WordPress platform because it will make the design part much easier.  It will provide you with many tools to help with the look and function of your website.

The Steps for How to Start a Website

How to Start a Website How to Start a Website – A Full Tutorial

Step: 1 – Registering a Domain Name (an Important step in How to Start a Website)

Selecting a domain name is very important as the success of your site more or less depends on it.  An exciting and relevant domain name can build a good first impression on first time visitors and turn them into regular visitor. Here are some requirements for the domain name:

  • It should be directly relevant to the site’s content.
  • It should be easy so that can be remembered quickly.
  • Should be descriptive and informative but short in size.
  • Correct extension should be met (.com, .net, .org).

The domain name plays a critical role in the search engine ranking, as well.  For example, if anyone searches for the keyword ‘how to start a website’ in Google or Yahoo the sites with the most relevant domain names for that keyword are going to show up first.  Also, visitors tend to choose domain names that are closely related to the keyword they are searching.

For domain registration, you will find a numbers of registrars on the internet.  Godaddy.com  is the most trusted and usually the best choice.  Visit their site for available domain to register by going here: GoDaddy.com

On the home page there is a search box in which you can enter your desired domain name.  Then, click on go and it will show you whether your desired domain is still available or not. Underneath that you will also be provided a short list of suggested domain names.

If your domain is available, then you can continue on with registering it.  They will ask if you want to register other domain names that are similar and you can either choose to do so or just click “no”.

Next, you need to choose how long you want to register the domain for and enter your payment information.  You can register the domain for only one year, if you want, and then renew it when that year is up.  Just make sure you skip the hosting section with GoDaddy.com because their hosting is certainly not the best choice.

Step 2: Setting Up your Web Hosting (a Critical Step in How to Start a Website)

The hosting you choose will also make a difference in how your site performs.  Hostgator (a reputed hosting service) is the top solution for your hosting needs.  They provide everything you will need to build your website quickly and easily.  Follow these steps to use HostGator hosting:

I.            Goto the site at: www.hostgator.com and select a hosting plan.

II.            Choose the period of time for registration.

III.            As you already have a domain name, simply enter it into the box.

IV.            It will not take more than an hour to activate the hosting.  Make sure to keep the email containing the log in information in a safe place.

Step: 3 – Connecting your Hosting and Domain name

Next, with how to start a website, you need to connect your hosting account with the domain name you registers.  Here is how we do this:

I.            Go the www.godaddy.com and log in to your account.

II.            Select the domain tab go to –my account and domain management.

III.            Click on your domain name and it will take you to a page for configuring everything.

IV.            Now click on the tab named ‘Set Name server’.

V.            Then, select  ‘I have specific name servers for my domains’ and fill the name server 1 and 2 based on the registration information you received in the email from HostGator,  and click ok. It generally takes no more than 2 hours to start working properly.

Step: 4 – How to Start a Website, Installing WordPress

WordPress is an excellent, free and easy to customize web designing platform.  It also provides themes that are already designed for you.  To install wordpress follow these instructions:

I.            Type the URL www.yoursitename.com/cpanel in the address bar.

II.            Log in using your Hostgator information.

III.            At the bottom of the page there is a service/software option, now find and click on Fantastico De Luxe.

IV.            A WordPress link will appear in the left sidebar.

V.            Click the link and choose the new installation.  Fill out the information requested and click “finish”.

That’s it. Now you can customize your theme.

Step: 5 – Configuring your Website The Final Step for How to Start a Website

Log in to the admin area of your WordPress dashboard by using www.yoursite.com/wp-admin.  This is where you can make any necessary changes to your website.  You will want to familiarize yourself with each of the different parts of WordPress.  There are many free tutorials out there and YouTube videos you can use to learn each part of WordPress.  Make sure to pay attention to the following:

  • Posts
  • Media
  • Pages
  • Links
  • Appearance
  • Plug-in
  • users

Now you have everything you should need to get your website started.  You have learned how to start a website and, now you can move on to creating your site however you prefer.

 

 

Hanson

Hanson is an internet professional with a strong focus in the hosting industry. Her experience includes everything from running her own hosting company to building websites. Connect with Hanson on Twitter and Google+.

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This entry was posted on Friday, December 23rd, 2011 at 2:49 pm and is filed under Best Web Hosts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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