An Easy to Follow Tutorial for How to Build a Website
You may be one of them who have always been dreaming of knowing how to build a website, but don’t know how to proceed.
Don’t worry. You are in the right place. We hope this long, but reader friendly, tutorial enable you to build your first ever website. So let’s get going-
Before you do anything else with how to build a website, you must make sure that you own a domain name, which is a very important part of your website. Also, be sure that your hosting service is reliable. These two things come first and should be given the highest priority. Our tutorial will guide you through exactly how to do this, don’t worry.
If you are not familiar with what a domain name is or what hosting is, then take the time to carefully read this paragraph. The primary address or URL, which you enter into your browser’s address bar, is the domain name of a website. For example (www.yourwebsite.com). Even though it is a vital part of your website all it really does is tell the browser where to find your website. Your site is really housed by your hosting company, but the domain name is how others will find you. The hosting service you choose will provide you with the necessary space to house your website.
After setting up your domain name and hosting service, you will need to configure your site. We suggest using WordPress, which is a very simple and free CMS (content management system) platform. It will provide you with the same tools many professional designers use. Here is how you can prepare your domain name and hosting for WordPress.
The Steps for How to Build a Website
Step 1: Domain Name Registration (How to Build a Website):
Before you go any further with how to build a website you need to choose an appropriate domain name. Most of your visitors will get their first impression from your domain name. It is a bit like a company name. Here are a few of the things you need to be sure your domain name includes:
- Relevant to your site’s content.
- Easy to remember.
- Descriptive, but short.
- The appropriate extension. (.com, .net, .org, )
The domain name is also very important for the search engine results. When someone enters a keyword phrase into a search engine, your domain name will make the difference as to whether you are listed high in the search results or low. If your domain name includes the keyword the searcher enters, then you have a better chance of being listed higher and having your site clicked on. Here are the steps to getting a good domain name.
- First select a domain registrar from the web. We suggest using www.Godaddy.com because they are the largest domain registrar out there. Just click on the link to proceed. You will be directed to a page that will allow you to search and see if the domain name you want is available.
- Fill in the search box with your desired domain name, choose an extension (.com, .net, or .org), and click on “go” to check the availability. If it is not available you will, also, have a list of suggested domain names to choose from.
- If you find your domain name is available, then just click on “continue” to register your domain name. You will be asked if you want to buy the same domain with another extension. If you want to, you can, but if not, just click “no thanks” and move on.
- Now, you just have to go through the registration process and choose any add-ons you want to add to your order. Choose a payment method suitable for you, and select how many years you want to register the domain.
- They will suggest many services throughout this process. You don’t need any of them and you can just move through without selecting these extras. After completing the process a receipt will be sent to you and keep it in a safe place for later. It usually takes less than 24 hours for your domain name to be ready and many times it happens almost instantly.
Congrats! You have become a domain owner. Now, move on to the next step for how to build a website.
Step 2: Hosting Account Setting (How to Build a Website):
You, now, have a domain name, but there is a little more you have to do to make it work properly. Choosing a hosting service is next and there are many to choose from. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind:
- Try to overlook the cheap offers.
- Select a well-established hosting service.
You will find a number of low priced hosting services, but they may not be a good choice, if you want your site to be successful. www.HostGator.com is one of the top choices for hosting. They have a reputation of being friendly and well established. HostGator can certainly help you achieve success with how to build a website. You will get unlimited web space and bandwidth. To get started with HostGator follow these steps:
- Click on www.HostGator.com to visit their website. Now click on “view web hosting plan”. This will bring up three different plans to choose from. The “Hatchling Plan” is the cheapest and smallest, but it will work if you only want to host one domain name. If you are looking to build more sites in the future or you want better security, the best plan from HostGator is the “Business Plan”. Once you select a plan, you will be given the option to pay monthly or yearly with the drop down menu. Choose which payment plan you want and click “Order now”.
- You will be asked for your new or existing domain name. Since you already have one, click on existing and enter your domain name. Then, click on “continue to step 2”.
- Fill in the information and billing detail click on “create account”.
Your hosting account will be ready within an hour and you will be sent an email with the details and login information. Save this for later, as well.
Once you have completed these steps you can move on to step #3 for the How to Build a Website tutorial.
Step 3: Linking Between Domain and Hosting:
You have everything you need to make build your website now, but we still have to set up the domain name with your hosting account. This is another very easy step and here are the things you will need to do for this part of how to build a website:
- Go to the domain provider’s site, www.godaddy.com and log in.
- Now select the domain tab and go to→ my account→ domain management.
- Click on the domain name you registered and you will be taken to a new page for configuring your domain.
- Select “set nameservers” and a small window will appear. Choose the last option named “I have specific nameserver for my domains” and fill in the nameserver 1 and 2 box with the information provided to you when registering with Hostgator via email. Finally, click “OK”. This should take an hour or two for complete activation.
- If you are unsure what your nameservers are you can go back through the email from HostGator or you can log into your HostGator control panel. They are located about three fourths of the way down your control panel page in the left hand column.
Good job! You have now established the link between your domain name and your hosting service. If you run into any issues, at this point, you can contact the support team from HostGator for help. They have a live online chat option, and someone from their very friendly staff will be happy to walk you through this process.
Once you have created the link between your hosting service and your domain name you can move onto the next step for how to build a website.
Step 4: Installing WordPress (A very Important Part of How to Build a Website):
If you don’t have any knowledge about WordPress, then read through the next paragraph carefully. If you are already familiar with what WordPress is and why we are going to use it, then you can skip this paragraph.
For many years the WordPress platform has been used by bloggers and website designers. It requires very little skill to configure, which is appealing to both the beginner and the veteran designer. It’s a free CMS (content management system), which is highly customizable and very user friendly.
WordPress has created a new dimension in web designing by allowing the user or web designer to use a huge range of pre-designed themes and layouts. You don’t have to spend your hard earned money for a professional website designer because you can do it all within WordPress yourself. Also, for search engine optimization WordPress has a great reputation. The third party plugins can also be used to increase the page rank and performance of your website.
However, one thing which can trouble you is the manual installation process. This is another reason why we suggested using Hostgator. Hostgator is an automatic installer of WordPress, which makes this process very easy for anybody. With just a few clicks of your mouse you will have WordPress installed on your domain name and read to be used.
Here are the steps to install WordPress on your domain name and make how to build a website much easier:
As you already have pointed the domain to your HostGator nameservers just login to your HostGator control panel at: www.yoursite.com/cpanel
- Make sure to use the login information HostGator sent you in the email you received after registering. After logging in you will see the cPanel of your site. This control panel has many features, one of them being WordPress.
- Scroll downthe page and find the software/services category. Click on the Fantastico De Luxe (a light blue guy smiling) icon.
- Look carefully at the left hand sidebar and select “WordPress”.
- Click “new installation” and follow the instructions given.
- You will need to select your domain name from the dropdown menu,
- You will be given a box for “install in directory”, leave it blank.
- Next, choose an admin login and password (NEVER use ADMIN as your username). Make sure you choose a username and password you will remember.
- Enter your name or a pen name for the “admin nickname”, then change the title of your site to whatever you want to call your site.
- Finally, click “Install WordPress” and “Finish Installation” on the next page.
Now you will be given your Mysql user name and necessary access URL. Even though we really don’t need this right now, we suggest you bookmark your login page. This is the link with “wp-admin” at the end of it given after installation. If you ever lose this, you can access it by at: http://www.yourdomainname.com/wp-admin.
You have now successfully installed WordPress on your domain name. This is one more step done in your plan for how to build a website. The theme named ’twenty-ten’ will be installed on your site, but don’t worry you can easily change the theme anytime.
Step 5: Configuring Your Website (The Final Part of How to Build a Website:
You will be able to access the WordPress dashboard right after you install it. Just login using this URL- www.yoursite.com/wp-admin and you will get access to your dashboard.
It’s very important to get familiar with the features of your dashboard, since you can use every single one of them to change and customize the configurations of. So let’s take a look at what these features are.
You will find some quick links to change your theme and some other tasks like posting, pages, categories, comments, tags, etc. There are many sub-menus which will also be used later. We will start with the most important features first.
- Posts: This may be the most important feature of the WordPress dashboard if you are planning to use your website for blogging. When posting, you can select an appropriate post category, the page where the post will be published, the option for commenting on the post, the date to publish it, and the author’s name. There are a few other things you can do, as well, and with the help of plugins you can optimize your post for the search engines and more.
- Media: This section will help you upload pictures, video, and sound files for your website..
- Links: You can use the “links” tab to create new links, which you can display with a widget in one of your sidebars.
- Pages: By using the “pages” tab you can add a permanent page to your site. This is different than a post because it will show up in a menu, usually across the top and bottom of your site. Common pages include, “About Us”, “Contact Us”, and “Privacy Policy”.
- Appearance: Your site’s appearance is controlled and maintained by this tool. You can customize your theme, sidebars, menus, and widgets. Some themes will include other options, as well. Get used to using this area because it is vitally important to the appearance of your website.
- Plugins: There are many ways you can use plugins to customize the look and function of your website. Some plugins will help you organize your site better, some will make it faster, and some will even share your posts with social media sites. You can use both free and paid plugins to increase your visibility with the search engines along with creating more visitors to your website.
- Users: This is exactly what is sounds like. You can change your login information and user details here. It is even possible to create other users and give them a specific access level for posting to your website.
- Setting: Within the setting tab you can do many things including changing the front page of your website, changing the way a link is displayed, making your site accessible by other sites, and more. This is a powerful area and also where most of your plugins will go, once installed.
Conclusion: How to Build a Website
We host our how to build a website tutorial has helped you take one more step towards your end goals. There are many other things you can do within WordPress and if you take the time to learn each part of the dashboard, you will have a very powerful tool for designing and maintaining your website. Now, you should have everything you need for how to build a website.
TweetTags: build a website, build a website tutorial, guide for How To Build A Website, how to build a website, How To Build A Website tutorial, website building tutorial
