Every business is expected to have a website these days. Sometimes, that’s the case even for individuals. Websites can be used in different ways – they can be portfolios, markets, information hubs, basically anything. But if you wanted to create your website from scratch, there are a few things you should know. Not every part of the process needs to be made by an absolute professional, and sometimes you can even make a full website all by yourself. You’ll just have to know what to do once you get started.
Have a good plan
Starting off with a plan is the best way you can start making your website. Depending on what site you’re planning to make, that will ultimately affect the design in question. News and informational sites tend to function differently than E-commerce shops, or companies and non-profit organisations. That means you should create a navigational map that will allow you to construct the basis of the website, and where and how you’d want your visitors to navigate on the website. Also, planning on what type of content you’ll have on the website is arguably the most important step here. There’s a reason why the phrase content is king is so prevalent online.
Designing the website
This part is the definitely the most challenging and complex in the entire process, and will probably require you to learn some skills if you intend on doing things solo, at least as much as possible. You’d need to study other websites to figure out their designs, and you may want to take up a design course online to learn how to use it most effectively for your website. Knowing and understanding HTML and CSS will probably be of great use, as well. That way you’d have control of most, if not all, of the building process, as both HTML and CSS tend to be the primary building blocks of websites.
Hosting
Since you’d want your website to be available for everyone across on the world, it’s important to have good website hosting. Think of it like the place where your files and data are stored and are then accessed once users start visiting your site. While free hosting is an option, it’s rarely recommended, since you’d have very little to no control over how your content is hosted. You should consider paid hosting, like from the services offered by Memset, so you can have the most freedom available when it comes to hosting.
Registering a domain
Your website definitely needs a name, and that’s what a domain is. It’s the URL you type in the address bar when you want to visit a site, and you’ll want to pick one that’s fully suited to you and your website. It’s the basis on which your brand will be built, so you’ll want a domain that will accurately reflect who you are and what you offer.
And there you have it. Those are the basic steps you’ll need to create your first website. There are more complicated options, true, but if you’ve followed these steps, all that’s left is to publish the website with the help of the hosting provider, and start promoting your brand.