Getting the Basics Right
Ok you want to make your own website and you not sure where to start, don’t worry this step-by-step guide will walk you right through the process of creating your own website.
When creating a website, you need a few things:
- Choose a domain name
- Register a domain and sign up with web hosting
- Set up a website using WordPress (through web host) (our recommendation)
1. Choose a domain name
- The first step in making your own website is to identify your domain name, now here’s the problem. Most of the domain names which are nice and fun to have are already booked by the domain hosts who would like to sell these for big bucks.
- But don’t worry that’s not a problem; I am going to tell you exactly how to find a good domain name that is available for your website.
- First decide your primary keyword, for e.g. if your website is going to be a fitness website then you can say your primary keyword is “fitness”.
- Your Ideal website address would be www.fitness.com, but this would have already been taken.
- So now let’s pair your domain with some secondary keyword so that you have a list of domain names:
E.g.
- www.fitnessfirst.com
- www.fitnessplus.com
- www.mikesfitness.com [Adding something with your name should be easy to find.]
- www.easyfitness.com
- Write down 10 website addresses you would like to use as your website address.
Once you have this list now, use the tool below to identify the domains that are available and the ones that are registered.
[Whois]
Ok. So now you have a domain name you would like to use for your website?
Yes!!! that’s great let’s move on to the next step.
2. Register a domain and sign up with web hosting
- Web hosting is where your site is going to be stored. Hosting companies have large data centres filled with servers. A part of one of those servers is dedicated to your site when you purchase a hosting plan. Web hosting is a service that hosts and stores your website files (content) on a secure server that is always up and running. Your site will not be accessible for others to read and browse without a web host.
- Affordable and reliable web hosting for new websites costs usually starting from approximately INR 230 a month.
- Whichever web hosting company you sign up with, make sure it has the following features:
- Free SSL Certificate (for security)
- One-click-install for WordPress (free)
- Unmetered Disk Space
- Unmetered Data Transfer
- Unlimited Email Accounts
If you find a website hosting that offers all the things above, you’ve likely found a good provider.
3.Set up a website using WordPress (through web host) (Our recommendation)
The next step after choosing your domain name and web hosting, you need to choose and install a website building platform (also known as CMS). 30-35 % of websites on the internet run on WordPress.
We recommend “WordPress” as it’s easy to use and comes with thousands of free themes, designs and add-ons that makes your website look professional and unique.
- User-Friendly
The WordPress platform is so easy to use that its ideal for new bloggers and people starting a business.
Another great thing about WordPress is that it can be easily customized with plugins, that can pretty much do anything to your site and make it exactly how you want it.
- Any Type of website
WordPress is extremely powerful and can run almost any type of sites. It’s a trusted platform for many of the busiest websites in the world. It can handle pretty much anything.
- Responsive & Mobile Friendly
With more and more people viewing web sites on their phones and other mobile devices, it’s important to have a site that is responsive to these demands. Most WordPress themes are mobile friendly.
- WordPress is free
All you need to do is buy your domain and hosting and then you’re up and running.
- Lots of support through community.
WordPress is blessed with a helpful and vibrant community of developers who will be happy to help you out with anything to do with your WordPress site.
Also setting up your WordPress website is easy, and most web hosts do it for you, so you don’t really need to get your hands dirty.
Many web hosting providers have “WordPress install” located somewhere in the hosting cPanel. Just click on Install.
Just after a few seconds later you should see a “Congratulations” message, which means WordPress has been installed and your website is ready for you to start customising.
You can follow the links in the WordPress Installation Email you have received. Go to your WordPress login screen, enter your login name and password. Now you will be logged into WordPress dashboard.
There are a lot of options in your dashboard like
- Add New post: This is where you can add new content to your website, write articles, add blog posts, upload images, videos etc.
- Settings: In your settings page, you can set your Site Name, tag line, contact email etc.
- Appearance: This is the section to change the look and feel of your website. In order to install a Theme on your website, just click the Appearance tab, then Themes, then click Add New. There are over 3,000+ Free themes you can use with WordPress. There are more paid options and customisations if you want to take it further. Once you have found a theme you like; install and activate it.
Within seconds your whole website will change its appearance to that of your chosen theme.
Congratulations, you now have a website setup and live.
But there is still a lot more you can do with WordPress. There are thousands of Plugins and custom edits available to make your site do whatever you need it to do.