Do you want to Make a Website? But being a beginner don’t know “How to Make a Website”. No matter to worry. Technology has developed and made everything easy. You don’t need web development or coding skill. You can Make a Website accessing and using the required tools and proper resources. This mega guide will assist you to make a website step by step from scratch and even don’t need to hire web developers or web designers.
Things Required to Build a Website
In order to build a website, you need the following essential things, such as:
- Domain Name( your web address)
- Web Hosting( the provider that hosts your site)
- Website Platform( generally WordPress now used by non-tech-savvy)
Willing to create a website but don’t know how to proceed? No matter to worry, just go through the following steps and you will learn how to make a website step by step.
Page Contents
Steps to go through When You Are Going to Make a Website
To make a website you should have a secure and good domain name. You can add a domain name to your site to have a complete web address to find out it out of the billions of hosted sites. From your host account, you can add a domain to your site. If the domain is registered, then you have already made the first step forward, if not, then you need to register a domain matching your site’s niche.
Besides, you need a web hosting service provider that stores your website’s files, directories, and all other add-ons. Domain and hosting are indispensable, they are correlated to each other. Hence, you need both the domain and web hosting provider to make a functional website.
Nowadays, WordPress is a good website building platform(CMS) that occupies about 35% website of the world. You can access it and no coding is required. Furthermore, it provides easy customization including a drop-drag builder. If you are a beginner and don’t know how to make a website, then don’t worry because it lets you make a website from scratch even though you don’t know to code.
After signing up for your hosting account, you will be asked to provide some basic information relating to your business and website. Once the process is completed, you can install WordPress with a single click instantly. WordPress installation is the first step after signup for purchasing a reliable web hosting plan. Once it is completed, you have to start site customization with themes and plugins, etc, as you need to make a website completely.
Step1: Choose a Domain Name
Too curious to make a website? The first step while you are going to make a website is to choose a domain name. A domain name is the title of your site that users type on the browser’s tab to reach your site. Domain generally consists of two parts, namely, the name or title for the domain, and the second part is the Top Level Domain(TLD) that comes after the dot).), such as .com, .org, .net, .info, etc. There are numerous TLDs but I recommend using the top-level extensions like .com or .org because of their popularity.
You may select a domain name based on your site’s niche. It would be better if you find such kind of domain name. Besides, you may use:
- Your own name to create a domain name for personal purposes. Such kind of domain may look like this: yourname.com.
- Do you like to create a website under the company’s name? In such a case, you can use your company’s name to register as a domain name.
- Also, you may use any other name or word for the domain that matches your site’s niche.
A good domain name should include the features mentioned below.
Brandable: The domain name should be brandable. The brand has its own value. It has some special features that stand unique and distinguished from others. It has its own individual identity.
Short: The domain name you are trying to sort out for your website should be short as far as possible. The short domain is easy to type, pronounce and use. Most popular domains are short, consisting of 15 or less than 15 characters. Don’t use very long words for domain names, as it may result in a bad user experience.
Memorable: A memorable domain name is popular with its users. Because you can read and use it easily. Whenever you are going to type it on your browser’s tab, you can do that with ease. So, find out memorable word/s to be used for the domain name.
Readable: Readability is a great factor for users, readers, and visitors. If you use such words as meaningful, attractive, and readable, then it will be a good option for your website’s name. Your readers can use such words with remembrance. So, when you are going to select a domain name, take into account the readability factor. Don’t use difficult or abstrusive words, as these are hard to remember.
Avoid Hyphens: Don’t use hyphens in your domain name. Very often it leads to a bad user experience.As for example, note Face-book.com but instead Facebook.com. Here the latter is more user-friendly than the former. Furthermore, it results in typing a wrong word in place of a correct one.
Avoid Number: Do not use numbers in your domain name. It is not easy to keep in memory. Also, it may reduce visitors. Though there are many site owners using numbers in the domain names I don’t recommend it.
Check Trade Mark: In the world of domains, there are many registered domains which may be approximately 370 million according to VeriSign. Of these domains, some are registered and in use, and some are registered but inactive or penalized. Choosing a penalized domain may affect your site’s SEO and ranking. On the other hand, you should not register a preregistered domain, if you do that by mistake, then you have to pay a penalty as per International law, though such happenings are rare. All your dreams and efforts will be nipped in the bud. So, be careful while choosing a good domain name. You can check the domain’s past history with domain checker tools such as whoisrequest, waybackmachine, etc. Besides, you can use social media name checker tools like knowem or namechecker. These tools will show you up presence or status of an account matching the domain name on various social media sites if it exists.
You have intended to make a website and trying to choose a popular domain. All that’s are good but don’t forget to check its trademark.
Also read our guide on how to choose a custom domain?
#Choosing a domain is the first step while you are going to make a website. Though you can connect your site with your domain and choose it later, however, it is better to do it first. Many site owners choose domains later while they are creating websites.
Step2: Register the Selected Domain
The next step after selecting a domain name is to register in order to own and use it for your website. You need to register a domain name that you can connect with your site when you sign up and start to make a website. So, choose one of the best domain registrars that provide whois guard or domain privacy, domain security against attack, and no hidden fee along with registration. As far as domain registrars are concerned, you can get a lot of registrars providing various features but I recommend Namecheap, as it provides you free domain privacy and support along with registration. On the other hand, if you like to have both the domain and hosting in one platform, then you can choose Bluehost. They have easy to use user guide that will be helpful for you on how to make a website.
Besides, you can choose Domain.com to register your domain name. It also gives good support and other features to secure your domain against all attacks. As usual, a single domain registration may cost from $10 to $50 per year. After completion of domain registration, you will get an email aimed to confirming you
There are also many reliable domain registrars out there, but now I am not going to these details, as Our target is to assist you on How to Make a Website with exact tools and resources.
#Registering a domain name is the second step while you are about to make a website. Besides, you can purchase a premium domain from the domain sellers.
Sep3: Choose a Web Hosting Provider and Sign up
Now, you have to choose a good web hosting provider that gives you the required facilities to manage your site and keep it up-to-date. When you make a website, it remains on a hosting server. Web hosting service stores all important files, directories, and content of websites. Companies build top-notch web technologies to provide uninterrupted and smooth service to their customers through their web servers. There are many web hosting companies that facilitate various prerequisites to their customers to satisfy their demands based on certain conditions and demands. All of them are not equal in performance and service, although each one provides service. So, choosing web hosting is a must to keep your website anchored on it. But, be cautious while you are about to select and sign up for a hosting plan. In order to run a website with smooth function and good user experience(UX), you need a developed and up-to-date hosting provider which must possess and provide the following features, such as:
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Unlimited storage
- Integrated cPanel( containing important files and directories)
- Free SSL Certificate for security
- 24*7 customer support through email, live chat,or phone call.
- WordPress integration ( one click free install)
- Free domain if available
- Custom email account
#Looking for a reliable web hosting company and buying a hosting plan should be your third step if you want to make a website.
If you have found any web hosting that provides the above-mentioned features, then you may assume that hosting is a good option for you and start to make a website. Also, keep in mind that basically, any web hosting starts at 3 to $15 /month for a lower plan. The upper limit is as high as you can bear. However, as a beginner, you can choose the lower plan for the sake of convenience, although you can upgrade anytime through your hosting account. I recommend using the Bluehost hosting service and personally, I use this. Because it is a good hosting that provides all important features as mentioned above. Besides, it will give you a free domain( registration to be made) in the first year along with hosting. It provides three types of plans, such as basic, choice plus, and recommended. You can choose any one of these three plans, although each one differs a little in features. As a beginner, which Bluehost plan is best for you is a matter that you should take into account before selecting a plan. Considering the features, I think the choice plus plan is the best for you if you are going to start a blog or make a website. Also, you can choose any hosting plan of your choice, as you are going to make a website.
The basic plan starts at $ 3.95/M. Whenever you are going to choose a plan, choose for a longer term, as it will save your money and time. You will get more discount. Many beginners purchase the basic plan when they start to make a website.
To proceed further in order to find out and choose a good domain name from Bluehost, go to Bluehost.com and choose the plan that you like to have for your site. Click on the Get Started button as shown below.
Clicking on the Get Started button will take you to the shared hosting plan and pricing page as shown below. Here are four kinds of plans, namely:
- Basic (plan)
- Plus(plan)
- Choice Plus and
- Pro (plan)
Actually, each plan is good and provides a range of essential features. You can choose either the Basic plan or the Plus plan to make a website. The former is best for those who are beginners and intend to run a single site. On the other hand, the rest of the plans allow you to add and run multiple websites.
In order to choose a plan click on the “select” button. It will take you to the Signup page. Look below for more clarification. If you do have not any registered domain, then you can create a new one from the box given below on the left side. Just enter the word and choose a TLD. Click on Next. It will display search results as to the status of the word you have already entered. If the domain is not available, then you have to find out another one until you get a fresh one, as you like to register it. No matter to worry. Just type another word of your choice, choose the .com, .org, or any TLD, and find out the search result by clicking on the next. If the domain is available, then proceed further to get it registered along with hosting. As you are going to make a website you need both the domain and hosting provider.
Also, you can use a domain if you registered it before from the box given on the right side as indicated by an arrow. No matter, the method you choose. Now click on “Next” and it will take you to the next step where you have to enter your identity details. Look below for more clarity.
Enter your details like the first name, last name, business name, country, state, city, zip code, phone number, email address, etc. Be careful to enter your details as they will be saved in your account. Don’t forget to provide genuine information, as you are going to sign up for your web hosting account to make a website.
Package Information contains account plan hosting price, primary domain, and SSL certificate. You can choose an account plan for one year, two years, and three years. You may choose anyone. But selecting for longer periods will save your money and you will get more discounts. So, I recommend choosing for 2 or 3 years. Bluehost gives you free primary domain registration for the first year. SSL Certificate too is free combined with the package.
So far you have marked up your hosting plan details. That’s good work that deserves praise. If you like to add more features to your hosting, then you can select the required ones from the ‘Package Extras’. It gives you Domain Privacy and Protection, Codeguard Basics, Bluehost SEO Basics, and Microsoft 365 mailbox with Sitelock Security. Leave Sitelock Security unchecked if you launch a blogging site. On the other hand, you may include it in your package if you start an e-commerce site.
After properly checking all the required options you need to go to payment information( look below). You can pay by credit card or PayPal, whatever you choose matters to you.
Would you like to pay by credit card? If yes, then provide your credit card number, validity, and security code, click on agree( of Terms and Condition) and finally submit.
You will be redirected to the payment page to complete the process.
On the other hand, if you like to pay through PayPal, then click on it. In no time, you will be redirected to PayPal login. After paying with success, you will be given an email containing some details like your payment details, domain name, account type, user for cPanel, email host, FTP host, etc.
In this email, you will be given a link to click in order to go to the account and create a password of your choice.
Now you need to create a strong password for your hosting account. But before this write the domain name in the box provided above. The remaining two fields are given to create a password. This password should contain capital letters, small letters, numbers, and special characters in order to make it strong. The strength of the password will be shown on the right side of the box that you can see while you are going to write it. Type the password in the ‘Create Password’ field, copy it, and paste it into the ‘Retype Password’ field. Also, write it down somewhere. Now, click on ‘create Account’. Your account will be created in an instant and you can log in thereto. Now you are going to accomplish your dream of how to make a website.
Hurrah! Your account has been created with success. Now, you can log in by entering your user name and password. So, no delay, start building your site. There are only a few steps to make your idea a reality how to make a website.
Step4: Start to Set up Website
Login to your hosting account and start building your site. However, before, setting up a site, you will be asked some questions like:
- What name do you want to add to your site?
- What is the tagline for your website?
Also, you will be asked:
- What kind of site it is?
- What type of site it is?
- For whom are you creating the site?
You can write or select your choice from the options available in the list. If you are not interested to select or write, then you can skip it. No matter, whatever the work you do. As you are a first-time user on Bluehost, you need to answer the questions or skip them. You can make a website with ease. Just follow our guides until you can complete your site.
Step5: Install WordPress Securely
WordPress installation looks like this during installation. It takes about 2-5 minutes.
Once the process completed, Bluehost will automatically install the WordPress on your domain provided earlier and you can see it under the ‘My Site’ tab below Bluehost Dashboard. Now you can log in to WordPress by clicking on ‘Login to WordPress‘ visible in the screenshot below. Your dream on how to make a website has come to reality.
Alternative Way to Add and Install WordPress
Bluehost has made everything easy. No matter to worry. Have you skipped some options to add a site to Bluehost hosting? There are many alternative methods out there. I am going to tell you an alternative way how to add and install a WordPress in Bluehost. This is also helpful if you like to add more sites to your hosting account later on.
Come to ‘Marketplace‘ under Bluehost Dashboard. Click on Marketplace’ to let it expand. This menu contains many sub-menus such as promotions, adding a website, add-ons, pro service, etc. You have to add a website.
So, click on ‘Add Website‘. In a wink, a form will appear that you need to fill up by adding thereto your site name and tagline.
Generally, the site name is the title of your site that is between www and dot com. Add only the domain name without the TLD as your site name. The site tagline represents the type of site you are creating. Once the fields are completed, click on ‘Next‘ to go to the next step.
Here you can see the domain name that you have already added to your site from the small rectangular box located in between the domain and directory. If you have not added a domain before, then you can add it to your host’s domain page via (1) Domain Transfer and (2) Domain purchase. Furthermore, if you have registered a domain with other, then you can add it to your hosting account during account creation and payment. Either choose the directory path or leave it blank and let Bluehost select it for you. Some helpful plugins too may appear therein. Choose the plugins or leave the boxes unchecked.
So far, you have done everything right. The only step to making your site is to install WordPress. Just click ‘Next‘ and the wp installer will install your WordPress site within a few minutes. Once the installation completed, the screen will display a success message including your website address, admin, username, and password.
A confirmation email too will be sent to you containing WordPress installation details. You have added your site and installed WordPress with success. Now, you can do other required settings to make your site better, more functional, and appealing to visitors. Making a website is not a hard task that you can do with ease.
Also, keep in mind that if you have registered a domain at a different entity or domain registrar like Namecheap, then you have to point that domain to Bluehost. If required, you can read our tutorial on how to point a domain to Bluehost from Namecheap to update name servers. You need to update nameservers properly. Updating nameservers is required if your domain host and web host remain on two different hosting platforms.
Check Site’s Status
You have created the website and installed WordPress. Good work indeed. But you need now to check whether it works properly and exists. No matter to worry. Just type the domain name in your browser’s tab and click enter. The browser will display the site. It may look like this.
Are your site accessible and live? If yes, then you have done everything right on how to make a website. You have properly installed WordPress and, now you have to do some work. Does it take too long to make a website?
Check Site’s Custom Address
Have you come with success on your way to make a website? What is the address of the site you created just before? You can see your site’s address from ‘Settings‘ under through My Site tab. You can go to settings: Bluehost Dashboard>>My Site>>”Manage” under yoursite.com>>Settings.
Thus you can see your site’s web address without logging into your WordPress.
Also, you can see your site address from the wp-admin dashboard under the General sub-menu under Settings: WP-Admin>>Settings>>General.
Check SSL Status
Now, you should check whether SSL is enabled or not on your site. I am not going to detail about SSL, as our main target is to provide tutorials on ‘How to Make a Website. However, you need to know what is an SSL and why it matters. In simple terms, an SSL certificate is an electronic file containing certain codes installed on your web server and it keeps data safe from being hacked so long as it remains in transit between the user( browser) and the server. SSL status should be enabled. So, first of all, check its status. Go through the following steps to check SSL status:
- Come to the My Sites tab from Bluehost Dashboard.
- Click on ‘My Site‘ and it will expand automatically.
- Now, there will appear the site, created just before. Under your site, there will appear “Manage Site.” Click on ‘Manage Site’ and it will display a new page containing various information menus on your site.
- Just click on “Security” and it will show the current SSL status.
Now, you can see that the SSL certificate is enabled on the site. Well done! You have done great work. But, if the SSL status is disabled, it will show “off” in place of ‘on’. No matter to worry. You can activate an SSL certificate from your cPanel. Do you think How to Make a Website is difficult? Never, you too can make a website from scratch.
Choose and Install a WordPress Theme on Your Site
Now, the most important work you need to carry out is to choose a WordPress theme and install it on your site. A theme helps you to customize various menus, submenus, header, footers as well as other options. There are thousands of free themes in the WordPress theme directory. Besides, there are also a lot of premium themes out there. Now, which theme should you select is the matter of choice? As a beginner, you can choose any one of the two——free or paid. You can choose a free WordPress theme but there are some limitations to it. Because you will not get good support. You cannot use custom CSS, as this section is not provided therein. On the other hand, choosing a premium theme gives you more support, built-in custom CSS, and more scope for customization. That’s why a premium theme is better than a free theme.
Whatever theme you choose must have some essential features in order to make your site responsive, SEO-friendly, socially shareable, customizable, compatible with plugins cum browsers, and appealing in look and feel. Responsiveness is a good factor for a website. Nowadays, users view your site with various devices like desktops, pc, mac or android. Mobile is the most used one that the bulk of the people uses to view a site. So, your site must be responsive to all devices. This is the factor why you need to choose a responsive theme.
Your site should be SEO-friendly. Search engine like Google takes it as an important ranking factor. A website using SEO-friendly theme results in better performance. Being built in lightweight code it takes a few seconds to load.
A good theme should provide a social sharing feature. It is too an off-page SEO factor that you need to take into consideration while going to choose a theme. Social sharing provides more visitors and your site reaches more people.
Customizable themes are more popular with site owners. Because it gives you the chance to change or modify certain things within your website. Be it color, background, logo, menus, header, or footer, you can modify to a certain extent as per your needs.
Plugin compatibility also is an important feature of a responsive theme. A well-coded theme lets you install other plugins on your site. It works with other plugins and does not conflict. So, choose such kind of plugins as provides compatibility.
Furthermore, your site should load on most browsers. It’s too an important aspect of a good theme. A good theme works almost with all browsers. Besides, it needs to give custom CSS, support, and multi-linguality. I am not going to detail on each feature of a responsive theme, as I am going to provide tutorials on ‘How to Make a Website from scratch. Providing a little will help you to choose a responsive theme for your website. Do you like to know more about selecting a theme? Then read our article on how to choose a WordPress theme.
After choosing a theme you have to install it on your website. You can select and install a WordPress theme directly from the WordPress directory. In this case, you need not upload it, as you can access the WordPress from your wp-admin dashboard via the ‘Theme.” Thus you can get and install any free WordPress theme right from your dashboard, but if you want to install a premium theme, you have to upload it before being installed. Because you can’t find a premium theme in the WordPress theme directory. However, Bluehost has made it possible by integrating Mojo Marketplace from where you can install a premium theme too. On the other hand, if the theme you are going to select and install is not found in the Mojo Marketplace, then you can download the theme from the selling site,, upload it via the theme upload and install it thereon.
How can you install a WordPress theme on your site? Installing a WordPress theme is not hard work. Definitely! you can do it step by step as indicated below:
- Go to “Appearance” under the wp-admin dashboard of your site. Put your cursor on appearance and a popup will appear containing many options such as theme, plugin, customize, menu, etc. Click on “Theme.”
- It will take you to the WordPress theme directory. It contains various categories like popular, latest, featured, filter, etc. There is also a search box to find out a theme by using a keyword or name.
- Find a theme from the category or by search. The theme will appear in an instance containing buttons like Install and Preview and Details. Clicking on Preview and Details allows you to see the appearance of the theme on your site and its features.
- Now, just click Install and the theme will be installed forthwith.
On the other hand, if you like to install a premium theme from third-party sites or theme developers, then, first of all, you have to purchase the theme. After that, you need to download the theme and then upload it through the Upload Theme option. Later on, you can install the theme in the same way as you do a free WordPress theme.
Like to know more about installing a WordPress theme? Indeed! you have come to the right place. Blowwager provides you with a tutorial on how to install a WordPress theme.
Start Customizing the Site Through Customizer
Oh! your WordPress site doesn’t look appealing in feel and outlook. Nothing to worry about. You have to customize your site now. Selecting WordPress is a good choice. About 35% of websites in the world are built on WordPress. It has an easy-to-use customizer( also called wp-customizer) that you can use and no coding is required. Just after installing the theme, you can start customizing your site but before this, you need to “Activate” the theme. Customization allows you to set up, change or modify various menus, sub-menus, logos, icons, and other editing options. Go through the following points and you will have a clear understanding of how to customize a website. So, let’s customize the site now.
Sites’ Identity
Site Identity refers to some attributes of the site you are going to customize. It makes the site stand unique from the rest of millions of websites in the world. Site Identity includes site name, site’s tagline, and a unique logo. It is the first step while you are going to customize your site.
Upload Logo
A logo is an essential component of a site that works as a branding feature. The logo makes your website identifiable from others. As you are going to make a website, you have to add a custom logo to your site. There are many logo makers out there like Brandcrowd, Tailor Brands, Designhill, Fiverr, etc. You can purchase a custom logo from any logo maker and upload it to your website. A logo should be unique, identifiable, and small in size, namely, width160-250 pixels( depending on requirement) and height of about 30-80 pixels. Download a logo and keep it in your computer’s local storage. In order to upload the logo, click “select logo” which has been indicated by an arrow under Site Identity. Select the file of the logo, hit open and your logo will be uploaded to your site. Now click save just above the logo to save it.
Add Site’s Title
When you make a website, you have to go through a number of steps until your site is fully customized. After uploading the logo you have added a title for your site. The site title is the name of your site. Generally, it is the domain excluding the part that comes after the dot. As for example, the domain for my site is Blowwager.com but the title is Blowwager. So, write the title of your site in the site title as pointed out by an arrow( look above).
Add Site’s Tagline
Next, you need to add a Tagline to your site. But a simple question may arise in your mind, what is the site tagline? In simple terms, a Site tagline is a phrase or a sentence that gives you an important notion about the type of website that you are customizing now. A visitor while visiting your site can guess about the kind of your site just by looking at the site tagline. He doesn’t need to delve deep into your site. That’s why you have to add a tagline to your site. It should be short, attractive, and meaningful.
Background
The website background should match your header and footer. Generally, the background is kept transparent, namely, white. However, depending on the header background you need to choose the background for your site.
Font
There are many fonts that you can use in order to write a post, page, or contents. Choose a particular font for your all posts and pages. Do not use various fonts on various posts on a website lest it will decrease your site’s branding. Using one or two types of fonts increases your site’s branding feature. So, select the font you want to use from the Font option of your theme.
- Roboto
- Lora
- Lato
- Open Sans
- Slabo
- Raleway
These are some of the important Font Families frequently used by editors, writers, and bloggers.
Color
Color is an important factor for outlook and feel. As usual, the font color for writing pages, posts, or contents is black. It is also used to write headings and subheadings of a blog post. The link color is blue. However, some people use another type of color to highlight linked texts. But I recommend using blue as a link color, as most webmasters use it and prefer it to others. Whatever color scheme you use keep it simple, matching, and eye-catching. Every theme has a color pattern. Select a catchy one.
Menu
Now, you need to create a Menu to add items thereto. You can create a new menu from the Menu option of your theme. So, click Menu and it will provide you “Create New Menu” option.
Click Create New Menu and it will provide you with a new space where you can write the name of the new menu you are going to create now.
Just type the name of the menu and click save changes. This menu is for back-end purposes only. Following this process, you can add multiple menus if needed.
Now, you need to add items to the created menu. Click “Add Items” below the menu you created just now. A new option will come and click on the plus (+) sign will add the page itself to the menu. Also, you can add new pages, posts, categories, and custom links to the menu.
I have added three pages to the primary menu that you can see in the screenshot above. Also, you can reorder the items by drop-drag by clicking on Reorder located below the added items. After adding the items don’t forget to save lest the items will not be saved.
Sidebar
A sidebar is a rectangular area within your website’s layout where you can add important recent posts, categories, pages, or featured posts from selected categories. You can place the sidebar either at the right or left of the main contents.
Also, you can add a sidebar above the footer. Sidebars help display your content. Every WordPress theme provides sidebars. However, if needed you can create and add new sidebars to your site layout.
Widget
A web Widget is a small block added to the Footer, pages, posts, or contents of a website. Widgets play a crucial role in performing a particular function through your entire website. Suppose you want to add a newsletter signup form to your site and also want to make it appear on every page and post. In such kind of case you need to add that form as a widget through the widget menu of your theme: Appearance>>Widgets.
You can add widgets to sidebars, footer area, left, right, above, or below contents. Adding a widget makes your website much more functional.
Set up Permalink for Posts and Pages
Set up a permalink for your website. You must set up a proper permalink pattern when you are going to make a website and customize the settings. There are several structures of permalinks, but you should choose the one that is best for user experience and identification. Setting up it numerically is not recommended. I recommend choosing a structure that is based on the post title. Because readers can easily understand the contents of the post by looking at the post title.
Add Important Pages
You need to add important pages to your WordPress site before getting it published. The important pages may be of various kinds based on your site’s niche. However, no matter whatever the site may be, you ought to add some pages with some basic information like:
- About
- Privacy Policy
- Terms and Condition
- Post or Blog
- Home
- Product or Service
The About page contains information about your site. It includes a little introduction about the type, purpose, and function of the site. Also, it tells about why you have created the site and for whom. This page is generally added at the left most of the navigation bar in the header. A visitor can know about your website from this page. Some site owners add this page at the footer. Don’t publish your site without having added an about page.
Privacy Policy is an important page containing the user’s information like name, address, email, etc. This is a legally binding agreement between you and the users interacting with your site. You can add this page to the Footer of your site.
Terms and Conditions is another important page that includes some legal declarations that you must agree to if you want to visit a site.
Post or Blog is a page that displays posts within the website in reverse chronological order, namely, from latest to oldest. Once posts are published, appear in the blog.
Product or Service is another page that displays various products or services provided by the site concerned.
The Home page is by default the first page of a website. It contains important hyperlinks, sections, and pages of a site. When a visitor visits a site with a custom web address, he normally lands on the homepage. Suppose you are going to visit blowwager.com and the browser will display you the homepage of the site, namely, www.blowwager.com which is the first page of the site. So, create a home page.
Also, you can create a category page to add the required categories to it. Adding categories is a good practice and it results in a better user experience. Because a visitor can go to a particular category from the category menu located on the navigation bar and see all the posts under that specific category. So, create a page and add the categories.
Choose and Add Plugins to Make Your Site More Functional
So far, you have done many essential works to make your site appealing to visitors. But it is not sufficient. You need to make your site more functional. That’s why you have to add some essential plugins to your site to let it do more required work. There are many plugins out there in WordPress which are free of cost and you need not spend a bit of money. Besides, there are many premium plugins too in the marketplace that you can use. But, before installing a plugin, you need to look into it to know in detail. What do you need to do while you are going to choose WordPress plugins for your site? I am not going to discuss much this, as we are providing instructions on how to make a website. However, as a conscious blogger or site owner, you should go through the following points before selecting WordPress plugins:
- Rating: Plugin rating gives you important information about how popular the plugin is to the users in the practical field. Look at this before choosing a plugin for your site.
- User Review: User review is another way to collect users’ experiences and opinions on the usage of a particular plugin. The review may be made by using stars, comments or writing a post on it.
- Update: Your WordPress site needs a regular update for better performance and your plugin too needs to be updated. So, it is better to too look at updates while you intend to select a plugin.
- Support: Support is a must for you if you use a plugin, as there is no guarantee that a plugin you are going to install will not cause any issue. You can contact the developer and solve the problem if any issue, mismatch, or error is found owing to the installation of a particular plugin on your site.
- Also, there are some other things to note such as coding, performance, compatibility, etc.
The next step after choosing plugins is to install and activate them properly. To install a plugin, you need to do the following work, step by step:
- In order to install a plugin go to the plugin menu and click on it.
- The plugin menu will be expanded.
- You will see several sub-menu like installed plugins, add new, plugin editor, etc.
- Click Add New.
- It will connect you to the WordPress plugin repository. Here, you can search for plugins using the search plugin box. Just type the name, category or keyword, hit the search icon and the search result will show you the plugins matching your queries.
Now, by clicking on Details, you can see the details of the plugin, its active installation, author, rating, review, and contact address of the developer.
Just click ‘Install Now‘ and meanwhile the plugin will be installed on your website. Now, you can activate the plugin. Look at the screenshots, I have marked them with arrows and circles for more clarity.
Thus you can choose and install plugins to make your site more functional. Here, you can install plugins directly from the WordPress plugin directory, and no need to download them.
On the other hand, if you purchase a premium plugin from a third-party site or download it from another site, you cannot install it directly. In such kind of case, you need to use the Upload Plugin option located along the dashboard:
- Download the plugin.
- Upload it to your site via the upload plugin button.
- Click browse and select the file.
- Click install. The file will be unzipped and installed.
- Now, do the settings and activate.
Want to know more about installing WordPress plugins? Read our tutorial on how to install and set up a WordPress plugin for your site.
Now check all permalinks of posts, pages, and homepage. If there is any error in permalinks, correct it before getting published.
Once site customization is completed, you can hit publish to make your site published so that visitors can view it.
Quick Summary of our tutorial on How to make a website from Scratch?
You can create a WordPress site quite easily. No need to hire a web developer. Just follow these instructions:
- Choose a domain name that is short, and easy to type and pronounce. Because the short domain is a good option for users and they can memorize it easily. Try to limit the characters to 15.
- Choose a popular TLD like .com, .org, .net, info, .co etc.
- Register the domain name with a domain registrar or you can register it with Bluehost in one platform—both the domain and web hosting.
- If don’t like it, then choose another web hosting and sign up in order to purchase a suitable and good hosting plan.
- Start to build your site with a site builder. I recommend choosing WordPress, as it is a great site builder platform with numerous tools, pieces of equipment, and add-ons.
- Enter the basic information regarding your site like site title, tagline, etc.
- WordPress will be automatically installed if you choose a host with WordPress pre-installed.
- Also, there are alternative ways to install WordPress.
- On completion of WordPress installation, you can log in to your WordPress site and start customizing it with the customizer.
- But prior to it, you need to choose and install a good, responsive, and SEO-friendly theme.
- Once your theme is installed, start customizing your site. Also, you can check your site status, site address, and SSL status.
- Add site title if applicable, though it has been added earlier, and similarly add tagline for your site.
- Upload a custom logo and favicon.
- Create navigation menus and add items thereto such as pages, categories, posts, etc.
- Choose a background for the website, font, and color.
- Add sidebar and widget.
- Add important pages such as about, home, product or service, blog, etc.
- Choose and install the required plugins to your site.
- Add contents if possible.
- Check permalink for all posts, pages, and homepage. Set up permalink properly.
- Add important links to the footer like privacy policy, terms of use, resources, navigation, a profile of social apps like Facebook, Twitter, RSS feed, Contact, etc.
Reader’s Disclosure: Some of the links included in this post are affiliate links and if you purchase a product using any of these links, I may earn a commission, without adding any extra cost to you. Running a blog is expensive and I have to pay a lot of costs for maintaining and running this blogging site. That’s why I promote some of the services and products I personally use and, have found to be good.
Also, read:
- 8 Must-have plugins for WordPress
- Best WordPress SEO plugins
- 19 Best Social sharing plugins for WordPress
- Best site backup plugins
- How to get Akismet for comment moderation?
Do you have any questions on how to make a website from scratch? Indeed! You can create a site with ease by using the domain, WordPress, themes, plugins, and SSL.
Want to start a blog? Here is the guide. Click here to start blogging.
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