Most people realize that in order to make their business more successful, they need an online presence and that means building a website. For beginners or novice web developers, learning how to build a website may seem like a daunting task, but I am going to attempt to break down building a website – whether it’s for business or pleasure – using a detailed, step-by-step approach. This is not going to be a short, one page, article, but rather a detailed tutorial with enough valuable information that even an absolute beginner will be able to follow the steps below and have their own website up and running probably within a few days. Beginning with an overview of what is required to build your own website, we will gradually look at each step in more detail until any beginner will be able to gain the knowledge and understanding of what it takes to build their own website.
Before proceeding, I want everybody to understand the difference between this step-by-step guide to building your own website and many of the other web pages you’ve undoubtedly come across when performing Google searches like, “…how to build a website for beginners…” or “…how to build a website for free…” and the difference is that after you read this tutorial on how to build a website for beginners, you will actually have enough knowledge to move forward and create your own website from scratch. And all from following this simple, step-by-step guide. I suspect that other websites you’ve come across have only tried to sell you something – whether it be an online course on web development, a domain name, or their own web hosting – without providing anything of value in return. Once you finish this step by step tutorial, you will not only be armed with enough knowledge to actually create your own website from scratch, but also with a sufficient understanding to make an educated decision as to whether it will be worth your time and effort to construct your website yourself, purchase software that can help and guide you through the entire website building process, or outsource the development of your website to a third party.
Have I promised not to sell you anything, either? No, I haven’t – this is a commercial website – but the distinction I want to make between this site and others you’ve probably come across is that after reading this tutorial you will have enough knowledge to actually build your own website for free and you will not be mislead into believing that the only way beginners can create their own websites is to purchase software or guides or services for which the webmaster of the site you’re reading will receive a commission. Yes, those are viable alternatives to the do-it-yourself approach, but they are not required!
Before we get into the details, novice webmasters have three options when it comes to the development of their own websites: 1) Follow the step by step guide below for building your own website (the FREE approach), 2) Buy software that will guide you through the entire process of building your own website (the reasonably affordable approach), 3) Outsource the construction of your website to a third party (the most expensive approach).
How to Build a Website for Beginners – A Free Step-by-Step Approach
Step 1) Buy Your Own Domain Name
Wait a minute! I thought this tutorial was how to build your website for free. The building process will be free (if you so choose), however there are a few necessary costs associated with the development of any website and those costs include domain name registration and web hosting. This first step is one of the easier steps because even many beginners to web development may already have an understanding of how this is done and the act of selecting and buying (or registering) a domain name doesn’t require much time and effort. Don’t be fooled, however, because the long-term success of your business may very well depend on how much effort you put into this first step. The goal of your website should be to come up in the first few search engine results pages (SERPs) when people are searching for the types of products your business sells, or the types of services your business provides so choose a domain name that includes keywords that people will use to find your site in Google and Yahoo when you go to buy your domain name. Remember buying and registering a domain name mean the same thing so don’t be confused by the terminology.
Step 2) Sign Up for Web Hosting
Domains become ‘viewable locations on the World Wide Web’ through a process known as Web Hosting. Web hosting can either be free or something you pay for, but just be forewarned that free web hosting is unreliable and companies that offer free web hosting may convert to paid web hosting at any time. Imagine you built a huge website on a free web host and then they started to charge you to continue to host your site, or even worse, your free web host went out of business and took the website that you built from scratch along with it. I do NOT recommend free web hosting and caution you to use free web hosting at your own risk.
Many domain registrars – the companies at which you register your domain name also offer web hosting. But it is important to realize that it is not necessary to also purchase web hosting from the website where you registered your domain name – even though many of these sites will make it seem almost like a necessity, especially to beginners or someone knew to website development. I use a company called Hostgator for the majority of my webhosting needs. You can check out this article that explains exactly why I use Hostgator to host the majority of my websites.
Step 3) Set Up Your Domain Nameservers
This is a relatively easy process that involves getting information from your web hosting company and inputting that information in the nameserver fields associated with your domain name – this is done at the site where you registered your domain name in the first place.
There is a detailed description of selecting your webhosting and setting your nameservers in my article Web Hosting for Absolute Beginners that walks you through the process of registering a domain name, purchasing hosting for that domain, and setting up your domain nameservers in order to get your website live on the Internet. It is specifically geared to the combination of a domain named purchased from GoDaddy and Hostgator’s Web Hosting, although it is applicable to any combination of Domain Name Registrar and Web Host.
Step 4) Build Your Website
As you can see there is a lot that goes into building a website from scratch and we haven’t even gotten to the actual building part yet – LOL! Websites are constructed using a variety of different web-based programming languages, but the one that is probably the easiest to learn (and therefore most applicable to beginners) is HTML. HTML stands for the Hyper-Text-Markup-Language and is one of the first – and still most popular – web languages. It is the main ingredient for many of the billions of websites present on the World Wide Web.
There are two ways to build a website using HTML. The first is to simply use a text editor, like Notepad, and code your web pages from scratch. One of the main benefits to this approach is that you will develop a very strong understanding of HTML and how to use it to build websites. The downside is that coding web pages from scratch in HTML – although free – is very time consuming. The second option and the one that most webmasters choose is to use a special HTML editor. These may be very simple editors provided by your web hosting company or tools such as FrontPage or Dreamweaver that allow you to create and edit web pages in a much more dynamic and user-friendly environment. These tools allow the developer to construct similar to how Microsoft Word allows users to create text documents. These tools are not difficult to learn and both are very user friendly, but each one costs money and there is time involved in the learning process.
There is another ‘free’ option and that is to use WordPress to create your website. WordPress is free and it allows you to construct websites like this one relatively quickly. You might be saying to yourself, “Ohhhh, why didn’t you just tell me to use WordPress in the first place?” Well, for a couple reasons. Yes, WordPress is free (for now) but you still need to a) Register a Domain Name b) Set up Web Hosting c) Download and Install WordPress d) Understand WordPress Plugins e) Keep up with WordPress Upgrades (to prevent your ‘free’ website from developing any security holes) etc.
It’s probably becoming obvious to you now that there are certain costs, as well as a learning curve, associated with developing your own website – especially if you are a beginner. And with some effort and a little bit of money, anyone can learn how to build their own website. But if you are feeling a little overwhelmed there is another way in which beginners can construct their own website and it is the second option that beginners have when deciding what the right development course is for them: Buy software that will guide you through the entire process of building your own website (the reasonably affordable approach). I mention that this approach is ‘reasonably affordable’ and we’ll get to cost comparisons between all of the different website development approaches in a little bit. But first let me tell you about the type of software that can guide you through the process of creating your own website, as well as the pros and cons of using such a tool, in order for you to better asses whether this approach is the right one for you.
How to Build a Website for Beginners – Using Site-Build-It Software to Guide you Through the Website Building Process
First, a little background on what Site-Build-It (SBI) is and what it can do.
Site-Build-It (SBI) is an all-in-one solution for the beginner web developer. Site-Build-It is software that uses a step-by-step approach to walk you through the essential elements of building a website from scratch. Namely, Site-Build-It will guide you through the process of Registering a Domain Name, eliminates the confusion that can be associated with selecting your own web hosting since SBI will actually provide the hosting for you, and includes a very simple website construction tool that allows new users and people who are not even familiar with HTML to build professional looking websites quickly and efficiently. Site-Build-It also includes features that enable the website(s) you construct to get listed in the search engines more quickly and start generating traffic almost immediately upon their completion. SBI is an all-in-one solution that can help novice web developers and those new to affiliate marketing to get started quickly and with much less of a learning curve than doing everything yourself without help.
If you decide to use Site-Build-It, do NOT buy a domain name and do NOT sign up for web hosting until you purchase the Site-Build-It software. SBI also comes with a Quick Action Guide that walks you step-by-step through the process of building a website from domain name registration, choosing web hosting, setting your domain name servers and actually creating the pages that visitors will ultimately see when they visit your website.
If you’re still unsure about SBI, check out some of these
and after you’re done we’ll compare the costs between using SBI to build your website, doing it yourself and outsourcing the work to a web development firm.
Comparing Costs Between Building a Website the Traditional Way (Approach Number 1 above) and using Site-Build-It (Approach Number Two)
Registering Your Own Domain Name: $7.99 to $34.99 (depending on your Registrar), renewable annually. Using Site-Build-It to Register Your Domain: Included in Price
Web Hosting: $7.99 to $24.99 per month depending on the hosting company and the hosting package selected. Using Site-Build-It as your web host: Included in Price
Purchasing a web development tool, such as an HTML editor like FrontPage or Dreamweaver: $99 and up. Using Site-Build-It’s web page creation tool: Included in Price.
If you’ve watched the video above, you probably have a good idea of even more features included with the Site-Build-It package. So what about the price? Site-Build-It is $29.99 per month (for those who prefer a lower, fixed monthly bill) or $299 per year. Now, I’m sure $299 sounds like a lot of money – and it is – but if you compare the yearly cost of $299 to the monthly cost of $29.99 per month, you’ll actually be saving $60 by opting to pay the annual fee and forgoing monthly installments. And don’t forget to compare the costs and time of undertaking each of these steps yourself versus having a tool that will guide you through the process of creating your own website from scratch and actually instruct you every step of the way. A good comparison is that Site-Build-It is to building websites what Turbo Tax is to doing your own taxes. Each is a comprehensive software tool that uses a step-by-step guide to walk the user through the necessary steps to build a website from scratch (Site-Build-It) or complete their own taxes (Turbo Tax) so that the end result is either a professional looking website or a collection of correctly completed tax forms. The advantage of using either tool is that each has ‘built-in’ rules or a way to guide – even beginners – through whichever process they have chosen to undertake in order to minimize mistakes and complete the task at hand.
If this is the approach to building your own website that makes the most sense for you, then click here purchase Site-Build-It now.
How to Build a Website for Beginners – Outsourcing the Development of your Website to a Third Party
There is certainly no shortage of web design companies out there and certainly having your website professionally done is an option for beginners who would like a website built, but do not have the time or fortitude to do it themselves. Just let me say a few things about this approach. It is absolutely the most expensive of the three approaches detailed in this guide (assuming you find a reputable firm to do the work). It may also be difficult to convey exactly what you want done if you do not have experience writing up website specification documents. Finally, you have no control over the time it will take to complete the construction of your website.
For most beginners, it is my opinion that the best route to take when learning how to build your own website is to follow this guide and do it yourself or get Site-Build-It and let the software walk you through the development process. Either way, I think you will be happy with the result.
