How to make a website

If you have never made a website before, the first question you may ask is "How do I make a website". I am now going to outline the basics and from here you will have a good knowledge of what to do next.

Step 1 - Pick a Topic

There is no point making a website if you don't already know what you want it to display or provide. Before you do anything, you need to firstly chose a topic. Is your website going to be a personal one about your life or is it going to be based on something in particular. If it is the former, then there is little planning needed and you could theoretically skip to step two but it may still be worth reading on.

Most websites are there to provide information to people who seek it. Many of these services have a motive to make money so they may provide a basic free service (or free trial) and a premium service where they charge for more advanced features. If your motive is to make money from the website, you need to plan your expenses and ensure that your idea is legal and feasible. You don't want to put lots of money into a website that may not do well or get shut down for legal reasons.

Step 2 - Choose a Domain / Buy a Domain

You are now ready to choose a domain name for the website. A domain name identifies a host system (a computer) on a network. In simple terms, a domain is the name you type into your web browser's address bar to visit a website. For example, "google.com". The "www" string is not related to the domain name itself - that is related to how the host system is set up.

The cost of a domain is relatively cheap and you usually pay it in yearly instalments (some services do it for a few years at a time). There are many services around with competitive prices.

You must think carefully about the name you will choose for the domain. It should be something that is simply to remember and type. Preferably it should be a short and catchy name. I have set up (with a friend) a charity search website. The name is "Which Charity" and we simply called it "whichcharity.org". The name is short, basic and it is something that you would typically say when you are trying to find a charity to give to. Think carefully before purchasing the domain.

http://www.daily.co.uk/
https://www.lcn.com/

Above are a couple of domain registrars (websites that you can purchase domain names from). You may be able to find even cheaper ones around but these are some that I use.

Step 3 - Choose a Host

Now for the more expensive part. Currently your domain name can do nothing. The domain name will point to the registrar you purchased from. The registrar may provide a few free features such as domain redirection. That is where you can set the domain to redirect to another website when you visit your one. I don't recommend this if you want a professional website.

A host is a computer that is connected to a network. The Internet is made up of billions (or a large number) of computers that are connected to each other in various ways (A huge network). The websites are are simply just files that are stored on a computer and the domain name identifies which computer it is on and loads the correct files to display the website. These computers aren't typical home ones - most of the computers used for websites are powered on permanently in secure locations across the world.

To create your website, you need to rent the use of a computer to store your files. You can do this buy finding a "Hosting Company". These companies provide different features depending on your usage. Rather than using the computer like a home one, you will be provided with an interface accessible from any computer in the world. Below is an example of an interface you could use:



Features included in these control panel interfaces include: file uploader (where you can upload your web pages from your computer), email accounts and web-mail access, online databases and different programming language support. Before you purchase a package, you need to work out what features you need and how much of each feature you need. This will depend on what your website is about. If you need to upload a large number of files, make sure the package has adequate disk space. If you are creating a shopping cart or content management system, make sure you have pHp support (or an alternative language such as ASP) along with an online database (such as a mySQL one). If you are not entirely sure about it, contact someone who may know.

http://www.50webs.com/

There are literally thousands of hosting companies around on the Internet and it is a good idea to browse around for good deals. Above is one that I used to use and actually work for on the support forum. 50Webs are a reasonable host with fairly cheap prices. Check the "Web Hosting" page for details on the features for each package. Be careful not to purchase another domain as you already have one - Some packages provide a free domain which you could use as a spare if you wanted.

Step 3 - Setting up Website

So now you have both a domain and a web host. For now, you can put away your credit card - no more money is required until you decide to promote your website. (assuming you are creating the website yourself, otherwise you will need to pay a programmer to script it for you).

You now need to link your domain name to the host you have now rented from. To do this, you need to login to your domain registrar's control panel and find the "name servers" configuration (sometimes known as DNS - Domain Name Servers). Keep that page open and now go to your web host and find the name server information - they may provide it in an email or in the control panel itself. If not, contact them and note the details down. They will look like the following:

ns1.host.com
ns2.host.com

Put these details in the domain registrar page and save those and within 24-48 hours (usually within just a few hours) your website will be linked. You are now ready to create your web pages on your computer and upload. I cannot help you with this now but a good program to use is Adobe Dreamweaver. If you cannot get a copy of this, you can use programs like Microsoft FrontPage or Publisher (though the code and view will seem less professional generally).

Step 4 - Promoting Your Website

We have now reached the hardest part of making a successful website. You need to be able to get people to visit your website so they can benefit from your services and/or so you can earn some money. This can potentially be the most expensive part of making a website but sometimes it isn't required to spend money. If your domain name is catchy enough, you may find yourself getting a large number of visitors already. Promoting a website is not something I am an expert in and there are whole courses and businesses purely on this.

I can, however, give you a few tips that I have used which do help and require no money to be spent.

Tip 1: Choose a good title tag for your web pages. Title tags look like <title> Website Name </title> (and are within the HTML part of your website). It is useful to have the website name within the title followed by the name of the page. For example, "Which Charity - Find your charity" is used on Which Charity.

Tip 2: You may find it useful to place Meta Tags in your HTML. These tags contain a description and a set of keywords that search engines use. However, some search engines no longer look at these and base their rankings and descriptions on the content on the website. It may be a good idea to still put them in as some search engines still use them. Check: http://www.addme.com/meta.htm to generate tags for your website. Just place them within the <head> </head> tags in the HTML.

Tip 3: Link exchanges are probably your best bet. This involves other websites putting a link to your website on their website and you do the same for them. In that way, both website gain more visitors. It is best to link to sites that are related to your ideas but it doesn't matter too much.

Tip 4: Submitting to web directories can also help. You can place your website link in a website directory within a category that suits your website. The best one is the DMOZ Open Direcotory: http://www.dmoz.org/ .Not all sites are accepted within this directory website (so you just have to be lucky).

This is all I can really tell you. If you want expert advise and services, just search online for cheap promoting services for your website.

Those 4 steps to making a website are the basic principles and you may do things slightly differently so don't worry if you don't follow them in the exact same way I did.

I hope this helps you and check around for more blog posts related to websites.