How To Start A Website – The Easy Guide

February 14, 2011 by
Filed under: Choosing The Best Web Host, SEO, Web Hosting Help, Website Talk, Wordpress and Blogging 

( The Best Web Hosting Service )- For someone that is not a computer guru, or even that familiar with computers, it can be quite intimidating to start a website from scratch.  There are a handful of questions you probably have going through your head right now, and I will attempt to tackle as many questions that will help answer the question “How To Start A Website“, in this blog post.  However, if you are interested in how to start a blog I suggest you read my post geared on starting a blog :)

How To Start A Website

Domain Names

The first thing you will need is a domain name.  This is the www. extension of your website.  For instance, http://www.the-best-web-hosting-service.com is the domain of this website.  It can be very difficult finding a good domain that isn’t already taken, and you will more than likely need to go for a .com domain name.  This is just one step for starting a website though.  (see what not to do when picking a domain name)

Also, just because you buy a domain at GoDaddy doesn’t mean you have to host your domain there.  You can switch your DNS to any server you want to use.  In fact, I wouldn’t use GoDaddy for web hosting; just for domains.  I do buy my domains from GoDaddy, but host with Hostgator; all you have to do is switch your DNS (or cut and paste your name servers in the control panel).  Please see switching your DNS from GoDaddy to Hostgator.

Software: For Your Website

In order to create a website you are going to need a program to design your website, however they are quite expensive, nearly $400 for Dreamweaver and $200 for Microsolf’s version of Dreamweaver, which is called Expression.  Of course these will take some training, because these programs are not for the novice user.  However, there are many hosting services such as, BlueHost, GreenGeeks, and Hostgator, which all offer sitebuilders to help you in case you are not a web developer.

I am a web developer and unless you have deep pockets you are probably not going to want to pay several thousands of dollars for a site design, plus maintenance.  In fact, you can start a website for much cheaper than that!  Typically novice webmasters will install WordPress on their site and install various plugins and widgets to help customize their page the way they want it.  To do this you need to use Fantasitico to install WordPress.

Testing Your Website

Believe it or not starting a website requires a lot of testing.  This is a commonly overlooked factor that people fail to do until their users start contacting them because of accessibility issues.  In order to have a successful website you need to make sure that people can use your site easily.  This is the main ingredient that allows your site to be a successful one (along with excellent content).

You need to make sure your site looks alright in all the major browsers; Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome, and Opera.  Additionally, I like to be a control freak and see what my site looks like in almost every browser possible at http:///www.browsershots.org.  When you create a website you don’t want it to look broken on different browsers.

Along with that I always try to make sure my sites are W3C compliant (not just for seo reasons) but to make sure their are no bugs on my website.  It is a good habit to get into.  Along with that I always check my site for malware with this site http://www.unmaskparasites.com (from time to time).  Furthermore, I recently wrote a post on finding 404 errors and broken links, along with using an .htaccess file to make sure my 301 redirects are setup properly.

Website Cost

Another thing people commonly want to know is how much is it going to cost to start a website?  This is kind of an intricate question to answer, because it depends on your purpose of the website.  When you start a website you need to ask yourself is it for my business, personal site, eCommerce site, blog, ect.  It can be very cheap if you don’t need to purchase any software or sitebuilders and only have to pay for a yearly domain, and web hosting (either per year or monthly).  If you are interested in a cheap yearly fee; I would highly recommend you read my Fatcow Review.  Also, if you would like to save $30 a year and get a free domain please check out this GreenGeeks review.  Also, personally, I use InMotion hosting for this website because they offer a ton of different plans, and I simply love them!

Web Hosting: For Your Website

So now that you are all excited on starting a website you need to pick a place to host it with.  Without web hosting your site would not be functional.  Web hosting is the server that pay for which all your files are going to live on.  However, there are hundreds if not thousands of hosting companies out there so it can be impossible to determine, which one is right for you, unless you have a little assistance.

Another question when starting a website that people commonly have is what is the best web hosting service?  Well, again this is a question that has more than one answer.  For instance, the best hosting could be different for a blog vs someone that is starting an eCommerce business.  You can expect to pay anywhere from $2-$400 a month for web hosting.  I actually have a list on this site which shows, what I feel are the best hosting services to meet your needs.  Currently, have these categories:

Best Blog Web Hosting
Best Budget Web Hosting
Best Business Web Hosting
Best Dedicated Web Hosting
Best eCommerce Web Hosting
Best Green Web Hosting
Best Linux Web Hosting
Best Multiple Domain Web Hosting
Best Reseller Web Hosting
Best Shared Web Hosting
Best Unix Web Hosting
Best Windows Web Hosting

SEO – And Your Website

Another common question people have is, now that I have started a website; how come nobody is coming to my website?  The black and white answer to this question is no one knows about your site being published yet.  There is no magic god that you can pray to that tells people that your site is up and waiting for visitors.  I wish there was though.  You need to get backlinks in order to get people to your website.

You could hire someone to do your SEO for your website, but that can also cost several thousands of dollars per month.  In fact, see this article on 7 methods of SEO that actually work.  Again, I also do SEO work, but it can generally take 2-3 months before you see results in the search engines (I know it is a long wait!).  It depends how hard your keywords are too.

Along, with doing SEO there are some simple things you can do which will help your site get noticed in the search engines.  Here are a list of places to submit your website:

Yahoo Directory
Business.com
BOTW.org
Submit to Google
Submit to Yahoo
Submit to Bing

In conclusion, don’t be intimidated on starting a website, because it is actually pretty easy to do.  Whether your site is a blog, eCommerce shop, personal site, ect you can do it with a little work.  Might take a couple months to get everything up and running the way you want, but can be a lot of fun.  Just remember to follow the above tutorial if you want to get your website up and running today.  Please not if you are looking to start a website and don’t have a lot of money to invest read my WebHostingHub Review (they are one of the cheapest feature rich hosting companies).  Also, it is worth your time to check out this GreenGeeks review if you want to get a free domain and save $30 a year on web hosting.  What other questions do you have about creating a website or other issues that are not covered in this article?

Web Hosting Reviews
What makes me different from the other million web hosting review sites, you see floating around the net is I actually check with the Better Business Bureau and rate each service on four other important areas; reliability, server speed, customer service, and cost. Please look over my full list of web hosting reviews by viewing the root site. Best Web Hosting Service


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Comments

10 Comments on How To Start A Website – The Easy Guide

  1. Derrick T Spruiell on Mon, 14th Feb 2011 10:19 pm

    2. Thanks.
    Thank you for taking to time to prepare such an informative and enlightening post.
    Thanks.

  2. Dana on Wed, 16th Feb 2011 4:41 am

    3. Well-written and complete article. Any one that want to start their own sites should read this article before start so they can do it in right way.

  3. Arelthia on Wed, 16th Feb 2011 5:59 am

    4. You made some good points about what it takes to create a website. I would just like to add that SEO should start during the planning stage of a website.

  4. atics on Wed, 16th Feb 2011 1:02 pm

    5. open speed, backlink and SEO like you said is most important in site. The other is having good uptime hosting of your site…
    thnks for sharing sir

  5. Garen on Wed, 16th Feb 2011 1:52 pm

    6. Exactly on the SEO it should be thought out during the planning stage. Most importantly build quality backlinks naturally.

  6. Hosted Exchange on Sun, 20th Feb 2011 9:50 pm

    7. This is really fantastic post on website and related resource..I was looking for such information..As I am soon making a new website of my business and was wondering to know where I lack..I gathered a huge knowledge..

  7. Frank W. Mouser on Thu, 2nd Jun 2011 8:22 pm

    8. Thanks to the power of Fantastico or One Click Installer, it allow me and many people to create a pro website like WordPress and Joooma with ease and without HTML knowledge required. Knowing how to promote a website on the web is even more important when some of the top Internet marketers and Google confirmed that SEO is all about branding in 2011 and beyond.

  8. John on Fri, 17th Jun 2011 9:37 am

    9. I just finished building my first website. I’m hoping that I’ll get a good amount of traffic. One thing that I found important was using keywords in a domain name. I read some great information at http://domainnames.nikenya.com/keywords-in-a-domain-name. Using keywords when choosing your domain is so important, it makes it easier for people to find you.

  9. pam smith on Thu, 23rd Jun 2011 9:30 pm

    10. l all ready have a web site on my computer , but is was made my a dear friend of mine who was only 16 at the time ,last year ,but he is no longer with us and l have no idea how he done it .so i was wanting to know what l would need to get off his computer be able to get my self going again.

  10. logan green on Sun, 21st Aug 2011 9:21 pm

    11. i have a idea for a web site that could make big big big bucks but need to get the site built first. im not real good with pc’s. it opens up a new market for a product already out there but no one has thought of yet. so im keeping it under raps. were talking millions of people world wide. if i pay someone to design it how do i keep them from stealing it ? i told a friend and he liked it so much we formed a partnership. he has the money to put into a site. what keeps others from copying your site and starting one like it. or the product manufactures from doing it? your site is bad to the done with info thanks. my email is down until late next week.