Are you looking to make a website? Ultimate Guide: How to Make a Website. Starting an internet site is often a terrifying thought specially when you’re not techy. Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Having helped over 400,000+ people make an internet site with WordPress, we’ve decided to make the foremost comprehensive step-by-step guide on the way to make an internet site without learning how to code.

 

 

This guide is beneficial for users of all ages and skill levels. However, if you would like help, then you’ll contact our expert team to assist you to set up your website free of charge.

If you want to do it by yourself, then please continue to follow our step-by-step guide on how to make a website.

Here is an overview from start to finish of all the steps we’ll walk you through in this guide.

• How to find and register a domain name for free
• Choosing the best web hosting
• How to install WordPress
• Installing a template to change your site’s design
• Creating pages in WordPress
• Customizing WordPress with add-ons and extensions
• Resources to learn WordPress and get support
• Taking it further, building websites with more features

Before we start creating a website, let’s cover some of the most commonly asked questions that we get.

 

What do I need to build a website?

You’ll need the following three things to start your WordPress site.

• A domain name – this is the name of your website such as google.com
• WordPress hosting – this is where your website files are stored.
• 45 minutes of your undivided attention

How much does a WordPress website cost?

The answer to the present question really depends on what quiet website you’re trying to create. We have written a 2000 word guide explaining what proportion does it really cost to create an internet site.
A typical business website can cost as low as $100 per annum and may go as high as $30,000 per annum.
We recommend all our users to start out small then add more features to your website as your business grows. This way you’ll economize and minimize potential losses and avoiding overspending.
In this guide, we’ll show you ways to create an internet site for fewer than $100.
We will also show you ways to require it further by adding more features thereto within the future.

 

Which is the best website platform?

There are many website builders available which will assist you found out an internet site. We recommend using self-hosted WordPress as your website platform.
WordPress is that the hottest website platform in the world. It powers nearly 28% of all websites on the web.
WordPress is free and comes with thousands of website designs and extensions. It is extremely flexible and works with almost every third-party tool and repair available to website owners.
We use WordPress to create all our websites including this one, WEhavedigitaltool.

How to make the most of this create a website tutorial?

This is a step-by-step tutorial on the way to make an internet site. We have divided it into different steps, and we’ll walk you thru everything from start to end. Just follow alongside the instructions, and you’ll have a really professional-looking website within the end.
We will also point you in the right direction to require your website to a subsequent level to support your needs.
Have fun creating your website.
Remember, if you would like help, you’ll contact us and that we will found out your website for free of charge.

 

Step 1. Setup Ultimate Guide: How to Make a Website

One of the foremost common mistakes that beginners make is selecting the incorrect website platform. Thankfully, you’re here so you’ll not be making that mistake.

For most users, a self-hosted WordPress.org site is that the right solution. It comes with thousands of styles and addons which permit you to make any quiet website you’ll consider. For more on this subject, please see our guide on why you ought to use WordPress.

WordPress is free for anyone to download and use to create any quiet website with no restrictions.

If WordPress is free, then where is the cost coming from?

WordPress is free because you’ll need to arrange your own name and hosting, which costs money. For more on this subject, see our article why is WordPress free?.

A domain name is your website’s address online. This is what your users will type in their browsers to succeed in your site (For example, WEhavedigitaltool.com or google.com).
Next, you’ll need website hosting. All websites on the internet need hosting. This will be your website’s home online.

A domain name typically costs $14.99/year and hosting costs start from $7.99/month.
This is tons for many people that are just starting out.
Thankfully, Bluehost has agreed to provide our users a free name and over 60% off on web hosting.

 

 

Bluehost is one of the largest hosting companies in the world. They are also an official WordPress recommended hosting partner.

WordPress is free because you’ll need to arrange your own name and hosting, which costs money. For more on this subject, see our article why is WordPress free?.

They are working with WordPress for 2014, and are committed to giving back to the community. That’s why they need to promise us that if you can’t found out your website by following this tutorial, then our expert team will complete the method for you at no cost. They will compensate us, so you don’t need to. Feel free to contact us for free of charge website setup help.

Note: At WEhavedigitaltool, we believe in transparency. If you buy hosting using our referral link, then we’ll get a little commission at no additional cost to you. In fact, you’ll get a reduction on hosting + a free name. We would get this commission for recommending any WordPress hosting company, but we only recommend products that we personally use and believe will add value to our readers.

Let’s go ahead and purchase the domain name and hosting.

First, you’ll need to go to the Bluehost website in a new browser window and click on the green ‘Get Started Now’ button.

 

This will bring you to a pricing page where you will need to choose a pricing plan for your website. Basic and Plus plans are the most popular choices among our users.

 

 

You’ll need to click on select to choose the plan that you like and continue to the next step.

On the next screen, you’ll be asked to select a new domain name.

Ideally, you should stick to a .com domain name. Make sure that it is related to your business, easy to pronounce and spell, and easy to remember.

Need help choosing a domain name for your website? See these tips and tools on how to choose the best domain name.

After choosing your domain name, click on the next button to continue.

Now you’ll be asked to provide your account information such as name, address, email, etc.

On this screen, you will also see optional extras that you can purchase. We generally don’t recommend purchasing these extras. You can always add them later on if you decide that you need them.

 

 

Next, you’ll add your payment information to end the acquisition.
After completing your purchase, you’ll receive an email with details on the way to login to your web hosting instrument panel (cPanel).
This is your hosting dashboard where you manage everything like getting support, fixing emails, etc. Most importantly, this is where you’ll install WordPress.

Step 2. Install WordPress

 

You will now see Bluehost Marketplace Quick Install screen for WordPress. Click on the ‘Get Started’ button to continue.
On the subsequent screen, you’ll be asked to pick the name where you would like to put it in WordPress. Choose your domain from the dropdown field then click Next.

 

Now you’ll need to enter your website name, admin username, and a password for your website. Don’t worry, you’ll change them later in WordPress settings if you’d wish to.
You’ll also get to check all the checkboxes on the screen then click on the ‘Install’ button to continue.

 

 

Quick Install will now start installing WordPress on your website. Meanwhile, it’ll show you some website templates that you simply simply can install on your site.
You don’t get to do this immediately because we’ll show you ways to seek out and install a free WordPress template on your website later during this guide.
Once the installation is over, you’ll see the successful message within the highest header.

 

 

Now you need to click on the ‘Installation Complete’ link, and it will take you to the screen with your WordPress login URL and password.

 

Congratulations! You have created your first WordPress website.

You can now head over to the WordPress login page. Your login URL will look like this:

http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin

You can log in to your WordPress site using the admin username and password you entered earlier.

 

 

Wasn’t that easy?

Now let’s move on to the next step and choose a design for your website.

 

Step 3. Select Your Theme

The visual appearance of your WordPress site is controlled by a WordPress theme.
WordPress themes are professionally designed templates that you simply simply can install on your website to vary its appearance.
By default, each WordPress site comes with a basic theme. If you visit your website, then it’ll look something like this:

 

 

 

This is not very appealing for most users.

But don’t worry, there are thousands of free and paid WordPress themes that you can install on your site.

You can change your theme from the WordPress admin dashboard. Visit the Appearance » Themes page and then click on the ‘Add New’ button.

 

 

On the subsequent screen, you’ll ready to search from 4,492 free WordPress themes that are available within the official WordPress.org themes directory. You can sort them by popular, latest, featured, also as other feature filters (i.e industry, layout, etc).

 

 

Need help choosing a theme? Check out our list of those awesome free WordPress business themes.
You may also want to require a glance at our guide on the way to select the right WordPress theme for your website.
For the sake of this guide, we’ll be using Bento. It is a well-liked multi-purpose free WordPress theme with flexible design options for all types of internet sites.
If you recognize the name of the free theme you would like to put in, then you’ll search for it by entering its name within the search field.
WordPress will show you the theme in search results. You will get to take your mouse over to the theme then click on the Install button.

 

 

Once you’ve installed your theme, you’ll customize it by clicking on the Customize link under the looks menu.
This will launch the theme customizer where you will be able to change your theme settings with a live preview of your website.

 

You don’t need to finalize all theme settings right away. You will be able to customize it much better once you have some content on your website.

Let’s see how to add content to your WordPress site.

 

Step 4. Add Content to Your Site

WordPress comes with two default content types called posts and pages. Posts are a neighborhood of a blog and appear in reverse-chronological order (newer items displayed first).
On the other hand, pages are meant to be static “one-off” type content like your about page, contact page, privacy policy, etc.
By default, WordPress shows your blog posts on the front page of your website. You can change that, and make WordPress show any page because the front-page of your website (we’ll show you ways to try to do that later during this guide).
You can create a separate page for your blog or news section. In fact, you’ll create an internet site with no blog section in the least.
Having said that, let’s add some content to your website.
You’ll start by adding a couple of pages to your WordPress site. Don’t worry if you don’t have enough content for these pages in the instant. You can always edit and update them.
Head over to Pages » Add New page within the WordPress admin area. This will bring you to the page editor screen, which can look almost like this, counting on your theme:

 

 

First, you’d wish to supply a title for your page, let’s call this page ‘Home’.
After that, you’ll add content within the text editor below. You can add text, links, images, embed videos, audio, etc.

After adding content to your page, you’ll click on the publish button to form it to survive your website.
You can repeat the method by adding more pages for various sections of your website. For example, an about page, contact us, and a blog page to display blog posts.

Now let’s add a couple of blog posts also.
Head over to Posts » Add New in your WordPress admin area, where you will see a screen much as you saw earlier when adding pages.

 

 

You can add a post title then add content within the visual post editor. You’ll also notice some extra options within the sidebar like post formats, categories, and tags.
You can click on the save button to store your post as a draft or click on the publish button to form it visible on your site.
For more detailed instructions on the way to utilize these options on post and page edit screens, please see our guide on the way to add a replacement post in WordPress.

 

Step 5. Customizing and Tweaking Your Website

Now that you simply have created some content on your website, you’ll be ready to customize and put it beats a pleasant presentable shape on your website.

Let’s start by fixing a static front Page.

Setting up a Static Front Page

You need to travel to the Settings » Reading page in your WordPress admin area. Under the ‘Front page displays’ option click on the static front page then select ‘Pages’ you created earlier for your home and blog pages.

 

 

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save Changes’ button at the bottom of the page to store your changes.

WordPress will now use the page titled ‘Home’ as your site’s front page and ‘Blog’ page to display your blog posts.

Change Site Title and Tagline

During the installation, you get to choose your site’s title. WordPress automatically adds a tag line to your site title that says ‘Just another WordPress site’.

You can change both your site’s title and tagline at any time by visiting the Settings » General page.

 

 

Your site title will be the name of your website like WEhavedigitaltool. The tag line is usually a single line that describes your website. You can also leave the tagline field blank if you want.

Don’t forget to click on the save changes button to store your settings.

Set up Comments Settings

WordPress comes with a built-in comment system allowing your users to leave comments on your posts. This is great for user engagement, but it is targeted by spammers as well.

To deal with this, you’ll need to enable comment moderation on your website.

Visit the Settings » Discussions page and scroll down to the ‘Before a comment appears’ section. Check the box next to the ‘Comment must be manually approved’ option.

 

 

Don’t forget to click on the save changes button to store your settings.

Create Navigation Menus

Navigation menus allow your users to browse different pages or sections on your website. WordPress comes with a powerful navigation menu system, and your WordPress theme utilizes this system to display menus.

 

Let’s add a navigation menu to your website.

First, you need to visit the Appearance » Menus page. Enter a name for your navigation menu and click on the create menu button.

 

 

WordPress will now create your navigation menu. But it will be empty at the moment.

Next, you need to select the pages you want to display in your menu and then click on add to menu button.

 

 

You will notice your selected pages filling the empty area of your navigation menu. You can move them up and down to rearrange their position in the menu.

 

 

Now you need to select a display location. These locations are defined by your WordPress theme. Usually, most WordPress themes have a primary menu that appears on top.

Finally, click on the save menu button to store your navigation menu.

You can now visit your website to see the menu in action.

For more detailed instructions see our beginner’s guide on how to add a navigation menu in WordPress.

 

Step 6. Installing Plugins

WordPress Plugins are like apps for your WordPress site. They allow you to feature features to your WordPress site. Think contact form, photo galleries, etc.
There are currently quite 49,000 free plugins available for WordPress. There also are paid plugins sold by third-party websites and developers.
With this many plugins, how does one find which plugins to install? We got you covered there also, see our guide on the way to choose the simplest WordPress plugin.
Here is our list of essential plugins that you simply should install on your site directly. All of them are free.

 

Features

• WPForms Lite – This allows you to add a contact form to your WordPress site.
• Envira Gallery Lite – Add beautiful image galleries to your WordPress site
• MonsterInsights – Connect your website with Google Analytics and see how visitors find and use your website, so you can keep them coming back.
• SeedProd – Create custom designs & layouts with drag & drop page landing builder by SeedProd.

Website Optimization

• All in One SEO – Improve your WordPress SEO and get more traffic from Google
• WP Super Cache – Improves your website speed by serving cached pages
• PushEngage – Helps increase website traffic by letting you connect with visitors after they leave your website. Push notifications are the top 5 traffic sources for WEhavedigitaltool.

Security

• Updraft Plus – Create automatic scheduled backups of your website
• Sucuri – Website security audit and malware scanner

For more plugin recommendations check out our list of 24 must-have WordPress plugins for business websites.

Step 7. Mastering WordPress

WordPress is easy to use yet extremely powerful. From time to time, you’ll end up trying to find some quick answers.
The good news is that there’s many free WordPress help available. See our guide on the way to properly invite WordPress support and obtain it.
WEhavedigitaltool itself is that the largest WordPress resource site on the web. You will find the following resources on WEhavedigitaltool (all of them are completely free).
WEhavedigitaltool Blog – This is where we publish our WordPress tutorials, how-tos, and step-by-step guides.
WEhavedigitaltool Videos – These step-by-step videos will help you learn WordPress FAST.
WEhavedigitaltool on YouTube – Need more video instructions? Subscribe to our YouTube channel
WEhavedigitaltool Dictionary – the simplest place for beginners to start out and familiarize themselves with WordPress lingo.
WEhavedigitaltool Blueprint – Check out plugins, tools, and services we use on WEhavedigitaltool.
WEhavedigitaltool Deals – Exclusive discounts on WordPress products and services for WEhavedigitaltool users.
Here are a few of our guides that you should bookmark right away. It will prevent many times and money within the future.

Here are a few of our guides that you should bookmark right away. It will save you lots of time and money in the future.

• 25 Most common WordPress errors and how to fix them
• Beginner’s guide to troubleshooting WordPress errors
• How to fix common image issues in WordPress
• The ultimate WordPress security guide (step by step)
• Ultimate WordPress SEO guide for beginners (step by step)

Many of our users use Google to find answers on WEhavedigitaltool. Simply type keywords for what you’re trying to find and add wehavedigitaltool.com at the top.
Can’t find an answer? Send your question directly using our contact form and that we will try our greatest to answer.

 

Step 7. Taking it Further

So far we’ve shown you ways to form an internet site, add a topic, and install essential plugins.
Want to take it even further?
Using WordPress you’ll create powerful niche websites capable of doing tons more.

• Add an eCommerce store
• Start your own podcast
• Create a membership Website
• Create a web directory
• Create a coupons website
• Build a reviews website
• Create multilingual websites
• Create a Job Board website
• Create a question and answers website
• Create a wiki knowledgebase website

For more examples, check out our list of 19 types of websites you can create with WordPress

 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Having helped thousands of people start a website, we have answered quite a lot of questions. Below are the answers to the most frequently asked questions about creating a website.

Is WordPress the only way to create a website?

No, there are a lot of other website builders out there. We believe that WordPress is the best and easiest platform to build a website.

How do I make money from my website?

After helping users create a website, this is by far the most commonly asked question. There are a lot of ways to make money online from your website.

We have a list of 25 ways to make money online using WordPress. These aren’t get rich quick schemes. If you’re looking for a way to get rich quick by making money online, then sorry to break the bad news, there’s no such way.

How do I start a website where I can sell products?

You can easily add an online store to your WordPress website. We have created a list of the best eCommerce plugins for WordPress. You can also follow our step by step guide on how to start an online store.

Do I need to know HTML / CSS to create and customize my website?

No you don’t need to know HTML / CSS to build a website with WordPress. You can use one of the many drag & drop WordPress page builder plugins to easily customize your websites.

How can I start a website for free?

Some website builders may offer free options, but we don’t recommend using those. Often they will insert their branding and advertisement on your website which doesn’t look professional.

It’s better to purchase your own domain name and hosting, so you have full ownership of your website. See what is the difference between domain name and web hosting.

Can I start a website like eBay?

Yes, you can easily create a website like eBay using an auction plugin for WordPress. We have a step by step guide on how to build an online auction website using WordPress that you can follow.

Can I get a free domain for my website?

Yes, some web hosting companies offer a free domain if you choose to start a website with them. Bluehost is an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider, and they’re offering WPBeginner users free domain + 60% off hosting if you choose to build your website using their service.

Can I create a website like Facebook?

Yes, you can absolutely use WordPress to turn your website into a social network. We have a step by step guide on how to make a website like Facebook using WordPress.

Can I start a website with a discussion board / forum?

Absolutely. You can use one of these forum plugins in WordPress to build a website with discussion board features.

We hope this guide helped you learn how to make a website without hiring a developer or overspending money. You may also want to see our list of 19 actionable tips to drive traffic to your new WordPress site.