Putting up a Web site doesn’t have to be complicated, time-consuming or expensive. By following these simple instructions, you can create a website in an afternoon—and start getting visitors in just days.
It’s not difficult to build a website, but there is some jargon involved. This introduction will help you understand some of the concepts behind creating a website.
STEP ONE: Choose Your Keywords
STEP TWO: Choose Your Domain Name
STEP THREE: Choose your Web Hosting Company
STEP FOUR: Install WordPress and Publish Content
STEP ONE: Choose Your Keywords
When you build a Web site, it’s important to be sure that the site will appear on the first or second page of Google for your keywords. Studies show that web searchers rarely look beyond the third page of search results—so if your Web site can’t be found via Google, you may as well not exist.
The first step in this process is to choose keywords.
First, jot down a list of the words you think are related to the subject of your Web site. In this example, we’ll pretend we’re putting up a Web site about Cocker Spaniels.
Related keywords might include:
- Cocker Spaniels
- Dogs
- Cocker Spaniel breeding
- Dog Food
- Dog Grooming
- Buying a Cocker Spaniel
- Cocker Spaniel Health Problems
Second, go to http://www.google.com/adwords. You may have to set up a Google account to sign in and use the Keyword Tool, available under the “Tools and Analysis” tab on the Google Adwords page. Type your potential keywords into the “Find Keywords” box, follow the instructions, and Google will give you a list of keywords related to your proposed keywords, plus their search volume and several other data points. Use this data to pick the highest-traffic keywords that accurately describe the content of your site, and have the least amount of competition.
STEP TWO: Choose Your Domain Name
Now that you have a list of highly-searched keywords related to the content of your new Web site, it’s time to pick a URL. It’s important to pick a web address that is one of your exact top keyword phrases, if possible. This will help your site appear higher in search engines for that keyword phrase.
A good quality domain name:
- Is one of your top keyword phrases
- Is made up of words separated by hyphens
- Ends in .com, .net or .org
- Is easy to remember
- Doesn’t include “cutesy” or non-standard spelling
- Is free of odd pronunciations and homonyms
For example, if you want to build a Web site about the best Cocker Spaniel food supplements, your URL might be “cockerspanielsupplements.com” if that phrase is a top keyphrase AND the URL itself is available.
To register a domain name, you go to a domain registrar to make sure the domain name is available and to reserve it for yourself.
There are literally hundreds of domain name registrars all over the world. Our favorite is GoDaddy.com—the world’s largest domain registrar. To check the availability of your preferred URL, go to http://www.godaddy.com, and in the search box type your desired domain name exactly as it appears in the keyword research you did in Step 1. The search box will look similar to this:
The next screen should show you which keywords and/or keyphrases are available for purchase, their pricing, and any special promotions GoDaddy may be running.
Buy the dot-com version of your desired domain name first, as the dot-com address is the most desirable and frequently-searched. (It may also be a good idea to buy the dot-net and dot-org versions of your domain name as well to keep competitors from registering them, but this step is optional.)
If your first choice of domain names isn’t available in the dot-com version, move on to your second and third choices.
Once you find a domain name that’s available, check the box next to it and add it to your shopping cart.
Continue through the checkout process, select your payment method, and the length of your registration. In some cases, you may get a discount for multiple-year registration.
GoDaddy will offer you a number of add-ons, such as private registration and web hosting. We suggest you decline them unless you have a compelling need for private registration. (We have found that GoDaddy is a great domain name registrar, but its hosting services are not the best available.)
It can take up to 24 hours for your domain name registration to become active, but in many cases this happens within minutes. You’ll get an automated email from GoDaddy with more instructions. Now you’re just minutes away from building a website!
STEP THREE: Choose your Web Hosting Company
If your URL is your street address, your web host is your landlord. You lease space on a server from your web host, and that’s where you store the computer files that make up your website.
There are literally thousands of web hosting companies to choose from. So for peak reliability and performance, choose a web hosting company that offers:
- A positive reputation on consumer sites
- A C-Panel user interface
- An uptime guarantee of at least 99%
- 24/7 live telephone technical support
- One-click WordPress installation
Our favorite hosting company, HostGator.com, meets all these criteria, and offers hosting plans for as little as $3.96 per month. (Another HostGator bonus: they will transfer an existing website to HostGator for you free of charge if you already know how to build a website.)
Go to HostGator.com, click on the link called “Web Hosting,” and sign up for the “Hatchling Plan” if you only want to host one Web site. If you think you may want to host more sites in the near future, sign up for the “Baby Plan.” If you’re just learning how to build a website for the first time, the “Hatchling Plan” will be fine for you.
During the signup process, you will be asked if you wish to use an existing domain name, or if you want to register a new domain name. You’ll be using the domain name that you registered with GoDaddy, so type that URL into the box and click “continue.”
Complete the billing and account details, and you’re ready to go.
Your hosting space will be available in shortly—usually within minutes, though it can take up to 24 hours.
You’ll get a confirmation email from HostGator that includes some further information about the hosting account. Keep this email for reference—you’ll need it for the next step in the process: assigning the hosting space to your domain name.
The next step is to change the “nameservers” at GoDaddy so they point to your new hosting space. This will tell your web browser where to look for the files in your Web site.
- Log in to GoDaddy.
- Go to Domains>Go To> Domain Management
- Your domain name should be in the list
- Click on your domain name
- Type nameserver #1 (from your email) into the first space
- Type nameserver #2 into the second space
- Save your changes: Click “OK.”
If you have any problems, simply call HostGator at 1-866-96-GATOR and they will talk you through the process.
It can take up to 48 hours for the domain name server change to make its way across the Internet. Until that happens, you will still see a “placeholder” page for GoDaddy if you visit your new URL. Once the change is complete, you’ll see a “placeholder” for HostGator.
STEP FOUR: Install WordPress and Create Content
If your URL is your address, and the hosting space is the raw land, WordPress is the foundation of the house you’re about to build. It’s the framework for your website, and the software that keeps it organized.
If you choose HostGator for your web hosting, this step couldn’t be easier. Simply navigate to your Web site, log in to your HostGator C-Panel account at www.name-of-your-Web site.com/cpanel using the login information in that email HostGator sent you. Navigate to the C-Panel Control Panel, and choose the 1-Click WordPress install. HostGator will install WordPress for you and send you a confirmation email with the username and password.
Next, you simply have to create content and publish it with WordPress. There’s plenty of WordPress documentation online at http://codex.wordpress.org/Getting_Started_with_WordPress to help you learn how to use this powerful software. There’s even a page for newbies called “New to WordPress – Where to Start at http://codex.wordpress.org/New_To_WordPress_-_Where_to_Start
WordPress comes installed with a very basic “theme” (or design), and literally thousands of both free and paid themes are available online. There are also thousands of “plugins” available for WordPress that allow you to add more functions to the basic software. These WordPress “extras” are available under the “Extend” tab at WordPress.org.
Once you publish your content—in the form of posts, pages, or both—it should be visible at your new URL if everything has been done correctly.
If you want to create your own website, you don’t have to pay a developer thousands of dollars. You can register a domain name, order web hosting, install WordPress and have a blog post up literally within a few minutes total.