How to Build a Website for Beginners

Building a website used to be the exclusive domain of computer programmers. Thanks to advances in ready to use platforms and templates and wysiwyg (what you see is what you get) editors, this is no longer the case. Anyone can build a website, even with no prior knowledge or experience. It’s just a matter of learning how and taking action with what you’ve learned.

How to build a website for beginners starts with the domain.

You can think of the domain name as the street address to your home. It’s a number that tells people where your home (website) is located.

Your domain name should be relevant to the subjects you want to cover on your site or the industry or niche you wish to market to. For example, my website is called Online Marketing 101 and the domain is OnlineMarketing-101.com. It allows me to talk about anything related to online marketing. It also allows me to sell any affiliate products related to online marketing.

Avoid naming your domain after a specific product because that will limit you down the road. For example, the main product I promote on my website is Wealthy Affiliate University. However, you can see that because I did not name my domain after WAU, I am also free to promote Varolo, PayBox and GeoString.

Many hosting companies also allow you to register your domain which means you can get your domain and hosting (see below for more information on hosting) in one transaction.

You can purchase a domain from 1and1 or JustHost for less than $15.00 a year or get one free (with a .co.cc ending) from www.co.cc.

Hosting: Where a website lives

The next component to a website is the hosting. The hosting is like the home for your website.

Wealthy Affiliate platinum members get unlimited hosting for all their websites. If you are planning to build many websites, you should consider joining Wealthy Affiliate University to control your hosting costs. You will also have access to top of the line training on all things related to Internet marketing and building up your online presence.

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If you would like to buy website hosting alone, three excellent hosting companies are 1and1, JustHost and HostGator. Hosting for a single website costs around $10.00 or less a month.

If you have purchased your domain and hosting account together, your domain is all set and you can skip the next step.

If you registered your domain and purchased hosting separately, you will need to point the domain to the hosting company. You do this by setting the domain name servers from the hosting company to the domain. If you bought a domain from 1and1 and hosting from JustHost, you will enter the DNS from JustHost into the domain management form with 1and1. You can simplify the entire process by buying both your domain and hosting from the same company.

Next is your content management system

There are a couple ways to add the actual content and graphics to your website. One is to design the pages then load them onto your site using FTP. An even easier way is to manage all the content using a content management system. The easiest open source content management system for website development is WordPress.

Install WordPress following the instructions from your hosting company. WordPress will walk you through selecting your basic design. Once you have WordPress installed, adding content is easy.

Wealthy Affiliate University has a customization of WordPress specifically designed for Internet marketers available to its members. It makes the process of setting up a WordPress site with all the necessary plugins literally take seconds.

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Once you have WordPress up and running, you will want to install four plugins to help you manage your site. They are Akismet, All In One SEO Pack, Exclude pages, and Google Analytics. Go to each plugin’s site, then follow the instructions for installing and activating them on your WordPress site.

Start creating content

WordPress allows you to create blog posts and static pages. You just need to choose which one you are creating.

Start your site by creating five static pages: home, about me, FAQ, a page for your main product you’re promoting, and blog. You set the page where the posts will be kept in the “reading” tab under “settings” in your dashboard.

Your home page should be a welcoming and chatty page about your site and the subject matter you will be covering. Your About Me page should be about you. Include a picture of yourself, and some of your qualifications for speaking authoritatively about your subject matter. Also include some fun facts to help your visitors relate to you as a real human being–a face behind the website. Your FAQ page should contain some questions you either have been asked or expect to be asked along with answers. Your product review page should talk up the main product you are promoting (you can have more than one product review page–I have two on mine as of this writing). You want to provide solid information about your product, a call to action (either to buy your product or fill out a form for future follow up), and there should be plenty of links to your product’s website.

When writing content, don’t worry about getting it perfect. You can change it at any time. Just keep it honest and real.

Once you have set up your website and created the main content pages, you have finished the first part. You now have your very own website up.

Your work is only beginning, though. Your next focus will be on creating landing pages targeting relevant keywords and generating traffic to those landing pages. Please read my article How to Get Free Traffic to get you started.

You can learn even more by joining Wealthy Affiliate University. For more information about Wealthy Affiliate University, please read my honest insider review.