Creating a website used to be a massive project. Expensive too.
Everything had to be built by hand and businesses had to work with an online marketing agency that would charge tens of thousands of dollars to build a site. If you wanted a professional website, that was the only option.
Things have gotten much cheaper and easier over the years.
Note that there are several ways to create a website. More on that later – let’s dive right in.
A step-by-step guide to creating a website with WordPress
I’ve broken down 9 simple steps to creating your website from scratch. You can easily complete these steps in the next 120 minutes.
Step 1: Choose a name and find a domain name for your website
Unfortunately, these are not two separate steps.
I really wish I could sit down, pick the name I want for my business and be able to create the website I want around that name. Now that the Internet is a couple of decades old, we all have to face the fact that most of the good domain names have been taken.
This is how the naming session always seems to go for me:
In a moment of inspiration, we think of an amazing name.
We hold onto that name for months, maybe even years.
It’s time to start a business, so we move on to buying a domain name.
The domain name is taken.
We try a dozen small variations on our original idea, all taken.
No biggie, we thought of one great name, we think of another.
Certainty idea #2 = taken.
Certainty idea #3 = taken.
Certainty idea #4 = taken.
Desperation sets in.
We start thinking about names we don’t really like, hoping something is available.
We look for 2 or 3 options that we don’t like at all.
Then we spend a week trying to find a name that is both available and a name we can live with.
Finally, we find one.
Websites have also become so embedded in our daily lives that it’s better to change the name of your business to match the available domain name than to choose a poor quality domain name. Through this process, I almost always end up with a completely different name than I originally intended.
That is why I consider the steps of naming a company and buying a domain name to start a business as the same steps. I try not to lock myself into a name until I have a domain name.
We put together an in-depth guide to buying domain names here.
The good news is that the rest of these steps are easy once you’ve bought your domain name. That’s the first and hardest step to creating your website.
Step 2: register your domain name
Real quick, we’ll explain the difference between a domain name registrant and a domain name host.
A domain name registrar is a company that specialises in buying (registering) domain names.
A web host, on the other hand, specialises in running website hosting servers.
Every web host is desperate to get you to register a domain name through them too. The reason is that it is a big sale for them. They’ve spent most of their resources on developing the hosting service, then they offer domain registration as a convenience, raise the price a bit and collect a nice chunk of extra profit from you.
My philosophy is to buy things from companies that specialise in just that. The prices are better and so is the quality. That’s why I also use a domain registrar to buy domains and a web host to host them. I never mix the two.
The best domain registrar is Domain.com. That’s where I have all my domains.
We put together a detailed review of domain name registrars here.
Step 3: Decide what kind of website you want to create
Most website creation guides will help you use WordPress. It’s the most popular and flexible website builder. And it’s usually a good recommendation.
But there are a few situations where I recommend different options.
A simple portfolio or business card site
Many businesses need a simple website that tells people a few things:
Who the business is for
What the business does
Sometimes a portfolio that shows the work
Contact
A website like this gives basic information about the business, nothing more. If this is what you need, Wix is the best option for creating your website. It’s incredibly easy to use and gives you a professional website for a very low price. It’s perfect for small businesses.
They have created the simplest and easiest website builder. Truly, it’s a joy to use and makes the most sense when you just need a clean, professional website that gives some basic information about your business. It’s perfect for small businesses, freelancers and artists.
Ecommerce sites
If you’re planning to build an online store on your website, don’t use WordPress. We have a full post here on when to use WordPress for ecommerce and when not to. Short story: using WordPress for ecommerce rarely makes sense.
The best option by far is again Wix. There used to be more competition in the ecommerce tool space, but Wix went too far even for Shopify.
Blog sites
If you know you want a blog or plan to do a lot of content, start with WordPress. Most of this guide is about building a WordPress website. (We also have a detailed guide to starting a blog here.)
Most websites are really just blogs. Some of the biggest and best-known websites on the Internet are blogs. WordPress powers over 30% of the entire internet. So it’s the only real option for starting a blog these days.
All other
If you’re not sure or have another vision for your site outside the categories above, use WordPress. It’s the most flexible platform here. It does ecommerce, does simple portfolios, massive content sites, Fortune 500 marketing sites, everything.
In some situations you may need to customize it more than other platforms, but you can get WordPress to do what you want. And almost anyone in online marketing knows their way around WordPress, so you can find plenty of people to help you when the time comes.
Whether you want to build your site by hand or have an online marketing agency that can do it for you, you’ll still need to build on top of WordPress. It shortcuts a lot of programming work and allows you to edit the basic elements of your site without having to edit any code. I’ve managed marketing sites for venture-backed tech companies that employed dozens of engineers – our marketing site was still built on top of WordPress. It’s the default choice.
Step 4: Get a host for your website
For the rest of this guide, I’ll assume you’ve chosen WordPress to create your website. If you want an ecommerce site, skip the rest of this guide and follow our guide to creating an ecommerce site.
WordPress is the tool you will use to create your website. You will also need a host to store your website and make it available to all visitors.
The best place to go for most people is Bluehost.
We have a full guide here that goes through all the best web hosts.
Hosting plans usually start at around $5/month.
Step 5: Install WordPress
Almost every website host has a one-click WordPress installation. Bluehost has this feature, which is the one I recommend most. But if you have trouble finding it, contact support and they can help you through it.
Step 6: Point your domain name to your host
Let’s do a quick recap.
You’ve purchased your domain name from a domain name registrar.
You’ve signed up for a hosting plan.
You installed the WordPress app on your host.
Now you’re linking all these things together by pointing your domain name to your host. Then when people go to your domain, they will be directed to your website.
There are some technical settings available to you. This includes configuring a few name server settings for your domain name on your registered domain name. Your host will provide you with the correct settings; you will search for their name server settings.
