How to Make A Website By the Numbers

You’ve been thinking about it for a while now and it is finally time to learn how to make a website. If you think making a website is difficult, you might be surprised to learn that it is a rather straight forward process.

Step 1 – Planning

This is the most important part of learning how to make a website. Why? Because at this point you are either setting yourself up to make a successful website or for a great big disappointed. The reason we want to plan before we make a website is because we need to know what our website is going to focus on.

You may be saying to yourself, I want to learn how to make a website, I don’t need to pick a topic now. This is what most people say when they learn how to make a website. This is also why most people’s websites fail to rank very well in the search engines.

By picking a topic before you make a website, you can see how much competition you’ll face. This can be done by seeing how many websites you’ll be competing against. To do this, go your favorite search engine and search for the main word(s) that best describe your website. Is surfing your theme? Then search for “surfing”.

Once you’ve gone and found how many websites there are on the topic, you need another piece of data: search volume. There are plenty of resources out there you can use to get this number. Google AdWord’s Keyword tool is one of them you can use.

Now that you have these two pieces of information, divide the number of websites by how many people search for it. This can be seen as competition divided by search volume. The bigger the number the harder time you’ll have ranking when a user searches.

This is a very important step to understand when you learn how to make your own website. And as I’ve already said, it may very well be the difference between success and failure when you make a website.

Step 2 – A Fitting Domain Name

Since we’ve done our research and planned the subject for our website, we can now pick a fitting domain name. We’ll use the previous “surfing” example throughout the rest of this article on how to make a website. Seeing as this is our keyword fitting with our theme, we will want to make sure we use it in our domain name. This will also make ranking easier.

There are two ways you can make a domain name for your website. The first method is the one that you will most likely be familiar with. That is the none hyphenated version. It looks like this: www.mysurfingshop.com The second version is hyphenated, and is easier for your visitors to read. Unfortunately they may not remember it as easily. Especially if you place hyphens in such a way they don’t remember where they go. This example would look like: www.my-surfing-shop.com

When you make your own website, it might seem tricky at first, but once you’ve done it several times you’ll realize like everything else, it is very straightforward.

Step 3 – Website Creation

This is a very broad topic, and while it is still part of making a website, it is no longer the major part. Let me clarify, when you learned how to make a website years ago, the Internet was in its infancy (some still say that it is). There were fewer books and other resources for you to gain a handhold on, and unless you knew how to code… Well lets just say be happy you’re not trying to make a website then. Today when you approach the task, there are countless resources on the Internet you have instant access to. If you encounter a problem during the course of making your website, you can ask a question and get a fast reply.

But you can go beyond that. And that is what I want to make clear in this step. You don’t have to learn how to code a single line (though it is a valuable skill) to make a website. And in fact there are plenty of websites out there that would never have been made if this wasn’t true.

There are so many solutions for how to make a website, and a large number of them are free. Let’s look at WordPress. Though mainly a blogging platform, it is so customizable it can easily be enhanced to meet almost any need. It’s fast, you can literally have things setup and running within a matter of minutes, now how is that for learning how to make a website? Did I mention it was free? Oh yeah, I did.

Now I know what you may be asking yourself, how do I make pages, posts, etc? The days of coding pages from scratch in a text editor are over. Those tasks are often left to professional web designers. For many the creation process is done directly in their browser.

If you can type, then you can create a page or blog post without the need for a single line of code. If you want to try your hand at HTML, there is a built in editor, WordPress leaves the choice up to you. And relieves you of the task of building your website from scratch.

I use WordPress as an example because it is a highly advanced system that gives you access to features you would otherwise have to work very hard to implement yourself. Even in your beginniner’s phase, you can personalize your website with plugins and themes easily downloaded from within the software.

That’s how easy it is to make a website today. But there is just one small thing you should know. Read the next step to learn what that is.

Step 4 – Web Hosting

No matter what system you approach, when you learn how to make a website it boils down to two essential things. A domain name and web hosting. You cannot put up a website when either of them are missing. Without the domain name people won’t have a place to go, and without hosting they won’t have much to see once they get there.

When you learn how to make a website, this can be one of the more difficult areas to traverse. Why? Because there are lots and lots of companies blasting their sales pitch at you trying to get your hosting dollar. If they are the right host for making your website is another question alltogether.

So let’s look more closely at this final step in learning how to make a website.

As I have already said, there are many hosting companies to choose from. So are really well know, spending millions on Super Bowl ads. Does they mean they are the best? No, it just means they have money to spend. Others aren’t as well known and are equally less reliable, while others have built a name for being reliable and fair.

One trick I implement when I evaluate a new host is register for only one month. Why is this a trick? Think of it this way, if you’re learning how to make a website and you make the wrong decision, like picking an unreliable host, do you want to be stuck with them for a year?

This is something that I did when I was learning how to make my first website. It isn’t a pleasant feeling. And if you’re not careful and don’t pay attention, you may be slapped with another year. Before you panic, let me explain. Some web hosts, I call them unscrupulous companies, will renew your account for the same time period when it get close to expiring.

You’re now locked in to a new contract.

That is why I always register for the one month first. This may make you ineligible for some promotional offer for new users, but then wouldn’t you rather miss out on a few dollars savings than the alternative. Namely, paying for a service that doesn’t suite your needs to make a website.

Trust me, I have been through more than a few web hosts over the years, and this method of evaluation has saved me some money.

My current web host even allows you to evaluate their service for 45days for only one cent.

In conclusion, get a feel for the company before you buy server space from them. If you are truly serious about learning how to make a website, take your time at this step and do a little digging.

To Recap

Don’t underestimate how much competition there is on the web. Do some research and see if you can compete with the other websites in your niche. This is done by comparing how many websites there are for your main keyword by the number of searches performed for the same word each month. If the ratio is too high, pick another theme to learn how to make a website with.

Once you have your theme, register your domain name. Make sure to use your main keyword in the URL. This helps target your website to the theme and make it easier to rank. And that is the sign of success for any website, no matter if you’re making your first website or your 100th.

Coding would have been the third step only a couple of years ago. And don’t get me wrong, it is still a big part of the web today. But for you, in the beginning stages of learning how to build a website, it isn’t crucial.

There are so many opportunities that allow you to make a far more advanced website than if you learn how to code one from scratch. I mentioned one in this article, and while it has shown to be the most widely used, it is far from your only option.

And lastly, web hosting. Even though I run the risk of sounding like a broken record, I will say it again. Don’t jump into a contract for a long period of time with any host unless you’re certain they meet your needs. This part of learning how to make a website is probably the trickiest.