Steps To Create A Website From Scratch

Step by step instructions for beginners

It seems that all goods and services are now being sold through social media. On Instagram, you can find both small shops for handmade candles, jewelry, or desserts, as well as companies selling prefabricated houses. But if your business is getting cramped there, you should think about creating a website. On it, you can collect all information about your product or services, talk about the main advantages, show photos and customer reviews.

Website development is a time-consuming business. Lots of people use html5 templates to build their websites. Which is easy and convenient, you don’t need to do any code by yourself.

Step 1. Decide the purpose behind making a site

To begin with, you should decide on the purpose of creating a website. They usually come in two flavors – commercial and non-commercial.

If you plan to attract customers through the site, then your goal is definitely commercial. This means that the functionality of the site must be appropriate: you will have to develop an order form, a catalog of goods, and a shopping cart.

If the main flow of orders does not come to you through the site, most likely you have non-commercial goals. Then from the site, you can make, for example, a news portal or blog, which will talk about interesting events, one way or another related to your product.

Then, try to identify the tasks that the site should solve. 

For instance:

• placing an order;
• collection of customer contacts;
• posting materials for download – for example, product catalogs;
• advising clients before buying;
• repeat sales.

Step 2. Choosing the type of site

The type of site depends on what functions it performs – sells, introduces a product, or simply entertains your customers, working on the company’s image.

Online store

Its main difference is that you can select a product, add it to the cart and buy it right on the spot. To do this, the site must be able to register and create a personal account. So buyers can not only pay for the order comfortably but also track it. And after some time, make a second purchase.

Each product will need a card with a photo and description. To pay for orders with a card, you will need to connect payment systems. You can also add the ability to set discounts – for example, to arrange a sale for a holiday.

Step 3. Coming up with a title and domain name

The domain name for the site is the name of the site, which is hammered into the address bar. The name should reflect the name of the brand, but at the same time be memorable and easy to read. 

Ideally, you should be able to dictate it easily – without any “es as a dollar”. Do not choose too long names – it is advisable to limit yourself to 12 characters. You should also avoid numbers and symbols. And, of course, errors – all of this is associated with fraudulent resources.

A top-level domain, or domain zone – these are the letters that appear at the end of the address after the period:.com or .org. Thanks to them, you can understand where the organization is located or in which country it operates. 

You do not buy a domain name forever but only rent it. Therefore, you will have to pay for it regularly, for example, once a year. When choosing a domain name for a website, be sure to check if it matches the address of a competitor. If the name is already taken, add a short word to the name that relates to your industry. 

Step 4. Choosing a hosting

Hosting is a place on the server where all the materials on your site will be stored. When choosing it, pay attention to the Uptime indicator – uptime. It should be as close to 100% as possible. 

Like a domain name, hosting is rented. The rental price depends on the storage volume. Therefore, if you do not plan to create a large portal, then you will not need expensive hosting. But you shouldn’t use free hosting for the site either – it’s unreliable. The server may suddenly “crash”, and all materials from your site will disappear indefinitely.

Step 5. Choosing a platform, or site engine

A platform for a website is roughly the same as an operating system for a computer. It determines how many functions you can add to your site and how convenient it will be to use it.

The platform can be created in three ways:

• using a website builder;
• using CMS;
• write the code yourself.

CMS systems

СMS, or Content Management System, is a content management system, also called the admin panel. They are free and paid.

The most famous free administration system is WordPress. About a quarter of all sites on the Internet were created on it. It is great for blogs, business card sites, portfolios, corporate sites. For beginners, this is an ideal option: managing the admin panel is intuitive and does not require any special knowledge.

Paid platforms provide more options for personalization. But in order to use them, you have to learn a little HTML or call a programmer for help.

Step 6. Assembling the semantic center of the site

The semantic core of the site is a set of key queries by which users will find your site in search engines – Google. Having compiled a list of such requests, you will understand what articles and news will be required to promote your site. 

If the site contains a large amount of expert, well-structured, and frequently updated information on a specific topic, search engines will more often show the site in the SERP. This way, customers will be able to get to you directly from the search engines.

Step 7. Thoroughly considering the design of the site

Now that you understand the site type and semantic core, you can sketch out the structure. This is a kind of site page layout. You can even do it on paper. 

In order for search engines to show the site at the beginning of search results, follow these recommendations:

• Make it possible to get to the home page from any page. For example, using the website header and logo, which you can always click on.
• Don’t forget bread crumbs. These are buttons that you can use to go back one step from any page on the site. For example, in a clothing store, go from the page of a specific dress back to the general catalog.
• Do not create more than 4 levels of pages. It is worth staying at: Clothing -> Dresses -> Party dresses -> Dresses for weddings.

Step 8. Preparing the site content

Before launching the site, it is worth preparing the content, that is, texts, photos, and videos so that the pages are not empty. You can do it yourself or entrust it to specialists – copywriters and content managers.

Here are some things to look out for:

• The texts must be unique. Do not copy articles from competitors’ sites or reprint pages from Wikipedia.
• Photos and videos shouldn’t be too heavy. 

Step 9. Checking the usability, or usability of the site

Usability analysis can be carried out after the launch of the site in order to make it more and more user-friendly. 

But even before launching, you should make sure of the following:

• The site font is not too small.
• There are not many pop-ups that prevent the user from seeing the main information on the page.
• There are “bread crumbs” thanks to which the user can return to the previous page at any time.
• From the main page, the user can easily get to secondary pages, for example, with a product catalog.
• The user can find all the necessary information about payment, delivery, return, and contacts.

Step 10. Create the design

If you use builders or systems like WordPress, you can choose a design from ready-made free templates – doing this is as easy as changing the screensaver on your phone. 

If you want to add personality to your site, you have to dig into the basics of HTML and CSS. Then the template can be modified to suit your needs: change the header of the site, change the colors.

Step 11. Getting down to layout

If you developed the site layout yourself, you will need to make a code for it. This is done by layout designers and programmers. When accepting the work, check if the result matches the layout.

You can make your own site using Atom, Sublime, and Visual Studio Code.

Step 12. Launch the website

Before launching, you need to test in the browser whether everything is working correctly, and only after that open access to everyone.

When the domain is registered, hosting is paid for, the site is checked for operability, it is transferred to the server.